Rugby Park, also known as The BBSP Stadium Rugby Park for sponsorship reasons, is a
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
A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...
situated in the
Scottish town
A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world.
Origin and use
The word "town" shares an ori ...
of
Kilmarnock
Kilmarnock (, sco, Kilmaurnock; gd, Cill Mheàrnaig (IPA: ʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ, "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council. ...
. It was first used in 1899 and is the home of
Kilmarnock F.C.
Kilmarnock Football Club, commonly known as Killie, is a Scottish professional football team based in the town of Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire. The team is currently managed by Derek McInnes, who was appointed in January 2022. The club has achieve ...
Rugby Park has also been used for concerts, with
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...
playing to 15,000 in a first for the venue. In 2002, the club constructed the Park Hotel, a
4-star hotel complex next to the ground.
The stadium underwent a major redevelopment in 1994–1995, becoming an
all-seater
An all-seater stadium is a sports stadium in which every spectator has a seat. This is commonplace in professional association football stadiums in nations such as the United Kingdom, Spain, and the Netherlands. Most association football and Ame ...
stadium with a capacity of .
During 1994–95 season the stadium capacity was significantly reduced as a result of the construction of three new stands within the groups which were the Moffat Stand, the Chadwick Stand and the East Stand. The completion of these three stands reduced the capacity of the stadium to 18,128.
The renovated stadium opened on 6 August 1995, with a friendly match against
Blackburn Rovers F.C.
Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. ...
Rugby Park has since undergone recent developments regarding further renovations, with an
artificial pitch
Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commerc ...
being installed in the summer of 2014, safe standing available from November 2019 and underground heating installed underneath the pitch in 1999. In August 2010, the West Stand was renamed the Frank Beattie Stand in honour of former player
Frank Beattie
Frank Whitfield Beattie (17 October 1933 – 19 November 2009) was a Scottish football player and manager. He spent his entire senior playing career with Kilmarnock, making 422 league appearances between 1954 and 1972. He was captain of Kil ...
who captained Kilmarnock to the historic Scottish League Championship victory in 1965.
As well as football matches, Rugby Park has also hosted
rugby
Rugby may refer to:
Sport
* Rugby football in many forms:
** Rugby league: 13 players per side
*** Masters Rugby League
*** Mod league
*** Rugby league nines
*** Rugby league sevens
*** Touch (sport)
*** Wheelchair rugby league
** Rugby union: 1 ...
matches, most recently between
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
and
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
in July 2016. The venue has also hosted four international football matches for the
Scotland national football team
The Scotland national football team gd, Sgioba Ball-coise Nàiseanta na h-Alba sco, Scotland National Fitbaa Team represents Scotland in men's international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. It competes in the t ...
in 1894, 1910 and two most recently in 1997.
History
Early years
![Rugby Park Stadium, Kilmarnock, Scotland](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Rugby_Park_Stadium%2C_Kilmarnock%2C_Scotland.jpg)
Kilmarnock played at three other sites (The Grange, Holm Quarry and Ward's Park) in their early years, before the club moved to Rugby Park in December 1877.
This was not the precise site of the present stadium, as the field is now covered by Charles Street. The current site was decided by Ross Quigley whom was Kilmarnock's first director.
The grounds were shared by
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
and
rugby
Rugby may refer to:
Sport
* Rugby football in many forms:
** Rugby league: 13 players per side
*** Masters Rugby League
*** Mod league
*** Rugby league nines
*** Rugby league sevens
*** Touch (sport)
*** Wheelchair rugby league
** Rugby union: 1 ...
teams – sports which Kilmarnock had played previously – and the connection with rugby gave the ground its name. Rugby Park hosted its first international match in March 1894, when
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
won 5–2 against
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
.
By this time, the pitch had been moved to its current position.
The ground was largely rebuilt and inaugurated with a match against then-champions
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
* Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Fo ...
on 26 August 1899,
when Kilmarnock fought back from a 2–0 deficit to secure a draw. It was their first match in the
top tier of Scottish football, having
won the Second Division the previous season.
Originally, the ground was constructed with a
running track
An all-weather running track is a rubberized, artificial running surface for track and field athletics. It provides a consistent surface for competitors to test their athletic ability unencumbered by adverse weather conditions. Historically, v ...
around its edge, a
pavilion
In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings:
* It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...
and a stand along the west side.
This layout meant that Rugby Park was similar to
Ibrox Park
Ibrox Stadium is a football stadium on the south side of the River Clyde in the Ibrox area of Glasgow, Scotland. The home of Rangers Football Club, Ibrox is the third largest football stadium in Scotland, with an all-seated capacity of .
O ...
, which opened four months later.
The pavilion and stand were linked in 1914, which produced 1,900 seats in a total capacity of 20,000.
In 1935 a cover was added to part of the south terrace.
This terracing was later dubbed the
Johnnie Walker
Johnnie Walker is a brand of Scotch whisky now owned by Diageo that originated in the Scottish burgh of Kilmarnock in East Ayrshire. The brand was first established by grocer John Walker. It is the most widely distributed brand of blended Sc ...
stand, due to the company having an advert on the roof.
During the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
installed large oil storage tanks on the pitch.
The club was not compensated, but
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
prisoners of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold priso ...
helped to extend the north terrace.
Floodlights
A floodlight is a broad-beamed, gas discharge lamp#High-intensity discharge lamps, high-intensity artificial light. They are often used to illuminate outdoor playing fields while an outdoor sports event is Night game, being held during low-li ...
were installed and first used in an October 1953 friendly match against
Manchester United
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...
.
A roof was added to the east terrace in 1959, and the West (Main) Stand was renovated during the 1960–61 season.
Rugby Park set its record attendance in March 1962, when 35,995 fans saw Kilmarnock lose 4–2 to Rangers in the
1961–62 Scottish Cup.
This was a successful era for the club, as they finished runners-up in the league four times and won the
league championship in
1964–65.
Renovations
![Park Hotel - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Park_Hotel_-_geograph.org.uk_-_2164363.jpg)
Safety regulations cut the capacity of Rugby Park to 17,528 by the 1980s, but this figure was rarely troubled as the club fell to the
Second Division
In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
.
The
Taylor Report
The Hillsborough Stadium Disaster Inquiry report is the report of an inquiry which was overseen by Lord Justice Taylor, into the causes of the Hillsborough disaster in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989, as a result of which, ...
, published in January 1990, recommended that British stadiums should become all-seater.
Around the same time, a new board of directors took control of Kilmarnock.
The new board initially proposed to move the club to an out-of-town site besides the
A77 road as part of a wider development, but this was rejected by planning restrictions.
The board then decided to redevelop Rugby Park. The last game before reconstruction was played on 7 May 1994, when Kilmarnock beat Rangers 1–0.
During the
1994–95 season the capacity was significantly reduced as three new stands were constructed; the Moffat Stand, the Chadwick Stand and the East Stand. Their completion brought the capacity of the stadium to 18,128.
The work was completed in just 348 days, as the new stands were first opened for a game against Rangers on 20 April.
Kilmarnock officially opened the new Rugby Park on 6 August 1995, in a friendly match against
English league champions Blackburn Rovers
Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...
.
Alan Shearer
Alan Shearer CBE DL (born 13 August 1970) is an English football pundit and retired football player and manager who played as a striker. Widely regarded as one of the best strikers of his generation and one of the greatest players in Premie ...
hit a
hat-trick
A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three.
Origin
The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...
as the home team lost 5–0.
On 12 May 1998 Rugby Park hosted the last
Ayrshire Cup
The Ayrshire Cup was an annual association football regional competition in Scotland. The cup competition was a knockout tournament between football clubs in the historic county of Ayrshire. The Ayrshire Cup was first held in 1877–78, with t ...
final, as Kilmarnock fought back from 0–2 to beat
Ayr United
Ayr United Football Club are a football club in Ayr, Scotland, who play in the Scottish Championship, the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League. Formed in 1910 by the merger of Ayr Parkhouse and Ayr F.C., their nickname is ...
4–2. In the summer of 1999, league regulations meant that Kilmarnock had to install
undersoil heating
Under-soil heating is a method used in various sports stadia (with a grass surface) which heats the underside of the pitch to avoid any elements from bad weather, such as snow and ice, from building up and ultimately helps the club avoid having to ...
at the ground. On 26 August of that year, Kilmarnock celebrated one hundred years at Rugby Park with a victory over
KR Reykjavik
KR is the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 and WMO country code for South Korea.
KR or Kr may also refer to:
Sports
* KR (basketball club), associated with Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur
* Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur, an Icelandic football club
* Kickoff ...
in the
1999–2000 UEFA Cup.
Park Hotel
Some work has since been done to increase the revenue created by the ground. In June 2002 the Park Hotel was opened adjacent to the stadium. The
hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...
was built on the site of Kilmarnock's training pitch and accommodates fifty twin/double bedrooms, a conference centre, a café, bar and restaurant. In November 2004 a new sports bar was opened in the West Stand, sponsored by
Foster's Lager
Foster's Lager is an internationally-distributed brand of lager. It is owned by the international brewing group Asahi Group Holdings, and is brewed under licence in a number of countries, including its biggest market, the UK, where the Europe ...
.
Recent developments
An artificial playing surface was installed in the summer of 2014. This was later replaced by an artificial hybrid surface during the 2019 close season. In February 2019 Kilmarnock received approval to install a new safe-standing section in areas of the East and Moffat stands. The installation process was completed in early December of that year.
In 2020, plans were unveiled revealing details of plans for further renovations at Rugby Park, creating a new entrance, changing facilities and community resources, including a memorial garden.
Stadium design
Despite becoming a modern, all-seater stadium, a number of features in the design of the stands give it a unique look. All stands bar the West Stand have very little beneath them, as the tea bars and
toilets
A toilet is a piece of sanitary hardware that collects human urine and feces, and sometimes toilet paper, usually for disposal. Flush toilets use water, while dry or non-flush toilets do not. They can be designed for a sitting position popul ...
are located under the lowest possible point towards the pitch. The rest of the area underneath is open tarmac, with the steel framework fully exposed. Moreover, the
turnstiles
A turnstile (also called a turnpike, gateline, baffle gate, automated gate, turn gate in some regions) is a form of gate which allows one person to pass at a time. A turnstile can be configured to enforce one-way human traffic. In addition, a ...
for the three newer stands are built into a perimeter wall rather than the stadium itself, and there are very large open air spaces before the stands themselves. Other stadiums have a similar design – for example
Tynecastle's Roseburn Stand, although there is considerably less space there. One advantage is that since the
public smoking ban has come into force it has been possible for fans to stand in the open areas at half-time for a cigarette.
The East Stand is distinctive in appearance as it does not cover the full length of the pitch, tapering before ending around 15yds before the extremity of the pitch. This is because the ground behind the stand is residential, and can not be built on. However, the gap is not as large as a similar truncation at
Fir Park
Fir Park Stadium is a football stadium situated in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. The stadium plays host to the home matches of Scottish Premiership club Motherwell and was the temporary home of Gretna for the 2007–08 SPL season. Mo ...
, for example, and is filled by flags.
Disabled supporters are accommodated in an enclosures at the front of both end stands.
Other uses
Rugby Union
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
have played two games at Rugby Park; against
Tonga
Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...
in November 2014 and
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
on 26 November 2016.
The match against Tonga was the first rugby union international match featuring a
tier 1 nation to be played on artificial surface.
[Scotland 37–12 Tonga](_blank)
BBC Sport
Use in film
In August 1999, Rugby Park was used for a fictitious Scottish Cup semi-final in the
Robert Duvall
Robert Selden Duvall (; born January 5, 1931) is an American actor and filmmaker. His career spans more than seven decades and he is considered one of the greatest American actors of all time. He is the recipient of an Academy Award, four Gold ...
film ''
A Shot at Glory
''A Shot at Glory'' is a film by Michael Corrente produced in 1999 and released in 2002, starring Robert Duvall and the Scottish football player Ally McCoist. It had limited commercial and critical success. The film features the fictional Sco ...
''. The film also starred former Kilmarnock striker
Ally McCoist
Alistair Murdoch McCoist, (; born 24 September 1962) is a Scottish former footballer who has since worked as a manager and TV pundit.
McCoist began his playing career with Scottish club St Johnstone before moving to English side Sunderland i ...
.
Concert tours
Rugby Park has also been used as a venue concert for several musical artists.
* Singer
Rod Stewart
Sir Roderick David Stewart (born 10 January 1945) is a British rock and pop singer and songwriter. Born and raised in London, he is of Scottish and English ancestry. With his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart is among the best-selling ...
performed live at Rugby Park in 2016
*
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...
performed live at Rugby Park in June 2005
International matches at Rugby Park
Four Scottish international matches have been staged at Rugby Park. Normally, Scotland international matches are played at
Hampden Park
Hampden Park (Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden''), often referred to as Hampden, is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The -capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland. It is the no ...
, but two matches were played at Rugby Park while the south stand at Hampden was being rebuilt. During the 1997 match against Wales, Kilmarnock were able to parade the Scottish Cup at half time, having captured the trophy at
Ibrox on the previous Saturday.
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See also
*
List of football stadiums in Scotland
References
; Sources
*
External links
*
Stadium Toursat
Kilmarnock Football Club
Kilmarnock Football Club, commonly known as Killie, is a Scottish professional football team based in the town of Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire. The team is currently managed by Derek McInnes, who was appointed in January 2022. The club has achie ...
official website
Rugbypark.co.uk (not associated with Kilmarnock Football Club)Rugby Parkat KillieFC.com
{{East Ayrshire
Kilmarnock F.C.
Football venues in Scotland
Scottish Premier League venues
Buildings and structures in Kilmarnock
Scottish Football League venues
Scottish Professional Football League venues
Scotland national football team venues
Sports venues completed in 1899
1899 establishments in Scotland
Sports venues in East Ayrshire