 View from the Main (West) Stand | |
  McDiarmid Park Location in Perth and Kinross | |
| Location | Tulloch,Perth, Scotland |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 56°24′35″N3°28′37″W / 56.40972°N 3.47694°W /56.40972; -3.47694 |
| Public transit | Stagecoach bus routes 1, 1A, 15 and 15A[1] |
| Owner | St Johnstone F.C. |
| Capacity | 10,696[2] |
| Field size | 115 x 75 yards (105 × 68.5 metres) |
| Surface | Grass |
| Construction | |
| Opened | August 19, 1989 (36 years ago) (1989-08-19) |
| Construction cost | £4.9 million[3] |
| Architect | Percy Johnson-Marshall |
| Main contractors | Miller Construction |
| Tenants | |
| 1989–present 1996–1998 2018-present[4] | |
McDiarmid Park is astadium inPerth, Scotland, used mainly forassociation football. It has been the home ground ofSt Johnstone since its opening in 1989. The stadium has anall-seated capacity of 10,696.[2]
As well as St Johnstone matches, McDiarmid Park has been chosen to host the final of theScottish Challenge Cup on nine occasions. It has also been used forrugby union, including a full international betweenScotland andJapan in 2004, severalScotland A fixtures, and some home matches of the formerCaledonia Reds team.
St Johnstone had played atMuirton Park since 1924, but it had fallen into disrepair by the 1980s.[3] St Johnstone was then aSecond Division club and did not have the funds to repair it.[3] In December 1986 the club received the news thatAsda wanted to purchase Muirton Park and the adjoining ice rink to build a supermarket on the site.[3] In return, the club would be relocated, at no cost to them, to a brand-new stadium at the western edge of the city.[3] A local farmer, Bruce McDiarmid, donated 16 acres of land at his Newton of Huntingtower Farm,[5] on which the stadium now stands.[3] The going rate for the land at that time would have been approximately £400,000 but Bruce McDiarmid saw a donation of his "berry and barley fields" as a gift to the people of Perth.[6] At the insistence of St Johnstone he accepted a 20 per cent shareholding and the title of honorary president of the football club.[6] TheTaylor Report noted that there had been a happy "confluence of factors" that allowed St Johnstone to make this development.[3] McDiarmid died in 1999, aged 88.[5]
The stadium was designed byPercy Johnson-Marshall and built by Miller Construction.[3][7] The stadium was aprototype and based on legislative advice that was soon to become out of date, but a good facility was built for a reasonable cost.[3] Work started on theTulloch farmland donated by Bruce McDiarmid in December 1988 and was finished in time for the start of the1989–90 season.[3] Although McDiarmid Park was opened after theHillsborough disaster, all of the planning and most of the construction work had been done beforehand.[8]Lord Justice Taylor visited the ground as part of his inquiry into the disaster.[8]
The first match at McDiarmid Park was played on 19 August 1989, a 2–1 victory for Saints in aFirst Division match againstClydebank.[8] This league fixture on the opening day of the season was deliberately kept low-key as a glamour challenge match had been arranged for the official opening. On 17 October 1989, St Johnstone lined up against English clubManchester United, who brought a full strength side to Scotland. The Manchester United team, managed by former St Johnstone playerAlex Ferguson, includedJim Leighton,Steve Bruce,Gary Pallister,Bryan Robson,Paul Ince,Brian McClair,Mark Hughes andLee Sharpe. McClair scored the only goal of the game, in front of a near capacity (9,780) crowd.[9] The legendarySir Matt Busby andBobby Charlton were also in attendance.[10] With just 30 minutes played of the match, the stadium was temporarily plunged into darkness caused by a fault at an electricity substation. Although the stadium's emergency generators were able to provide lighting in the stands, it was 23 minutes before play was resumed.
St Johnstone enjoyed great success when the stadium first opened. The club won promotion to thePremier Division in their first season at McDiarmid.[3] In the first season back in the top flight, the average attendance at McDiarmid was 6,000, approximately three times what it had been at Muirton.[3] These high attendances led the club to create space for another 600 seats, raising the capacity to over 10,700.[3] A record home attendance of 10,721 was set by a home game againstRangers on 26 February 1991.[3] McDiarmid Park also hosted matches of theScotland under-21 team and theScotland women's national team.[3] By the mid-1990s, however, attendances had drifted down to below 4,000, although this was still nearly double what they had been at Muirton.[3]
In 2011, plans to demolish the 2,000 capacity North Stand were publicised.[11] This would have allowed a commuter link road from the neighbouringA9 road to be built.[11] St Johnstone chairmanGeoff Brown justified the proposal on the grounds that comparable clubs, such asInverness andSt Mirren, have since built grounds with smaller capacities.[11] The proposals were rejected byPerth and Kinross Council.[12]
McDiarmid Park, the first purpose-built all-seater stadium in the United Kingdom, consists of four covered, single-tier stands.[8] Facilities include parking for 1,000 cars[3] and 100 coaches, a synthetic playing surface adjacent to the ground[8] (which is used as the team's training ground), and conference facilities within the Main (West) Stand. The stands are all of a similar height, with the Main Stand, on the western side of the ground, being slightly taller. The Main Stand also has greater leg room between rows of seats and includes an area with padded seats reserved for season-ticket holders, club officials and their guests. In the north-east corner of the ground there is a scoreboard, which was upgraded from electronic to digital in 2024.[13] The floodlights at McDiarmid are the same ones used atMuirton Park.[3] The club also tried to retain the square goalposts used at Muirton, but the timber frames could not be re-erected.[3]
The South Stand is named the Ormond Stand, afterWillie Ormond, a successful manager of St Johnstone who left the club in 1973 to manageScotland. The Ormond Stand also houses the club's souvenir shop, which is only open on match days before and after the match. It was formerly nominated as a "family stand", for home fans and fans of the visiting club to sit together. The club has a number of options for housing visiting fans. Visiting supports of a few hundred or less are housed in a segregated section at the north end of the main stand, with the two end stands closed. Clubs who regularly bring a larger support are also allocated the North Stand. If a very large visiting support is expected the club has a further option to also open the Ormond Stand for away fans.
Being a prototype stadium, McDiarmid Park has some faults that critics of seated stadia picked upon.[3] Spectators in the front rows of the stands are not necessarily sheltered, while the stadium has been criticised for lacking atmosphere. St Johnstone are routinely praised for their pricing structure especially for visiting families sitting in the Ormond/Family stand.
The final of theChallenge Cup is often held at McDiarmid Park because of its capacity and the fair distance it is in relation to most teams who have contested the cup in theSPFL. McDiarmid Park isn't the sole host as finals have also been played atFir Park (Motherwell),Broadwood Stadium (Cumbernauld),Excelsior Stadium (Airdrie)Easter Road Stadium (Edinburgh),Caledonian Stadium (Inverness), andAlmondvale Stadium (Livingston).
Professionalrugby union sideCaledonia Reds played some of their home games at McDiarmid Park before they were merged with theGlasgow Warriors in 1998. The merged Warriors initially played some of their 1999 games in Perth, but eventually switched all home games toGlasgow.
On 13 November 2004 theScotland national rugby union team playedJapan there in a historic first test match north of theRiver Forth. The result was a 100–8 scoreline in favour of Scotland, the first time the Scottish rugby team had scored a century.Chris Paterson scored 40 points (three tries, 11 conversions and one penalty).[14]
The stadium has hosted several ofScotland's "A" team: a victory over Italy in 1999, a draw over Argentina in 1999, a win against Samoa in 2000, and a loss to Italy in 2003. On 21 November 2006, Scotland "A" facedAustralia in Perth, their first appearance on home soil in three years.[1] On 23 February 2007, Scotland "A" hostedItaly at McDiarmid Park.[15]
For many years the stadium hosted the Scottish convention ofJehovah's Witnesses, which brought thousands of worshippers to the local area every summer. In July 2009, a massbaptism was held, which included the use of a 33-foot-diameter (10 m) pool. Over 8,000 people attended the three-day event.[16] The 2012 convention was their last year at the stadium as the religious organisation opted to useThe SSE Hydro arena at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow for their national convention.
On 6 July 2008,Elton John became the first musician to play at the stadium.[17][18]
