St. Mirren Park

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St. Mirren Park

Love Street
Location	Paisley, Scotland
Opened	1895
Owner	St. Mirren
Surface	Grass
Tenants
St.Mirren
Capacity
10,800
Dimensions
110 * 70 yards

St. Mirren Park , more commonly known as Love Street, is located on Love Street, Paisley, Scotland. It is currently the home ground of St. Mirren F.C.. The stadium has an all seated capacity of 10,800. the pitch size is 110x70 yards. The club had previously been playing at Fullerton Park till 1895. The present ground was inaugurated in 1877, and opened in 1895. The record attendance is 47,438 versus Celtic F.C in 1949. The main stand is on the southern side of the stadium, and doesn't run along the whole side of the pitch. The biggest stand is the 'Laidlaw Scott' stand which is the west stand. This section is the 'away' end. The 'North Bank' is where the loudest, most 'hard-core' home fans usually are, and songs are usually started here. The east, or Reid Kerr College stand, is at the Love St side and is the newest stand.

St. Mirren continue to push forward with plans to move to a new purpose built stadium at a site within a mile on nearby Greenhill Road in Ferguslie Park. To do this, the club have come to an agreement with the Scottish Executive to allow them to sell the land to a supermarket chain, rather than a housing developer, as this would generate more capital, which in turn would pay for the construction of a new stadium, and help alleviate some of the team's debt. In April 2007, the club struck a deal with the supermarket chain Tesco, who will build a supermarket on the current site of the stadium once the club leaves for their new stadium.

One of the criteria for admittance to the Scottish Premier League is that clubs' grounds are equipped with under-soil heating. Having gained promotion from the Scottish first division at the end of the 2005-2006 season, St. Mirren found themselves in a quandary; Love Street does not have under-soil heating. As the club are planning to move to a new site shortly, they were faced with installing an expensive heating system that might only be used for one season, a financial burden the club would struggle to meet. The club considered requesting a period of grace from the SPL, but in the end have decided to go ahead with fitting the system.[1]