About stadium

Stadium introduction

Today Celtic Park is the largest stadium in Scotland and sixth largest in the United Kingdom but it hasn’t always been that way. The club developed their ground over the course of more than a century since making the site on Parkhead their permanent home one year after forming in 1887. In 1892 The Hoops moved to a different patch of land but after escalating rent prices they opted to move back to their home one season after leaving, and the rest is history as they say. Upon returning to the familiar Celtic Park with newly renovated facilities on the 20th August 1982 a local journalist is reported as comparing the move “leaving the graveyard to enter paradise”, with the nickname of “Paradise” being used ever since by supporters of the club when referring to their home ground. With the new stadium consisting of enough terrace space for 40,000 supporters many fans considered it to be on par with Everton’s Goodison Park which was regarded as the premier stadium of its day. The 20th century saw incremental improvements and the stadium’s capacity being reduced by the Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975. The club countered this by expanding the number of places to 67,000 which saw Celtic Park eclipse the total size of their Old Firm rivals ground, Ibrox Stadium albeit with terracing. Rangers in contrast opted to convert to all-seating in the 1970s and after the publication of the Taylor Report, their rival’s gamble appeared to pay off with Celtic encountering large conversion costs. The debt accumulated and subsequent takeover benefited the club massively in the long run with the new owner Fergus McCann opting to completely rebuild Celtic Park. With the Taylor Report setting a deadline of 1994 for all football stadiums to be converted to seating Celtic opting to play at Hampden Park during the 1994-1995 season whilst formulating their plans for the rebuilt stadium across three stages: Phase 1 was the rebuilding of the North Stand, Phase 2 was the East Stand and phase three was the South stand and filling in the corners.

How to get to the Stadium

Celtic Park, 95 Kerrydale St, Glasgow G40 3RE, United Kingdom