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Windsor Park
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Windsor Park | |
| Full name | Windsor Park |
| Nickname | Windsor |
| Built | 1905 |
| Opened | 1905 |
| Capacity | 20,332 |
| Home of | Linfield F.C., Northern Irish national football team |
| Pitch size | 110 x 75 yards |
- Windsor Park is also the name of a sporting ground in Norlane, Victoria, Australia and the name of a neighborhood in Alexandria, Virginia. It may also refer to Windsor Great Park.
Windsor Park is the home ground of the Northern Irish football club, Linfield FC, in Belfast. It is also the home of the Northern Ireland national football team and Irish Cup Finals. Glentoran's ground The Oval is used as the back up cup final venue.
Windsor Park was first opened in 1905, with a match between Linfield and Glentoran. However most of the stadium was designed and built in the 1930s, to a design made by the Scottish architect Archibald Leitch (who also worked on Celtic Park, Ibrox Park and Hampden Park). It had one main seated stand the South Stand, a large open terrace behind the goal to the west called the Spion Kop, to the north a long covered terrace and behind the eastern goal at the Railway End another covered terrace. Windsor Park's peak capacity in this format was as high as 60,000. In the early 60's the Railway End terrace had seats put in while in the early 70's a Social Club/Viewing Lounge was constructed in the corner between the Railway End and South Stand. In the 1980s, the covered terrace opposite the main stand was damaged in a fire so it was demolished and replaced with a modern 6800 seater "North Stand", on two tiers and with a cantilever roof. In the late 1990s, the open west terrace or "Kop" was also demolished and replaced with sleek 5000 seater "Kop Stand".
The current capacity of the ground is 20,332, of which 14,000 is seated. For most Linfield home games only the main stand (now known as the South Stand) and Kop stands are opened. The north stand is usually given to away supporters when a bigger crowd is expected, for example when Linfield play against local rivals Glentoran. The venue usually sees its biggest crowds for Northern Ireland internationals, from which Linfield receive 15%[citation needed] of the gate receipts.