Meadowbank Stadium (officially the Meadowbank Sports Centre) is a multi-purpose sports facility located in the Meadowbank area of

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, Scotland. Built on the site of the earlier New Meadowbank and

Old Meadowbank Old Meadowbank was a multi-purpose sports facility located in the Meadowbank area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It was mainly used as a football stadium by Leith Athletic between the 1930s and 1950s and as a motorcycle speedway track. The stadium was ...

sports venues, it was originally built to host the

1970 Commonwealth Games The 1970 British Commonwealth Games (Scottish Gaelic: Geamannan a 'Cho-fhlaitheis Bhreatainn 1970) were held in Edinburgh, Scotland, from 16 to 25 July 1970. This was the first time the name British Commonwealth Games was adopted, the first tim ...

. It also hosted the Games in

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal en ...

, becoming the first venue to host the Games twice. It is the current home of side

F.C. Edinburgh Football Club of Edinburgh, formerly known as Edinburgh City F.C., is a semi-professional senior Scottish football club which plays in Scottish League One, the third tier of the Scottish Professional Football League. The club play at Meadowbank ...

. The stadium has also regularly hosted

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 ...

. It was the home ground of

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 sout ...

team Meadowbank Thistle between 1974 and 1995. From 1996, it hosted senior non-league football as the home ground of Edinburgh City. League football returned to Meadowbank in 2016 following City's promotion to the

Scottish Professional Football League The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) is the national men's association football league in Scotland. The league was formed in June 2013 following a merger between the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League. As ...

. The Meadowbank complex also hosted Leith Athletic, which played on the Meadowbank 3G artificial pitch adjacent to the main stadium since 2013. In the early months of 2019 the sports centre was demolished and work begun on construction of its replacement. In 2022, following the completion of construction, Edinburgh City (now named

) returned to Meadowbank. Meadowbank Stadium was also used for

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

as the home venue of

Edinburgh Rugby Edinburgh Rugby (formerly Edinburgh Reivers, Edinburgh Gunners) is one of the two professional rugby union teams from Scotland. The club competes in the United Rugby Championship, along with the Glasgow Warriors, its oldest rival. Edinburgh p ...

between 2002 and 2004.

Layout

The stadium has a single stand with a capacity of 500. Before the stadium was closed for redevelopment work in 2017, the capacity of the stadium was 5,000.

Uses

Commonwealth Games

Meadowbank Stadium was built for the 1970 Commonwealth Games, at a cost of £2.8 million. It was opened by

Prince Edward, Duke of Kent Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, (Edward George Nicholas Paul Patrick; born 9 October 1935) is a member of the British royal family. Queen Elizabeth II and Edward were first cousins through their fathers, King George VI, and Prince George, Duke ...

on 2 May 1970. The 1970 Games was one of the most successful in the history of the event. The 1986 Commonwealth Games were also held at Meadowbank, which became the first venue to host the Commonwealth Games twice. The 1986 Games suffered a financial deficit and were widely boycotted due to the support of the

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for the

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

regime in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

. The stadium once had its own

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...

which was built for the 1986 Commonwealth Games.

Football

Meadowbank Thistle played at the stadium from 1974. It was often cited as one of the worst grounds used in the

due to the lack of atmosphere, caused by the stadium having a capacity of 5,000 but Meadowbank typically attracting crowds of less than 1,000; most fans were located on one side of the ground, while the running track created a great distance between the fans and the pitch. Meadowbank Thistle announced their intention to leave the stadium and relocate to the

new town New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...

Livingston Livingston may refer to: Businesses * Livingston Energy Flight, an Italian airline (2003–2010) * Livingston Compagnia Aerea, an Italian airline (2011–2014), also known as Livingston Airline * Livingston International, a North American customs ...

in 1995, when their lease expired. Their last game as Meadowbank Thistle was played in May 1995, although they continued to play at Meadowbank Stadium as Livingston until their new Almondvale Stadium was ready in November of that year. Edinburgh City moved into the stadium after Meadowbank left – their first fixture there as an

SPFL The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) is the national men's association football league in Scotland. The league was formed in June 2013 following a merger between the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League. As w ...

club in July 2016 happened to be against Livingston in the

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existe ...

Livingston return to Meadowbank 'where it all began
The Scotsman, 19 July 2016 – and they were joined there by Leith Athletic (from the East of Scotland League). Hibernian have also played some of their

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

matches at Meadowbank. Edinburgh City (now renamed

) moved back into Meadowbank in July 2022 after it reopened, along with the Hibernian women's team.

Music

Meadowbank was used as a 25,000 capacity concert venue during T on the Fringe, an annual music festival.

Muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in ...

My Chemical Romance My Chemical Romance (commonly abbreviated to MCR or My Chem) is an American rock band from Newark, New Jersey. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist Gerard Way, lead guitarist Ray Toro, rhythm guitarist Frank Iero, and bassist ...

Snow Patrol Snow Patrol are a Northern Irish–Scottish Rock music, rock band formed in 1994 in Dundee, Scotland. They consist of Gary Lightbody (vocals, guitar), Nathan Connolly (guitar, backing vocals), Paul Wilson (musician), Paul Wilson (bass guitar, ...

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass ...

Pixies A pixie (also pisky, pixy, pixi, pizkie, and piskie in Cornwall and Devon, and pigsie or puggsy in the New Forest) is a mythical creature of British folklore. Pixies are considered to be particularly concentrated in the high moorland areas aro ...

Foo Fighters Foo Fighters are an American rock band formed in Seattle in 1994. Foo Fighters was initially formed as a one-man project by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl. Following the success of the eponymous debut album, Grohl (lead vocals, guitar) ...

Nine Inch Nails Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN and stylized as NIИ, is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland in 1988. Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Trent Reznor was the only permanent member of the band ...

Kaiser Chiefs Kaiser Chiefs are an English indie rock band from Leeds who formed in 2000 as Parva, releasing one studio album, ''22'', in 2003, before renaming and establishing themselves in their current name that same year. Since their formation the band h ...

and

Razorlight Razorlight are an English indie rock band, formed in 2002 in London by lead singer and guitarist Johnny Borrell. Along with Borrell, the current line-up of the band is composed of founding members Björn Ågren on guitar and bassist Carl Delemo ...

all played the venue between 2005 and 2007. In 2008, T on the Fringe was renamed

The Edge Festival The Edge Festival was an annual music festival held in Edinburgh, Scotland, during August of each year. Formerly known as T on the Fringe, The Edge was part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's largest arts fringe festival (to the larger ...

and the stadium was no longer used as one of the main venues. In 1989,

Simple Minds Simple Minds are a Scottish rock band formed in Glasgow in 1977. They have released a string of hit singles, becoming best known internationally for " Don't You (Forget About Me)" (1985), which topped the '' Billboard'' Hot 100 in the United ...

played Meadowbank on their

Street Fighting Years ''Street Fighting Years'' is the eighth studio album by Scottish rock band Simple Minds, released in May 1989 by record label Virgin Records worldwide apart from the US, where it was released by A&M. Produced by Trevor Horn and Stephen Lipson, ...

Tour after switching from Murrayfield. The switch was due to the band's passionate anti-

beliefs clashing with the

Scottish Rugby Union The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU; gd, Aonadh Rugbaidh na h-Alba) is the governing body of rugby union in Scotland. Styled as Scottish Rugby, it is the second oldest Rugby Union, having been founded in 1873. The SRU oversees the national league s ...

's decision to play in South Africa at the time.

Rifle

Meadowbank housed both a 10metre airgun range and a 50metre indoor range for smallbore rifle shooting in the 1970s and 1980s. The range was closed in 1990 but refurbished in 2014 ahead of the

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games ( gd, Geamannan a' Cho-fhlaitheis 2014), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014, ( sco, Glesca 2014 or Glesga 2014; gd, Glaschu 2014), was an international multi-sport ev ...

in Glasgow for use as a training venue by Scottish Target Shooting's High Performance Squad. The range remained in use until the site's closure in 2017. The new Meadowbank plans do not include facilities for target sports despite Edinburgh athlete

Seonaid McIntosh Seonaid McIntosh (born 15 March 1996) is a British sports shooter who became the World Champion at the 2018 ISSF World Shooting Championships in the 50m Prone Rifle event. In 2019 she became Britain's most successful female rifle shooter of all ...

having earned one of TeamGB's first quota places to the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

Basketball

Meadowbank stadium had basketball facilities in three of its large halls, but they were only rarely available to the public. Edinburgh Rocks basketball team used one of the large halls until they moved to the Braehead Arena, and were renamed

Scottish Rocks The Caledonia Gladiators are a professional basketball club in Glasgow, Scotland. The Gladiators compete in the British Basketball League, the top tier of British basketball. Since 2012, the team have played their home games at the Emirates ...

Track cycling

Meadowbank velodrome was home to the East of Scotland regional track cycling academy. The 250-metre track made of African timber was built by Schuermann Architects of Germany for the 1986 Commonwealth Games. It was the home track of

Chris Hoy Sir Christopher Andrew Hoy MBE (born 23 March 1976) is a former track cyclist and Racing driver from Scotland who represented Great Britain at the Olympic and World Championships and Scotland at the Commonwealth Games. Hoy is eleven-times a wo ...

and

Craig MacLean Craig MacLean MBE (Grantown-on-Spey, July 31, 1971) is a Scottish track cyclist who has represented Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, winning a silver medal in the ...

. Proposals published in December 2013 suggested that the velodrome be sold off for housing to fund the redevelopment of the main stadium. Usage of the track declined over the years – mainly due to the construction of the Commonwealth Arena and Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, which is a track of a much better standard. A local bicycle club, Edinburgh Road Club, continued to hosted some events on the old track until it was finally closed on Saturday 2 September 2017Meadowbank Celebration as Velodrome Closes its Doors
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Rugby

Professional

club

Edinburgh Gunners Edinburgh Rugby (formerly Edinburgh Reivers, Edinburgh Gunners) is one of the two professional rugby union teams from Scotland. The club competes in the United Rugby Championship, along with the Glasgow Warriors, its oldest rival. Edinburgh play ...

used the venue from 2002 until they moved to

Murrayfield Stadium Murrayfield Stadium (known as BT Murrayfield Stadium for sponsorship reasons, or popularly as Murrayfield) is a Rugby stadium located in the Murrayfield area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It has a seating capacity of 67,144 making it the largest sta ...

in 2004.

Boxing

The Meadowbank Stadium was used for many boxing events, Hall 1 was the location for fighters including

Alex Arthur Alex Arthur, (born 26 June 1978) is a Scottish former professional boxer and political candidate for the Alba Party. Competing from 2000 to 2012, he held the WBO and WBO interim super featherweight titles in 2007. At regional level, he hel ...

Ricky Burns Ricky may refer to: Places *Říčky (Brno-Country District), a village and municipality in the Czech Republic *Říčky v Orlických horách, a village in the north of the Czech Republic *Rickmansworth, a town in England sometimes called "Ricky" ...

etc. It was last used on 14 April 2012 when Arthur staged his self-promoted "Homecoming" fight event for the return of Craig McEwan to Edinburgh.

Taekwondo

The stadium was used in November 2014 to host the Commonwealth Taekwondo Championships.

Juggling

Meadowbank was the venue for the

European Juggling Convention The European Juggling Convention (EJC), is the largest juggling convention in the world, regularly attracting several thousand participants. It is held every year in a different European country. It is organised by changing local organisation com ...

in 1998.

Redevelopment and renovation

In 2006 the

City of Edinburgh Council The City of Edinburgh Council is the local government authority for the city of Edinburgh, capital of Scotland. With a population of in mid-2019, it is the second most populous local authority area in Scotland. In its current form, the counci ...

published plans to demolish Meadowbank Stadium, selling the site for housing. Meadowbank would have been replaced with a smaller community facility on the east side of the city and a stadium for athletics and rugby was to be built to the west of the city, probably in

Sighthill Sighthill may refer to: * Sighthill, Edinburgh, a district of the city of Edinburgh ** Sighthill Stadium, a proposed stadium in Sighthill, Edinburgh * Sighthill, Glasgow Sighthill is a neighbourhood in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situ ...

. The draft Meadowbank Development Brief was approved by the council on 7 December 2006 for consultation.Council's Development Brief
) The Development Brief stated that "housing is the most appropriate alternative use of the site" and that "high density development is acceptable in principle". The consultation ran until 28 March 2007, after which the council leader Ewan Aitken admitted that the council should have consulted more with the users of Meadowbank. More than 6000 people signed a petition objecting to the proposal, while 600 marched from the stadium to the City Chambers, as part of a ''Save Meadowbank'' campaign. The proposal was cast into doubt due to problems with the Sighthill Stadium project, which was scrapped in 2007. On 13 March 2008, Edinburgh Council voted to sell the land that is occupied by Meadowbank stadium and build a smaller sports facility on east of the site.

X-Factor ''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for ''Pop Idol'' (2001–2003) ...

winner

Leon Jackson Leon Jackson (born 30 December 1988) is a Scottish singer. He won the fourth series of British talent show ''The X Factor'' in 2007. Following his win, Jackson was the main star of his on-web series entitled ''Leon's Life'', which ran from 20 ...

, who was campaigning to save Meadowbank, played at its annual

fireworks Fireworks are a class of low explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a large number of devices ...

display on 5 November 2008. The proposals to sell Meadowbank were put on hold in 2009, after a decline in Edinburgh land prices. In February 2013, the City of Edinburgh Council started a new consultation process about its future. Three options for redeveloping Meadowbank were put forward for consideration by Edinburgh Council in December 2013. A planned design was made public in November 2016. Work was expected to begin after the 2016–17 football season ended. Edinburgh City reached an agreement with

Spartans Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referr ...

to use their Ainslie Park ground for three seasons while Meadowbank was being redeveloped. A final annual fireworks display was held on 5 November 2017. The stadium was closed for the redevelopment works in December 2017, and the new facilities were due to open in the spring of 2020. Planning applications for detailed approval for the new sports centre and in principle for development of the rest of the site were published in January 2018. In July 2018, the Council approved detailed plans for the new Meadowbank Sports Centre and the redevelopment of land surrounding it for housing, student accommodation, hotel and commercial use. A council consultation opened on 20 August 2018 and closed on 31 October. Work began in 2019 and was completed by 2021, and Edinburgh City announced in March 2021 that they would return to Meadowbank for the 2021–22 football season. This did not happen due to ongoing works at Meadowbank, and Edinburgh City stayed at Ainslie Park for another year.

Gallery

File:Concert at the Meadowbank Stadium - geograph.org.uk - 1641057.jpg, Concert at the Meadowbank Stadium - geograph.org.uk - 1641057 File:Meadowbank Stadium - geograph.org.uk - 418221.jpg, Meadowbank Stadium - geograph.org.uk - 418221 File:Meadowbank Stadium - Radiohead.jpg, Meadowbank Stadium - Radiohead File:Meadowbank Stadium main stand.jpg, Meadowbank Stadium main stand File:Meadowbank Stadium stand.jpg, Meadowbank Stadium stand File:Meadowbank Stadium. - geograph.org.uk - 301834.jpg, Meadowbank Stadium. - geograph.org.uk - 301834 File:Meadowbank-5aside-215.jpg, Meadowbank-5aside-215 File:Meadowbank-basketball-215.jpg, Meadowbank-basketball-215 File:Meadowbank-track-215.jpg, Meadowbank-track-215 File:Meadowbank-track-and-field.jpg, Meadowbank-track-and-field File:Velodrome-150.jpg, Velodrome-150 File:T-on-the fringe-300.jpg, T-on-the fringe-300

References

;Sources * *

External links

Save Meadowbank Campaign, accessed 29 November 2018
{{Authority control 1970 British Commonwealth Games venues 1986 Commonwealth Games venues Athletics (track and field) venues in Scotland Basketball venues in Scotland Football venues in Edinburgh Hibernian F.C. F.C. Edinburgh Multi-purpose stadiums in the United Kingdom Music venues in Edinburgh Rugby union stadiums in Scotland Sports venues in Edinburgh Velodromes in Scotland Cycle racing in Scotland Sports venues completed in 1970 1970 establishments in Scotland Livingston F.C. Glasgow Rocks Scottish Football League venues Lowland Football League venues Leith Athletic F.C. Scottish Professional Football League venues Hibernian W.F.C.