Cliftonhill Stadium, commonly known as Cliftonhill and currently 'The Reigart Stadium' for sponsorship purposes, is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

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 completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

Coatbridge Coatbridge (, ) is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, about east of Glasgow city centre, set in the central Lowlands. Along with neighbouring town Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Airdrie, Coatbridge forms the area known as the Monklands (popula ...

North Lanarkshire North Lanarkshire (; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the north-east of the Glasgow City council area and contains many of Glasgow's suburbs, commuter towns, and villages. It also borders East Dunbartonshire, Falkirk (co ...

, Scotland. It is the home ground of former

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 well ...

team

Albion Rovers F.C. Albion Rovers Football Club is a semi-professional football team from Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. They play in the , the fifth tier of the Scottish football league system. Founded in October 1882, the club joined the Scottish Foo ...

, who have played at the ground since 1919.

History

Rovers moved from Meadow Park to Cliftonhill in 1919, with the new ground opening on 25 December. The Main Stand sits high on a rise above Main Street and was built in the same season as their only

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

. Floodlighting was installed at the ground in October 1968. During the 1990s it looked likely that Albion Rovers would leave Cliftonhill to share a stadium with local rivals Airdrieonians. However opposition from Rovers fans, the local population and others, saw that move fall through. The club considered other options to sell the ground and build a new stadium elsewhere in the town, but these were not taken forward for a variety of reasons, including an unsympathetic local authority, and the club currently has no plans to leave Cliftonhill. The original floodlighting system came from

Cardiff Arms Park Cardiff Arms Park (), also known as The Arms Park, is primarily a rugby union stadium, and also has a bowling green. It is situated in Cardiff, Wales, next to the Millennium Stadium. The Arms Park was host to the 1958 British Empire and Common ...

, when it was demolished to make way for the

Millennium Stadium The Millennium Stadium (), known since 2016 as the Principality Stadium () for sponsorship reasons, is the national stadium of Wales. Located in Cardiff, it has a retractable roof and is the home of the Wales national rugby union team; it has ...

. In 2006 the front entrance and main stand featured in a UK television advert for

Flash Flash, flashes, or FLASH may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional aliases * The Flash, several DC Comics superheroes with super speed: ** Flash (Jay Garrick) ** Barry Allen ** Wally West, the first Kid Flash and third adult Flash ...

. Currently, it contains a club shop which opens one hour prior to home first team matches. In 2007, Cliftonhill was subject to repeated vandalism. At the start of the 2016–17 season, Rovers announced a deal with local IT and communications firm Exsel Group that would see the stadium re-branded as the 'Exsel Group Stadium' for at least one season.

Structure and facilities

The Main Stand and paddock, and a terracing behind the goal of the 'Airdrie End' of the ground (the latter installed in 2015), are the only parts of the stadium normally available for spectators. The sizeable, partly covered terrace on the opposite side of the main stand is currently closed to all fans. The capacity of the stadium rose to 1,572 when the Airdrie End terracing was installed. The dimensions of the pitch are .

Other uses

In addition to football, Cliftonhill has in the past staged

speedway Speedway may refer to: Racing Race tracks *Daytona International Speedway, a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida. *Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta. *Indianapolis Motor Spe ...

greyhound racing Greyhound racing is an organized, competitive sport in which greyhounds are raced around an oval track. The sport originates from Hare coursing, coursing. Track racing uses an artificial lure (usually a form of windsock) that travels ahead of th ...

and

stock car racing Stock car racing is a form of Auto racing, automobile racing run on oval track racing, oval tracks and road courses. It originally used Production vehicle, production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifical ...

Speedway

The stadium, which had been identified as a potential venue in the 1950s, became the home of

Edinburgh Monarchs The Edinburgh Monarchs are a Scottish speedway team based in Armadale. They compete in the SGB Championship, racing on Friday nights during the speedway season. The club is run by a board of directors, chaired by Alex Harkess and also runs a ...

speedway team in 1968. The renamed Coatbridge Monarchs raced in 1969 but closed when the track licence was sold to

Wembley Lions The Wembley Lions were an English ice hockey team. History The team were founded in 1934 but showed a continuity with the London Lions team which had played at various venues since 1924. The Wembley team were based at the newly built Empire ...

. The stadium hosted Glasgow Tigers from 1973 to mid season 1977 when the promotion moved to

Blantyre Greyhound Stadium Blantyre Greyhound Stadium also known as Craighead Park was a greyhound racing and Motorcycle speedway, speedway stadium in Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, near Glasgow. The track opened on 6 October 1933 as an independent (unlicensed) track and ...

. The move was prompted by a desire to replace the speedway track with a greyhound track. The original speedway track was unusual as the bends were laid out on the terracing at either end giving the track extremely banked bends.

Greyhound racing

Cliftonhill was first used for greyhound racing on 11 December 1931. The racing was independent (unlicensed) and a greyhound called Song of Love was the first ever winner over 380 yards. The track closed in the mid-fifties before opening again twenty years later during September 1977. The new circumference was 400 metres and race distances were 300, 500 and 700 yards, the main race was the Coatbridge Derby. Greyhound racing ceased for good during 1988.

References