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Glasgow Live
Glasgow Live
National
David McLean

Tour Glasgow's Ibrox Stadium through the years including 1980s major revamp

As the long-time home of Rangers, one of the world's oldest football clubs, Glasgow's Ibrox Stadium has witnessed many major changes down the decades.

When it opened in 1899, Ibrox Park, as it was then called, was very different to the famous 50,000-seater stadium that stands in Govan today.

In keeping with the design of many other Scottish stadia of the time, the original ground was oval in shape, with a pavilion and grandstand along one side and an overall capacity of a little over 40,000.

READ MORE: These old Glasgow signs will give you a serious dose of nostalgia

The ground witnessed its first major changes in the aftermath of the first Ibrox Disaster which claimed the lives of 25 supporters at a Scotland v England clash in 1902.

In response to the tragedy, Rangers hired stadium architect Archibald Leitch to replace Ibrox's vast wooden terraces with earthen mounds, increasing the capacity of the ground to more than 60,000.

Another big milestone for the ground came in 1928 when the esteemed Mr Leitch was hired once more to design the stadium's iconic Main Stand with its imposing red brick façade. The Edmiston Drive landmark still stands today and boasts a Category B listing.

Following stadium capacity increases in the 1930s, and a record home attendance of 118,567 for the Old Firm derby on January 2, 1939, the next major changes for the ground came in the post-war era.

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Floodlights arrived at Ibrox in 1953, while in the 1960s the north and east terraces had roofs constructed over them.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, multiple tragedies occurred at Ibrox that would eventually see the old ground transformed beyond recognition.

Fan deaths due to overcrowding at matches in 1961, 1967 and 1969 prompted Rangers to introduce new safety measures, but they were sadly not enough.

Claiming the lives of 66 supporters at the New Year's Old Firm match, the Ibrox Disaster of January 2, 1971, was the worst stadium disaster in British football at that time.

The 1971 tragedy led the owners of Rangers Football Club to arrive at the conclusion that Ibrox needed to be rebuilt from scratch.

Based on the Westfalenstadion, the famous home ground of German giants Borussia Dortmund, the new Ibrox Stadium took shape in the late 1970s, with the oval shape of old making way for three new double-tiered stands. Only the 1928 Archibald Leitch Main Stand would remain.

Completed in 1981, the £10 million redevelopment of Ibrox saw the ground's capacity reduced to 44,000 but the club now had a magnificent new stadium that was both modern and safe.

Similar to St Johnstone's McDiarmid Park, Ibrox at this time had a multi-coloured seating pattern, which would eventually be replaced by all blue seating.

Ibrox witnessed its next major changes following the acquisition of the club by businessman David Murray in 1988.

In compliance with the 1994 Taylor Report, seats were installed in the Main Stand enclosure, making Ibrox all-seater for the first time.

The construction of the Club Deck, which saw a third tier added to the Main Stand, and the corners being filled in between the Govan, Copland Road and Broomloan Stands, saw the capacity of Ibrox rise to over 50,000. In 1997, the club also installed two large Jumbotron screens and made Ibrox Stadium the ground's official name.

While some areas of the ground have been modernised, new corporate areas have been built and stands have changed names, Ibrox has changed relatively little over the past 25 years. In the 2000s, Rangers had hoped to redevelop the stadium and increase its capacity to 70,000, but financial difficulties meant these plans were shelved indefinitely.

Click the gallery link below to see our pictures of Ibrox Stadium and how it's changed throughout the years.

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