Murrayfield Stadium

History

Purchase of land

The SRU identified 19 acres of land at Murrayfield, purchasing this from Edinburgh Polo Club at Murrayfield, having raised money through debentures. A stand and three embankments were constructed, which took two years. Previous internationals had been played at Inverleith but it was not large enough to cope with the increasing number of spectators. Arthur Sellers was the stadium's first groundsman, having previously prepared the pitches at Inverleith. On 21 March 1925 were the first team to visit Murrayfield, with 70,000 people watching beat them to win their first Five Nations Championship Grand Slam.

Usage during WWII

During the Second World War the ground at Murrayfield was offered to the nation and was taken over by the Royal Army Service Corps and used as a supply depot. During the war years the armed forces sports authorities managed to arrange two Scotland v. England services internationals each year, on a home-and-away basis. Scotland's home matches were played at Inverleith for the first two years with a return to Murrayfield in 1944 after that ground's derequisition.

Recent history

Murrayfield's record attendance of 104,000 was set on 1 March 1975 when Scotland defeated 12–10 during the 1975 Five Nations Championship. This attendance stood as a world record until 1999, and remains a European record. The East stand was built in 1983.

In October 1991 another debenture scheme was launched, to finance a more comprehensive redevelopment of the West Stand. The new West Stand was designed with a 48-metre cantilever roof. The old West Stand housed a museum, but this was not replaced and plans for a new visitor centre were shelved when the game turned professional. The first phase was completed in January 1993 with the new north and south stands opening. In February 1994 the centre section of the new West Stand opened. The work was carried out by Tilbury Douglas.

In 1994, Murrayfield completed a £50-million renovation where floodlights were installed for the first time.

In October 2012, SRU chief executive Mark Dodson told the BBC that it was actively seeking a name sponsor for Murrayfield:The single biggest piece of our inventory is our national stadium. We would like to see if we can monetise that. It would be crazy for us not to look at using our single biggest piece of inventory to drive revenue. We want to get the right price for it. In addition, Dodson indicated that the SRU was actively seeking a site for a completely new stadium with a capacity of 10,000 to 15,000 as a future home for Edinburgh Rugby. The pitch was damaged by nematodes in the lead up to the 2013 autumn internationals. This led the SRU to replace the grass with a Desso surface from the start of the 2014 season. A naming rights deal with BT was agreed in May 2014, resulting in the stadium being officially named as the BT Murrayfield Stadium.

Scottish Rugby and Scottish Gas agreed a new five-year partnership deal starting in July 2023. This will result in the creation of a Club & Community Net Zero Fund worth £2 million to ensure Scottish clubs can save on energy bills and carbon emissions. Scottish Gas will also invest in the women's game through shirt and stadium sponsorship, resulting in an official name change for the stadium to Scottish Gas Murrayfield.

Location

Murrayfield is located next to Murrayfield Ice Rink, Murrayfield Curling Rink, and is close to Edinburgh Zoo. It is named after the area of Edinburgh it is located in, Murrayfield. There are two cricket pitches in the immediate vicinity at Roseburn Park used by Murrayfield DAFS CC and four rugby pitches owned by the SRU which were used by teams including the amateur club Murrayfield Wanderers RFC. Wanderers and their predecessors had played there since 1902 but were asked to vacate in 2018 as the governing body had plans to develop the land. Wanderers moved their training base to Roseburn but continued to hire the Murrayfield pitches for some matches.

Transport

Buses

The stadium is served by Lothian Bus services 12, 22, 26, 31 and the Airlink 100 along Corstorphine Road. Post-match traffic congestion is common along this route.

Rail

Despite the line running adjacent to the stadium, the closest railway station to the stadium is , which lies a mile to the East.

Interchange with the Edinburgh Trams is available at Haymarket, and stations. is a short walk from the St Andrew Square tram stop.

Tram

Murrayfield Stadium tram stop is located adjacent to the stadium entrance turnstiles on Roseburn Street. Access to the platform is by a flight of stairs or lift. As part of crowd-management measures, ticketing machines are situated at the bottom of the staircase and not the platform.

Rugby union

Murrayfield is used for most Scottish international rugby union matches, with all Scotland's Six Nations home games being played in the stadium. The stadium also hosted all of Edinburgh's matches between 1996 and January 2017. (For Pro14 matches, only the lower tier of the East Stand is typically used.) Since February 2018 all Edinburgh matches are once again held at Murrayfield; with work now finished on the construction of a new 7,800 capacity stadium on the back pitches to host Edinburgh Rugby from the start of the 2021/22 season.

From 2007 to 2011, Murrayfield hosted the Edinburgh 7s, then the final event in the annual IRB Sevens World Series (now known as SVNS) in rugby sevens, but that tournament was moved to Glasgow starting in 2012 due to low attendance. Murrayfield hosted select matches from the 2007 Rugby World Cup. The stadium also hosted the Heineken Cup Final in 2005, when Toulouse beat Stade Français 18–12, again in 2009, with Leinster defeating Leicester 19–16 and finally in 2017 with Saracens defeating Clermont 28–17.

Rugby World Cup

Murrayfield hosted matches of the 1991, 1999 and 2007 Rugby World Cups.

1991

1999

2007

Rugby league

Although primarily a rugby union stadium, Murrayfield hosted the Rugby League Challenge Cup Finals of 2000 and 2002. The stadium hosted rugby league's Super League Magic Weekend in 2009. The record for a rugby league attendance at the stadium is 67,247 for the 2000 Challenge Cup Final.

Other sports

Association football

Murrayfield has also hosted association football matches. In December 2003, the SRU board agreed to let local Scottish Premier League side Hearts lease the stadium for match days. Later that month, UEFA confirmed that Hearts' own ground, Tynecastle did not meet the minimum criteria for European matches from the 2004–05 season. Hearts used Murrayfield as their home venue for European matches for three years until Hearts made adjustments to Tynecastle that made it compliant with UEFA regulations. Additionally, both Hearts and Edinburgh neighbours Hibernian have played preseason friendlies against FC Barcelona at Murrayfield. Almost 58,000 people attended to watch Hearts play Barcelona in July 2007, recording the largest crowd at an association football match in Edinburgh for 51 years.

In 2014, Glasgow club Celtic played two qualifying matches at the stadium due to Celtic Park being unavailable because of Glasgow's hosting of the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Hearts again used the stadium for home games during the 2017–18 Scottish Premiership, due to the delays in construction of a new main stand at Tynecastle. Murrayfield hosted one of the 2018–19 Scottish League Cup semi-finals, played between Hearts and Celtic, in October 2018. In July 2019, Murrayfield hosted a pre-season friendly between Liverpool and Napoli, that attracted a crowd of 65,442 which was the highest attendance of fans at a football match in Scotland since the 1989 Scottish Cup Final. On 19 July 2023, Manchester United faced Olympique Lyonnais at Murrayfield in front of a crowd of 48,484. On 20 March 2024, it was announced that Manchester United would return for the second successive year to play a pre-season match at Murrayfield, taking on Rangers on 20 July 2024. in front of 56,574

American football

Murrayfield has played host to American football and was one of two home venues for the now defunct Scottish Claymores in the NFL Europa between 1995 and 2004, the other being Hampden Park in Glasgow. Additionally, it hosted World Bowl '96 on 23 June 1996. It has been mentioned as a potential future host site for the NFL International Series, should the National Football League add future games outside the series' current permanent home, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. Two other London stadiums, Wembley Stadium and Twickenham Stadium, are the only other grounds in Britain to host NFL matches.

Music

David Bowie played to a capacity crowd of 47,000 people on 28 June 1983. Simple Minds were scheduled to play at the stadium in 1989, but pulled out because of Jim Kerr's objections to the venue's administrators allowing Scottish rugby players to attend the sport's centenary celebrations in South Africa, which was then still under apartheid. On 30 June 1996, Tina Turner played at Murrayfield as part of her Wildest Dreams Tour. In September 1997 U2 played at Murrayfield as part of their Popmart Tour. On 3 June 1999, The Rolling Stones played to 51,000 on their No Security Tour. On 8 July 1999 Celine Dion performed her Let's Talk About Love World Tour as she sold out the full venue of 67,000, on her first ever show in Scotland. In July 2005, Murrayfield hosted the final Live 8 concert, Edinburgh 50,000 – The Final Push, with performances including James Brown, Texas and The Proclaimers. Oasis played a sold-out show on 17 June 2009, as part of their world tour. Some antisocial behaviour at this event affected the stadium's licensing arrangements when they were reviewed a few months later. This was the last time Oasis would play a concert in Scotland and the second time they had played the stadium, the first being on their Standing on the Shoulder of Giants Tour in 2000.

Bon Jovi performed at the stadium on 22 June 2011 as part of their tour. Madonna performed to a sell-out crowd of 52,160 on 21 July 2012 as part of the MDNA Tour. On 3 June 2014, One Direction performed to over 64,000 fans at Murrayfield as part of their Where We Are Stadium Tour. Foo Fighters performed at Murrayfield Stadium as part of their Sonic Highways World Tour on 8 September 2015. The band were originally supposed to play Murrayfield on 23 June 2015 but this was cancelled and rescheduled after Dave Grohl broke his foot at European Festival that same month. The Spice Girls performed to over 55,000 fans on 8 June 2019 as part of their Spice World tour, it was their first Scottish concert in 21 years. On May 20, 2023, Beyoncé became the first Black woman since Tina Turner in 1996 to perform at the stadium in front of a sold-out audience of 55,000 people as part of her triumphant Renaissance World Tour. Taylor Swift broke the all time Scottish concert attendance record 3 times when The Eras Tour came to Murrayfield for 3 nights on 7, 8 and 9 June 2024, playing to 73,000 people each night, and nearly 220,000 people over the 3 nights.

References

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