Ninian Park

Ninian Park is named after Lord Ninian Crichton-Stuart (15 May 1883-2 October 1915), son of John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute (12 September 1847-9 October 1900).

Ninian Park featured large floodlights in each corner and a plasma-screen television showed highlights during the game. The television was bought by the club in 2002 from Bolton Wanderers, who had previously used the screen in their former ground Burnden Park before moving to the Reebok Stadium, and was located between the Popular Bank and the Grange End.

The last ever Cardiff City football match played at Ninian Park was a 3-0 defeat to Ipswich Town, who had Roy Keane as their new manager in his first match in charge, on 25 April 2009. The club relocated to their new all-seater stadium (capacity nearly 27,000) for the 2009-10 season, and the 99-year-old Ninian Park was demolished later in 2009 to make way for a housing development.

The last ever football match played at Ninian Park was a Welsh Schools Cup Semi-Final fixture between Radnor Road Primary school and Corneli Primary School, with Corneli Primary School edging the game after penalties in front of the Grange End. This left Corneli Primary School’s manager, life-long Cardiff fan Alex Clarke, as the last winning manager at Ninian Park .

The Grandstand

The Grandstand is a two-tier, all-seater stand, with old-fashioned wooden seats in the upper tier, and modern plastic seating in the lower tier. This stand also has several supporting poles holding up the roof. This stand also houses the area in which the player dressing rooms and tunnel are incorporated, as well as housing the dugouts. The archive bar is popular amongst fans for the consumption of alcohol during half time and before matches.

Spar Family Stand

The Spar Family Stand is a fully covered, all-seated stand with several supporting poles along the width of the stand. The club ticket office is also located within this stand; an exterior entrance is provided.

The Popular “Bob” Bank Seating & Terrace

The Popular Bank has a mixture of covered seating to the rear of the stand, and uncovered standing terrace to the front. If Cardiff City FC loses its licence to have standing areas in the ground, the terrace will either be closed or will have seats installed. The seating has many supportive poles keeping the roof up, and in keeping with the tradition of many football teams, many seats are coloured white and when viewed from above spell the word ‘Cardiff.’

John Smiths Grange End

The John Smiths Grange End is a fully covered terrace, which was uncovered for many years, before its renovation after Sam Hammam took over as chairman. As with the Popular Bank and the terrace, if an application for standing in the ground is turned down, this area will either be closed or will have seats installed. It also has several supporting poles, and one section houses the away fans. The away section has terrace to the back and seating at the front.

New Stadium for Cardiff City

Work started on Cardiff City’s new stadium at the end of 2007, it is to hold around 27,872 when completed, with foundations in place to increase the capacity to 60,000 if needs be. On 6th August 2008 A contract was signed for naming rights on the Leckwith Stadium project after Cardiff City recruited a leading specialist who provided Arsenal with the Emirates Stadium sponsor to find their stadium a leading sponsor. Although a fee hasn’t been released it is reported to be in excess of £3million over a 100 year period. As of yet the new stadium does not have a name given to it.

(source .. wikipedia) reproduced under GFDL

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Cardiff City FC official website
Ninian Park wikipedia entry
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Vital Cardiff City fansite
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