Ibrox Stadium

Ibrox Stadium is a football stadium on the south side of the River Clyde in the Ibrox district of Glasgow. The home of Rangers F.C., Ibrox is the third largest football stadium in Scotland, with an all-seated capacity of 50,817. 1
Opened as Ibrox Park in 1899, it suffered a disaster in 1902 when a wooden terrace collapsed. Vast earthen terraces were built in its place, and a main stand, now a listed building, in 1928. A British record crowd of 118,567 gathered in January 1939 for a league match with Celtic. After the Ibrox disaster of 1971, the stadium was largely rebuilt. The vast bowl-shaped terracing was removed and changed by 3 rectangular, all-seated stands by 1981. After renovations were finished in 1997, the ground was renamed Ibrox Stadium.

Ibrox hosted the Scotland national football team when Hampden Park was redeveloped in the 1990s, and 3 Scottish cup finals in the same period, and has also been a concert venue.

The 1971 Ibrox disaster led to the club developing a modern, safe stadium. Willie Waddell visited modern grounds in West Germany during the 1974 World Cup and believed that steep terracing and exits, such as Stairway 13, needed to be replaced. 3 17 The cut in capacity and boardroom changes led to radical plans by architects Miller Partnership, which were published in November 1977. The plans were modelled on the Westfalenstadion, home ground of Borussia Dortmund. 17 They involved a radical reshaping of the stadium, with the old bowl-shaped terracing to be replaced by three new all-seated structures. 11 Only the old Main Stand would remain, with its enclosure providing the only standing room in the ground.
Though later events, such as the Hillsborough disaster and the subsequent Taylor Report, vindicated this plan, Rangers were taking a significant risk. 11 The whole plan was estimated to cost ₤ 6 million, which nothing else club could have afforded in a short amount of time. 11 The development was funded by the Rangers football pools operation, which was the largest club-based scheme in Britain. 11 The first phase of the plan, which began in 1978, was the removal of the east terracing and its replacement with the Copland Road stand. The same process was repeated on the west side of the ground a year later, with the two identical stands each holding 7,500 seats. 19 The redevelopment was completed in 1981 with the replacement of the Centenary Stand by the 10,300 capacity Govan Stand.