History
Following the sale of Airdrieonians home ground (Broomfield Park) to large supermarket chain Safeway in 1994, the club searched for several years for a suitable site, and planning permission for, a new home. The motive for the move was to build a stadium that would allow the club entry to Scottish Premier League (Clubs were required to have a stadium with a seating capacity of at least ten thousand). The building work on Excelsior Stadium was eventually completed in 1998, and Airdrieonians played here until the club went out of business due to heavy debts in May 2002. This left an opening in the Scottish League, which was filled by Northern Premier League side Gretna
To attain a position in the league, the Airdrie United owner, Jim Ballantyne, bought out the ailing Clydebank, and changed their name and strip and relocated the side to Airdrie.
The ground seats 10,171 and, as well as hosting Airdrie United first, youth and ladies team games, various local amateur sides and several charity events, it has also played host to a Scottish Challenge Cup final, as well as Scotland Under-21 fixtures and Old Firm reserve matches.
In 2003 Falkirk enquired about groundsharing at the stadium for a season, as their former home, Brockville did not meet SPL criteria. This was later rejected in a meeting between SPL chairmen, meaning Falkirk were denied a place in the SPL. In August 2008 it played host to Queen of the South's UEFA Cup 2nd qualifying round 1st leg against Nordsjælland. The stadium also hosted all of Motherwell's Europa League qualifying round ties in the 2009-10 season, against Llanelli, Flamurtari and Steaua Bucharest.
Since Airdrieonians FC went into liquidation, the ownership of the stadium has been in several hands. Currently the stadium is owned by a limited liability partnership called Excelsior Stadium LLP. The current stadium management company is called Excelsior Stadium Ltd. The Directors of Excelsior Stadium Limited incorporated a new company on 11 March 2011 called Broomfield Stadium Ltd. Excelsior Stadium Limited is currently active with the latest annual accounts due to be lodged at Companies House by 30 September 2011. The owners work in close co-operation with Airdrie United, with personnel involved in coaching youth players, along with various commercial and sponsorship initiatives.
Read more about this topic: Excelsior Stadium
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“What we call National-Socialism is the poisonous perversion of ideas which have a long history in German intellectual life.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)
“History is the present. That’s why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.”
—E.L. (Edgar Lawrence)
“Books of natural history aim commonly to be hasty schedules, or inventories of God’s property, by some clerk. They do not in the least teach the divine view of nature, but the popular view, or rather the popular method of studying nature, and make haste to conduct the persevering pupil only into that dilemma where the professors always dwell.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)