football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
stadium in the town of
Methil, Fife
Methil (Scottish Gaelic: Meadhchill) is an eastern coastal town in Scotland. It was first recorded as "Methkil" in 1207, and belonged to the Bishop of St Andrews. Two Bronze Age cemeteries have been discovered which date the settlement as ov ...
, Scotland. It was the home ground of
East Fife F.C.
East Fife Football Club is a semi-professional football (soccer), football club established in 1903 in Methil, Fife, Scotland. They are members of the Scottish Professional Football League and compete in Scottish League Two, the fourth tier of ...
from their formation in 1903 until they moved to the new
Bayview Stadium
Bayview Stadium, known formerly as New Bayview, is a football stadium in the Scottish town of Methil, Fife. It is home to East Fife. It was opened in 1998, after the club relocated from the original Bayview Park across town.
The stadium can ac ...
in 1998.
History
The ground was previously known as Town Hall Park when it became the home of a local junior club, Leven Thistle, in 1902. When East Fife were formed in 1903 as a new senior club to represent the
Levenmouth
Levenmouth is a conurbation comprising a network of settlements on the north side of the Firth of Forth, in Fife on the east coast of Scotland. It consists of three principal coastal towns; Leven, Buckhaven, and Methil, and a number of villages a ...
area, they took over the venue, which subsequently led to the demise of Leven Thistle. Town Hall Park was renamed as Bayview Park (due to its location near Largo Bay) and reopened with a match against Heart of Midlothian on 15 August 1903.
Bayview became fully enclosed with a 400-seat grandstand in 1906, but soon afterwards doubts about the ground's future viability were raised because of plans to build a new school nearby. This ultimately led to the pitch being moved several yards to the west in 1910, with the outcome that the stand – previously situated halfway along the north touchline – was now at the northeast corner of the pitch. After several attempts, East Fife were elected to the
Scottish Football League
The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km south ...
in 1921 and Bayview staged its first League match against
Bathgate
Bathgate ( sco, Bathket or , gd, Both Chèit) is a town in West Lothian, Scotland, west of Livingston and adjacent to the M8 motorway. Nearby towns are Armadale, Blackburn, Linlithgow, Livingston, West Calder and Whitburn. Situated sout ...
on 20 August that year. Ambitious plans to develop the ground had already been announced; a new main stand was opened on the south side of the pitch in 1922, however it held only a third of the 3,000 spectators envisaged in the original plan. The banking around the pitch was terraced in 1923, at which time it was estimated that 20,000 standing spectators could be accommodated "in comfort". Further improvements followed promotion to
Division One
The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...
in 1930.
East Fife's
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup, and a record attendance of 22,515 was present for a local derby against
Raith Rovers
Raith Rovers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the town of Kirkcaldy, Fife. The club was founded in 1883 and currently competes in the Scottish Championship as a member of the Scottish Professional Football Leag ...
in 1950. Floodlights were installed in 1954 and first used in a friendly against
Leeds United
Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...
. The club, however, were relegated in 1958 and both East Fife and Bayview went into decline over the subsequent decades.
By the end of the 1970s attendances had dropped significantly, and the club was experiencing severe financial difficulties. Bayview's town centre location made it attractive to developers, and in 1995 the club agreed to sell the site in a deal that would provide them with a modern all-seater stadium. The site of the new
Bayview Stadium
Bayview Stadium, known formerly as New Bayview, is a football stadium in the Scottish town of Methil, Fife. It is home to East Fife. It was opened in 1998, after the club relocated from the original Bayview Park across town.
The stadium can ac ...
was found on derelict land near Methil Docks, and East Fife finally left their original home in May 1998, at the end of the 1997-98 season, after 95 years, moving to their new stadium when the new season began in August 1998.
Greyhound racing
Greyhound racing started at Bayview Park on 30 May 1934 and racing distances consisted of 240, 310, 330 and 510 yards including handicaps. The track was independent (unlicensed) for 27 years before closing in 1961.