Following a meeting at the home of a lithographic artist named Bartley Wilson Cardiff City were founded in 1899 as Riverside AFC as a way of keeping players from the Riverside Cricket Club together and in shape during the winter months, writes Malcolm Johnson.
Photo credits at the end of the article
In their first season, they played friendlies against local sides at Sophia Gardens recreational park and in 1900 they joined the Cardiff & District League for their first competitive season.
When Cardiff was granted city status in 1905, the club put in a request to the South Wales and Monmouthshire FA to change their name to Cardiff City. The request was turned down as they were deemed not to be playing at a high enough level. To enhance their standing, the club joined the South Wales League in 1906 and two years later the change of name was allowed.
Support for the club was growing but facilities at Sophia Gardens were inadequate due to the lack of turnstiles or an enclosed pitch. The limitations meant the club was forced to turn down an invitation to join the newly formed Southern League Second Division. Instead, they played friendlies against some of Britain’s top professional sides, including Middlesbrough, Bristol City, and Crystal Palace. The matches were played at Cardiff Arms Park and Harlequins Rugby Ground on Newport Road before the club looked to build a new stadium. Two plots of land on Sloper Road belonging to Cardiff Corporation were considered with the second of these, previously used as a rubbish tip, selected as it lent itself better to future expansion. The club offered £60 rent for the first year, rising £10 per year, on an initial seven-year lease, with an agreement in place for a further 14 years.
Construction of the new ground began in 1909 with local volunteers and workers clearing the site of debris and levelling the surface. The ground was surrounded by large mounds of ash and slag from the furnaces of local companies and this was used to form banking for spectators. A small 200-seat wooden stand with a canvas roof and changing rooms was added to complete the build which mainly consisted of low banking.
The original intention was to name the ground Sloper Park, but Ninian Park was chosen instead after Lord Ninian Crichton-Stuart, who had acted as a financial guarantor for the ground’s construction.
In April 1910, Cardiff City Association Football Club Ltd. was officially registered as a company and the club joined the Second Division of the Southern League after the secretary of the league had inspected the ground and declared that Ninian Park had “the making of the finest football ground in the country.”
The new ground was officially opened on 1 September 1910 with a friendly against Aston Villa, reigning champions of the Football League, that attracted a crowd of around 7,000. The match began with a ceremonial kick-off performed by Lord Ninian and ended in a 2-1 defeat for Cardiff. The first competitive match at Ninian Park was the opening match of the 1910/11 season, which took place on 24 September 1910. This saw a 4-1 victory for Cardiff over Ton Pentre in front of a crowd of around 8,000.
Less than a year after it opened, Ninian Park was chosen as the new home ground for the Wales national football team, replacing Cardiff Arms Park. The first international fixture took place in March 1911, and was a 2-2 draw against Scotland in front of 17,000 spectators. The Times described the ground as “primitive” and reported that it had contributed to the poor standard of play. During its early years, the pitch sometimes bore signs of its former use as a rubbish tip with debris such as glass often rising to the surface. The club paid players 6d an hour to arrive early before matches and help clear the pitch of objects.
Cardiff finished in fourth place in their first year in the Southern League. Adopting a more professional approach, and signing several players with Football League experience they won the Welsh Cup for the first time in 1912. A year later they won the Southern League Second Division title and an improvement to the ground saw the construction of separate dressing rooms for the home and away teams.
Cardiff spent three seasons in the Southern League First Division, interrupted by the First World War and the team’s fourth-place finish in the 1919/20 season raised enough income to eliminate the club’s debts. It also allowed for the construction of the Canton Stand – a covered bank with bench seats. behind the north goal.
In 1920, Cardiff were elected to the Second Division of The Football League, with the first match on 28 August 1920 seeing a 5-2 win over Stockport County. The side went on to finish in second place to win promotion to the First Division. Further ground improvements then took place with the Popular Side roofed, the spectator banks raised, and the pitch re-laid with sea-washed turf, a fine variety of grass grown on the coast cleansed by tidal flow. The club stated that the new playing surface was “now equal to the best in the country.”
The opening match of the 1921/22 season attracted a crowd of over 55,000 for a 1-0 defeat by Tottenham Hotspur. The turnstiles were closed once 50,000 spectators had been let into the ground, but the remaining crowds outside forced open the exit gates and entered the ground. Club estimates put the attendance at between 56,000 and 60,000, with spectators even climbing the scoreboard to gain a vantage point.
In 1923, plans were made to build new dressing rooms and offices at the ground but the project proved too costly. This was partly due to the expense of replacing the sea-washed turf, which had proved troublesome and had been described as “treacherous.” The pitch would prove problematic for several seasons and the club eventually enlisted the help of seed specialists to improve the quality of the surface.
In 1924 Cardiff lost out on the Football League championship to Huddersfield Town on goal average and the following season were beaten FA Cup finalists, losing 1-0 to Sheffield United. Three years later they were back at Wembley and became the only non-English side to win the FA Cup by defeating Arsenal 1-0. The same year they won the Welsh Cup for the fifth time, becoming the only club to win the national cups of two countries in the same season.
Victory in the 1927 FA Cup Final raised enough funds for a roof to be put on the terrace at the Grange End, but investment in the stadium proved detrimental to the team as it left little money to reinvest in an ageing squad. Cardiff now entered a period of decline and were relegated from the First Division at the end of the 1928/29 season, followed two years later by further relegation to the Third Division (South).
With the club’s finances dwindling, the board was keen to raise new revenue and professional boxing matches were held at the ground starting in August 1931. The 1932 Cardiff Sports Carnival was held there, including the final of the 12-mile road race finishing with three laps around the ground. The installation of a greyhound track at the stadium was also proposed the same year but was met with opposition from council and footballing authorities before being abandoned.
The remainder of the 1930s saw several undistinguished seasons, including a bottom place finish in 1934 and an application for re-election, while in January 1937, the main stand caught fire after thieves attempted to break into the club’s safe using explosives. They mistakenly believed that money taken from gate receipts in an FA Cup tie against Grimsby Town was stored inside. The match had attracted a season-high attendance of more than 36,000 spectators leading to higher than usual income. The fire was discovered at 3.45 am by a local policeman. He alerted the fire brigade but they were unable to douse the fire before it destroyed the stand, the dressing rooms, and offices. It also claimed the lives of the club’s watchdog as well as one of the club’s cats and destroyed the majority of its historical records The stand was largely destroyed in the blaze but was rebuilt using a brick and stone construction before the outbreak of World War II. The new stand was 60 yards long centred on the half-way line.
Prior to the return of league football after the war, Ninian Park hosted European opposition when Dynamo Moscow played Cardiff City as part of a tour of the United Kingdom in 1945. Cardiff, chosen for being deemed the leading club in Wales, suffered a heavy 10-1 defeat to the visiting side but did earn a substantial profit from ticket sales.
Boxing continued to be staged, sometimes attracting crowds of over 40,000, including several World title fights.
An upturn in Cardiff City’s fortunes began when the championship of the Third Division (South) was won in the first post-war season with the main stand being extended in 1947 at a cost of £9,000, with a new concrete terrace being added in front of the original seating area. The second season after promotion saw a first visit at the beginning of April 1949 from Lincoln City after they had won promotion themselves. Cardiff were challenging for further promotion in fourth place and the game drew an attendance of 32,585, the highest that was ever to see a meeting between the two sides. With Lincoln struggling against relegation, it was no surprise when Cardiff won 3-1, the first Imps goal on the ground being scored by inside forward Lawrence Smedley. The result dumped the Imps bottom of the table where they finished the season while three years later Cardiff were back in the First Division. The record attendance for a Cardiff City match at Ninian Park was set in April 1953 when 57,893 were present for the visit of Arsenal.
Another record was set with the highest attendance for a Welsh Cup match when 37,500 saw Cardiff defeat Swansea Town 3-2 in the 1956 final.
After struggling mainly in the bottom half of the First Division for five seasons Cardiff were relegated in 1957 to produce a visit from Lincoln in October of that year in their fifth season following promotion back to the Second Division. Three goals were conceded again by the Imps with two in reply from midfielder Bert Linnecor and centre forward Tommy Northcott. A fifth defeat in six games, the result edged City nearer the relegation zone in a poor season that was only rescued by the ‘great escape’ of winning the last six games of the season to retain Second Division status.
In February 1958, Ninian Park was host to the second leg of the 1958 World Cup play-off qualifying match between Wales and Israel. Already leading 2–0 from the first leg, Wales secured a second victory by the same scoreline to reach the World Cup finals. Later that year, a large roof was constructed over the rear section of the Popular Side which was doubled in height.
In 1958 with the British Empire and Commonwealth Games being held in Cardiff, Ninian Park hosted the show jumping championships, although the sport was only an exhibition event at the games. Also, in June that year an exhibition basketball game was staged between the Harlem Globetrotters and the United States Star Basketeers Team. Less exotic was Lincoln City’s next visit to Ninian Park in the November when once again they conceded three goals but this time without reply. Next to bottom at the time the Imps recovered enough to again avoid relegation by a single point so were back again in February 1960. However, although having a better season they suffered what was to be their heaviest defeat on the ground going down by 6-2. Scorers were regular reserve centre forward Mike Commons with a goal in the first of what was to be his only two first team appearances, and winger John McClelland. Cardiff went on to finish as runners-up to Aston Villa as the two clubs now went their separate ways for several years.
Floodlights were installed in 1960, Ninian Park being among the last Football League grounds to have them. This enabled Cardiff Rugby Club to play a couple of games there as their own ground did not have floodlights.
In October 1961 the ground attendance record was set when 61,566 were present for a match between Wales and England.
Cardiff City’s stay in the top flight lasted for just two seasons before they were back in the Second Division where they remained until the mid-1970s and it was during the 1960s when they became regular participants in European competition. This was the reward for winning the Welsh Cup which they did ten times in 13 seasons. Their best-ever run in the European Cup Winners’ Cup came in the 1967/68 season when they reached the semi-finals losing on aggregate to SV Hamburg. After a 1–1 draw in the first leg, over 43,000 fans turned out at Ninian Park to watch Hamburg win 3–2. In the 1970/71 season, Cardiff reached the quarter-finals where they faced Real Madrid. The first leg of the tie was held at Ninian Park where 47,000 fans saw Cardiff win 1-0 but the away leg was lost 2–0.
Another world boxing championship fight took place in 1967 when Merthyr Tydfil-born Howard Winstone‘s rematch against featherweight champion Vicente Saldivar ended with a narrow victory for the Mexican.
During the 1972/73 season Cardiff spent £225,000 extending the main stand to run the whole length of the pitch with a further 4,500 seats installed.
Relegation to the Third Division came in 1975 but the club bounced straight back and it was in June 1976 that Ninian Park saw a concert staged by reggae singer Bob Marley as part of his Rastaman Vibration Tour for the West Coast Rock Show.
Several changes then had to be made to the ground. Following the introduction of the Safety of Sports Grounds Act in 1977 local authorities introduced sanctions on Ninian Park that saw the capacity initially reduced from 46,000 to just 10,000. The club was forced to pay £600,000 towards improving the ground’s safety features to ensure that Ninian Park could be maintained and awarded the necessary safety certificate. A sum of £200,000 was provided by the Football Grounds Improvement Trust and £27,000 by the Football Association of Wales. It required the demolition of the roof over the Grange End, and the removal of banking to be replaced by an uncovered concrete terrace. This reduced the overall capacity of the ground to 39,545.
From 1981 to 1984 the Cardiff City Blue Dragons rugby league team used Ninian Park as their home. The team had been founded by Cardiff City director Bob Grogan as a way of generating income and ensuring that Ninian Park was used more frequently. Having been set up at a cost of less than £50,000, the side was credited with keeping the football club afloat by former Cardiff director Tony Clemo, who commented “We weren’t getting many through the gates but rugby league helped to keep Cardiff City going. The Blue Dragons income was paying the rents and rates and there was always a small profit at the end of the day.” The team’s first match against Salford in August 1981 attracted more than 9,000 spectators. However, the Blue Dragons failed to reach the top tier of Rugby league and crowds dropped to below 1,000 by the end of the first season. Grogan’s death soon after led to the club folding after a year playing in Bridgend.
The ground also saw rugby league use when the Welsh national team, the Wales Dragons, began to use Ninian Park as one of its home venues starting with a match against England in November 1981. It had been hoped there would be a crowd of more than 10,000 but the final figure was around 8,000.
Possibly uniquely for a Football League ground Ninian Park was visited by Pope John Paul II in June 1982. Touring several locations, the Pope appeared at a National Youth Rally attended by 35,000 people.
In 1982 Cardiff were relegated again to bring a renewal of fixtures against Lincoln City, currently in their second season in the Third Division after promotion under Colin Murphy. The Imps had headed the division for several months until relinquishing top spot to Cardiff themselves at the end of January 1983, and despite upheaval in the boardroom with promises of team strengthening had slipped to fifth place by the time of their visit to Ninian Park at the end of March. Cardiff were now in third place and promotion nerves affected both sides with the only goal of the game coming from Cardiff defender Gary Bennett following a free kick. The Bluebirds went on to win promotion in second place, but two years later they were back in the Third Division and were to sink straight through to find themselves in the basement division for the first time. In fact, they were already relegated when the Imps paid their next visit to Ninian Park at the beginning of May 1986. In trouble themselves, the Imps needed at least a point to avoid an almost impossible mathematical chance of avoiding relegation but lost 2-1 with Kevin Kilmore the scorer. The attendance of 1,904 was the lowest-ever for a game between the two clubs at the ground and it marked the last appearance for the Imps by midfielder Neil Redfearn.
Yet another sport staged at the ground was an American football match featuring the Cardiff Tigers team in 1986.
Cardiff and Lincoln met in the Fourth Division for the first time in September 1986 with the Imps having made a moderate start to the season under manager George Kerr. They avoided defeat for the first time on the ground with a 1-1 draw thanks to a goal from striker Tony Simmons in a game which saw a debut for one-time apprentice Gary Crosby recently signed from Lincoln United.
The 1986/87 season included Cardiff City’s club’s lowest ever home attendance for a Football League game when 1,510 fans attended a match against Hartlepool United in May.
With City emulating Cardiff’s recent history of successive relegations, they found themselves in the GM Vauxhall Conference before bouncing straight back under the returned Colin Murphy. As for Cardiff, they won promotion in their second season in the Fourth Division
Increasing concerns over safety issues saw Ninian Park replaced as the main home venue of the Wales national side by Cardiff Arms Park with the first international taking place there in May 1989.
In January 1990, the club was dealt a blow when thieves broke into the stadium following an FA Cup tie against Queens Park Rangers. They stole £50,000 of gate receipts by gaining access to offices via the pitch but the money was eventually recovered.
Typically back down again after two years in the Third, Cardiff’s yo-yo existence continued as they renewed acquaintance with the Imps in the Fourth Division with a game at the end of January 1991. This saw City, at the eighth attempt, achieve a win on the ground with the only goal of the match coming from tall striker Keith Alexander. Manager Steve Thompson had taken over from Allan Clarke two months before with the Imps seemingly headed for another relegation out of the league but this win capped a run of improved form which saw them into 19th place. After a mid-table finish under Thompson everyone was full of optimism for the following season which began at Ninian Park with another win for the Imps. Matt Carmichael with a penalty and Paul Dobson were the scorers in a 2-1 win which saw a debut for midfielder Kevin Finney. However, a poor run of results followed which put paid to any promotion hopes despite an excellent finish to the season which could only bring another mid-table placing. So, on Easter Monday 1993 the Imps were back at Ninian Park in what, following the creation of the Premier League was now re-titled Division Three. Cardiff were in second place at the time and the Imps’ cause in a battle for a play-off place was not helped by a 3-1 defeat. After falling behind to goals from later Imps striker Phil Stant and future Welsh international Nathan Blake Neil Matthews pulled a goal back for City in the second half. However, after goalkeeper Mike Pollitt was sent off for bringing down Stant in the penalty area stand-in keeper John Schofield was unable to keep out the spot-kick.
Meanwhile, with Cardiff struggling financially and owing several payments to their landlords the council, the club was forced to close three stands in the ground to save on policing costs during matches. The closure remained in place for a year until Rick Wright acquired control of the club and invested heavily in updating the ground. Improvements included installing 2,100 seats on the terracing in front of the Grandstand and extending the roof over them, also replacing terracing at the rear of the Popular Side with 5,330 seats and refurbishing the Grange End and the Canton Stand, which added a further 1,761 seats.
Wright decided to sell his stake in the club in 1993 and a feasibility study of Ninian Park carried out by Tarmac Group on behalf of a prospective buyer estimated that the redevelopment of the ground would cost an estimated £4.6 million.
Cardiff went up as champions in 1993, but once again after two seasons were back in the basement division again.
1995 saw use of Ninian Park by the Wales Dragons end, with their last game against France seeing the largest international rugby league crowd at the ground, a sellout 10,250.
Lincoln started the 1995/96 season under first Sam Ellis then Steve Wicks looking likely relegation candidates again until the appointment of John Beck as manager in October saw a steady improvement. Although in 20th place, with Cardiff two places below them neither club were in any real danger of finishing in last place as City earned a 1-1 draw, with Colin Alcide getting the equalising goal in an Easter Monday game.
Both sides were around mid-table by the time of City’s next visit in January 1997 and a 3-1 win for the Imps brought a welcome end to a run of seven games without a win. Having previously scored against the Imps on the ground Phil Stant now scored for them with his second goal in two games since joining from Bury. After falling behind to an early goal, Stant hit the equaliser before an own goal from later Imp Jason Perry and Gareth Ainsworth’s 15th of the season produced City’s biggest win on the ground.
Just over a year later City were back with another win, Colin Alcide hitting the only goal of the game and becoming the first Imps player to score two goals on the ground. In mid-table at the time the win moved City up to within three points of the promotion places. They eventually finished third to win promotion to Division Two only to come straight back down again as Cardiff were in turn winning promotion. In turn again, the Bluebirds suffered immediate relegation meaning what turned out to Lincoln’s last ever visit to Ninian Park came in the basement tier in November 2000. Now managed by Phil Stant, City were struggling in the lower reaches of the division and went down 3-2 to Cardiff, the win putting the Bluebirds up to fifth place in the table. The game saw the debut of loanee defender James Dudgeon and with both City’s goals scored by striker Gavin Gordon he evidently impressed Cardiff enough for them to pay half a million pounds for him a few weeks later. They went on to win promotion and the two clubs went their separate ways again for the remainder of Ninian Park’s existence.
By now Cardiff City had been purchased by Lebanese businessman Sam Hammam who initially pledged to get the entire Welsh nation to support Cardiff by renaming the club “The Cardiff Celts” and changing the club colours to green, red and white. But after lengthy talks with senior players and fans changes were confined to a new design of the club crest.
The increasingly dilapidated nature of the ground gained national attention following Cardiff’s victory over Leeds United in the FA Cup in January 2002 due to crowd trouble after the match. A Chief Superintendent of South Wales Police, commented that, although no objection was made to using the ground, Ninian Park was a “very old ground” and that it was “very poorly designed compared with modern standards.”
The Canton Stand now housed executive boxes, hospitality areas, and several club offices. These developments had originally been commissioned in the 1980s but financial difficulties had delayed their completion until 2001. The Grange End was now covered again and seating installed in the front section. It housed visiting away fans and due to crowd trouble, featured a 6 ft (1.8 m) fence to separate opposing fans and netting to stop objects being thrown.
In 2002 a plasma-screen television showing highlights during the game was installed between the Popular Side and the Grange End. This had been bought by the club from Bolton Wanderers where it had been at their former Burnden Park ground.
Sam Hammam funded the transfers of several new players to the club, and under former Lincoln City assistant manager Lennie Lawrence Cardiff won the play-offs in 2003 to return to the second tier for the first time since 1985.
The club experienced increasing financial difficulties over the next few years and plans for a new stadium to replace Ninian Park had been in development for several years but failed to gain approval from Cardiff Council in 2006 because of concerns over financial security. Also, the Welsh Rugby Union’s chief executive David Moffett originally objected to the proposals as he wished for the club to use the Millennium Stadium as their home ground to maximise the occupancy levels of the stadium.
Sam Hammam then agreed to a takeover by a consortium led by new chairman Peter Ridsdale and Paul Guy, the lead developer of the new stadium planned to have 30,000-seats with the potential to expand to 60,000. This was approved by Cardiff Council, and work started on the new Cardiff City Stadium at the end of 2007 on the site of the Cardiff Athletics Stadium at an expected cost of £38 million.
2006 saw the removal of the segregation fencing at the Grange End, Ninian Park becoming the last venue in the Football League to remove fencing between opposing fans.
In 2008, Cardiff reached the FA Cup final for the first time in 81 years, losing 1–0 to Portsmouth.
The last football match played by Cardiff at Ninian Park was a 3–0 defeat to Ipswich Town on 25 April 2009, with the last goal on the ground scored by the visitors’ Jon Stead. After the match, an online memorabilia auction was set up, with items such as goalposts, office furniture and supporters’ seats being listed for sale.
In June 2009, the construction of the new stadium, with 26,828-seats was completed at a final cost of £48 million. Three of the four stands retained the names used at Ninian Park, the Grange End, the Canton Stand and the Grandstand, with the fourth named the Ninian Stand. There were no takers for the naming rights for the stadium which it had been hoped would generate up to £9 million. The gates of the Ninian Park ground were re-erected opposite the new stadium, though minus one of the bluebird logos which had gone missing following the final match.
Ninian Park was handed over to Redrow Homes in September 2009 and demolished by the end of the year to make way for a housing development. Redrow built 142 houses on the site, intending to retain the name Ninian Park. A planted square was located at the centre of the development, in the area of the football ground’s centre spot. The first show home of the £24 million development was opened in late spring 2010, with a mixture of terraced, detached and semi-detached houses. The road through the development was named Bartley Wilson Way after the founder of Cardiff City.
Lincoln City’s results at Ninian Park were fairly typical for an away ground with eight out of 14 games being lost with four won. They did at least average over one goal a game scored but only once managed as many as three. Goals conceded averaged exactly two per game. City’s top scorers on the ground were Colin Alcide and Gavin Gordon with two each, the former being the only player to score in two separate matches, and Gordon the only one to score more than one goal in a game.
PHOTOS
Book – Lost Football League Grounds:
Canton End 1980s
Book – The Football Grounds of England and Wales:
Grandstand and Grange End in 1947
Book – Football Grounds of Britain:
Grandstand with Roof Extension
Wikipedia:
Grandstand in 2009
Grange End in 2007
Popular Side in 1983
Demolition of the Grandstand
Site of the Centre Spot Today
news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/wales
The First Grandstand in 1910
www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/nostalgia/gallery
Aerial View 1962
x.com/CardiffCityCCFC/status
| Ninian Park and New Cardiff City Stadium |
I love reading about this side of footballing history … Fascinating read!