The historic Scottish football ground sold off to Asda to finance UK’S first-ever purpose built all-seater stadium
McDIARMID PARK, Perth, has become such a recognised Scottish footballing outpost that you could be forgiven for thinking St Johnstone had always played there.
But in fact it’s their THIRD home – with the Perth Saints merely trendsetters came to bringing in the kind of purpose-built all-seater stadium which are all the rage these days.
Visionary chairman Geoff Brown – whose business is construction – was wise to the opportunities which were out there during the 1980s.
And that meant concluding the £4million plus deal with supermarket chain ASDA for the Muirton Park site.
That then funded the building of McDiarmid Park which opened in August 1989.
It was named after local farmer Bruce McDiarmid, who donated the land on which the stadium was built.
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The £4m plus price tag represented a fair old mark-up considering the land at Muirton Park was bought for just £294 prior to it’s opening back in 1924.
Prior to that the Perth Saints had played their football at the Recreation Grounds.
There were emotional scenes as the 1,227th competitive game at Muirton Park was played on April 29 of that year.
Visitors Ayr United would go on to win the match 1-0 with former St Johnstone player John Sludden the last ever goal scorer at the venue.
Fans invaded the pitch at the end to take in the surroundings one last time and plenty of patches of the hallowed turf being removed.
The backdrop to the move was the fire at Bradford City‘s Valley Parade ground, which claimed the lives of 52 people.
The old stand at Muirton Park had the same potential for tragedy – so the decision was taken to move on.
And St Johnstone have hardly looked back since – consolidating their place as an established top flight club in recent seasons and winning a cup DOUBLE under Callum Davidson during the 2020-21 season.
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