Home of St Johnstone FC
Opened 1989
Capacity 10,696
★★★★★
★★★★★
Was an absolute pleasure to visit this stadium today. Been visiting stadiums around Scotland during summer holidays and by far St Johnstone is the friendliest and most welcoming we have been too so far. We were invited to view the pitch and take a picture 😊 such a lovely family friendly club and well worth a stop
3 months ago
Our 3rd visit to McDiarmid Park as away fans.
Unfortunately our first was made sour before we gained entry.
As its the first game of the season the security team obviously has had a wee meeting about the 'rules'.
One of these 'rules' is regarding 'offensive Flags'. We had a Norway 🇳🇴 flag, which was quite clearly a Norway flag with Nothing else, but the security were insistent that main security control needed to verify the legitimacy of the flag (maybe Norway had allied with Russia 🇷🇺).
We were allowed in, they managed to verify Norway as a allied European country so all good. My Ireland 🇮🇪 flag wasn't a issue.
The stadium itself is alright with the away fans in the larger stand.
The view and the seating was fine, though there seems to be a few broken seats (I presume from last season).
Our visit was the first game of the season, this meant that the small catering unit ran out of pies and hot food within 10 mins. The management obviously knew the number of tickets sold - its no rocket science to order enough Pies 🥧!
Another issue is regarding smoking 🚬 , I ken it's no fashionable to smoke and it would seem natural for a football club to disallow smoking.
Unfortunately St Johnstone are again a wee bit confused, some stewards and officials were letting some fans out the main door to smoke, others were adamant no one is getting out. Thus the toilet becomes a smoke shelter (albeit a smelly one).
This is a wee bit of carry on.
Just open the door and have a couple of security, easy and everyone is happy. (hmm commonsense?).
Was a enjoyable game, just the service that let down the experience.
2/5
💚
2 years ago
History (from Wikipedia)
St Johnstone had played at Muirton Park since 1924, but it had fallen into disrepair by the 1980s.[2] St Johnstone was then a Second Division club and did not have the funds to repair it.[2] In December 1986 the club received the news that Asda wanted to purchase Muirton Park and the adjoining ice rink to build a supermarket on the site.[2] In return, the club would be relocated, at no cost to them, to a brand-new stadium at the western edge of the city.[2] A local farmer, Bruce McDiarmid, donated 16 acres of land at his Newton of Huntingtower Farm,[4] on which the stadium now stands.[2] The going rate for the land at that time would have been approximately £400,000 but Bruce McDiarmid saw a donation of his "berry and barley fields" as a gift to the people of Perth.[5] At the insistence of St Johnstone he accepted a 20 per cent shareholding and the title of honorary president of the football club.[5] The Taylor Report noted that there had been a happy "confluence of factors" that allowed St Johnstone to make this development.[2] McDiarmid died in 1999, aged 88.[4]
The stadium was designed by Percy Johnson-Marshall and built by Miller Construction.[2][6] The stadium was a prototype and based on legislative advice that was soon to become out of date, but a good facility was built for a reasonable cost.[2] Work started on the Tulloch farmland donated by Bruce McDiarmid in December 1988 and was finished in time for the start of the 1989–90 season.[2] Although McDiarmid Park was opened after the Hillsborough disaster, all of the planning and most of the construction work had been done beforehand.[7] Lord Justice Taylor visited the ground as part of his inquiry into the disaster.[7]
The first match at McDiarmid Park was played on 19 August 1989, a 2–1 victory for Saints in a First Division match against Clydebank.[7] This league fixture on the opening day of the season was deliberately kept low-key as a glamour challenge match had been arranged for the official opening. On 17 October 1989, St Johnstone lined up against English club Manchester United, who brought a full strength side to Scotland. The Manchester United team, managed by former St Johnstone player Alex Ferguson, included Jim Leighton, Steve Bruce, Gary Pallister, Bryan Robson, Paul Ince, Brian McClair, Mark Hughes and Lee Sharpe. McClair scored the only goal of the game, in front of a near capacity (9,780) crowd.[8] The legendary Sir Matt Busby and Bobby Charlton were also in attendance.[9] With just 30 minutes played of the match, the stadium was temporarily plunged into darkness caused by a fault at an electricity substation. Although the stadium's emergency generators were able to provide lighting in the stands, it was 23 minutes before play was resumed.
St Johnstone enjoyed great success when the stadium first opened. The club won promotion to the Premier Division in their first season at McDiarmid.[2] In the first season back in the top flight, the average attendance at McDiarmid was 6,000, approximately three times what it had been at Muirton.[2] These high attendances led the club to create space for another 600 seats, raising the capacity to over 10,700.[2] A record home attendance of 10,721 was set by a home game against Rangers on 26 February 1991.[2] McDiarmid Park also hosted matches of the Scotland under-21 team and the Scotland women's national team.[2] By the mid-1990s, however, attendances had drifted down to below 4,000, although this was still nearly double what they had been at Muirton.[2]
In 2011, plans to demolish the 2,000 capacity North Stand were publicised.[10] This would have allowed a commuter link road from the neighbouring A9 road to be built.[10] St Johnstone chairman Geoff Brown justified the proposal on the grounds that comparable clubs, such as Inverness and St Mirren, have since built grounds with smaller capacities.[10] The proposals were rejected by Perth and Kinross Council.[11]
The stadium was designed by Percy Johnson-Marshall and built by Miller Construction.[2][6] The stadium was a prototype and based on legislative advice that was soon to become out of date, but a good facility was built for a reasonable cost.[2] Work started on the Tulloch farmland donated by Bruce McDiarmid in December 1988 and was finished in time for the start of the 1989–90 season.[2] Although McDiarmid Park was opened after the Hillsborough disaster, all of the planning and most of the construction work had been done beforehand.[7] Lord Justice Taylor visited the ground as part of his inquiry into the disaster.[7]
The first match at McDiarmid Park was played on 19 August 1989, a 2–1 victory for Saints in a First Division match against Clydebank.[7] This league fixture on the opening day of the season was deliberately kept low-key as a glamour challenge match had been arranged for the official opening. On 17 October 1989, St Johnstone lined up against English club Manchester United, who brought a full strength side to Scotland. The Manchester United team, managed by former St Johnstone player Alex Ferguson, included Jim Leighton, Steve Bruce, Gary Pallister, Bryan Robson, Paul Ince, Brian McClair, Mark Hughes and Lee Sharpe. McClair scored the only goal of the game, in front of a near capacity (9,780) crowd.[8] The legendary Sir Matt Busby and Bobby Charlton were also in attendance.[9] With just 30 minutes played of the match, the stadium was temporarily plunged into darkness caused by a fault at an electricity substation. Although the stadium's emergency generators were able to provide lighting in the stands, it was 23 minutes before play was resumed.
St Johnstone enjoyed great success when the stadium first opened. The club won promotion to the Premier Division in their first season at McDiarmid.[2] In the first season back in the top flight, the average attendance at McDiarmid was 6,000, approximately three times what it had been at Muirton.[2] These high attendances led the club to create space for another 600 seats, raising the capacity to over 10,700.[2] A record home attendance of 10,721 was set by a home game against Rangers on 26 February 1991.[2] McDiarmid Park also hosted matches of the Scotland under-21 team and the Scotland women's national team.[2] By the mid-1990s, however, attendances had drifted down to below 4,000, although this was still nearly double what they had been at Muirton.[2]
In 2011, plans to demolish the 2,000 capacity North Stand were publicised.[10] This would have allowed a commuter link road from the neighbouring A9 road to be built.[10] St Johnstone chairman Geoff Brown justified the proposal on the grounds that comparable clubs, such as Inverness and St Mirren, have since built grounds with smaller capacities.[10] The proposals were rejected by Perth and Kinross Council.[11]
Things to do in Perth.