Ayresome Park was a football stadium in the Ayresome area of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. It was the home of Middlesbrough from its construction in time for the 1903–04 season, until the Riverside Stadium opened in 1995. It was demolished in 1997 and replaced with housing.
History
Middlesbrough had previously played at Linthorpe Road West cricket ground, but election to the Football League meant that an improved stadium was required. Ayresome Park was built at Paradise Field, adjacent to the old Paradise Ground of Middlesbrough Ironopolis, who had played in the Football League in the 1893–94 season.
The highest attendance at the ground (53,802) was set on 27 December 1949, when Middlesbrough played their North East rivals Newcastle United. Ayresome Park was also one of the venues for the 1966 FIFA World Cup. Three games were played at the ground, involving the Soviet Union, North Korea, Italy and Chile. North Korea famously beat Italy 1–0 at the ground, to knock one of the most powerful footballing nations out of the tournament and in the process, advance the Koreans to the quarter-finals. The attendances at Ayresome Park, however, were among the lowest in the tournament, with a low of 15,887 fans at the game for North Korea versus Chile.
Middlesbrough famously had to play their first home game of the 1986–87 season at Hartlepool because they were locked out of Ayresome Park by the bailiffs, due to huge debts which almost put the club out of business. However, they were soon back at Ayresome Park after a takeover deal saved the club, with their attendances and fortunes on the pitch both improving almost immediately.
Despite this crisis, a £1.2 million sports centre was opened at the stadium on 3 March 1986 after a six-year delay caused by fire and safety regulations.
By the early 1990s, the stadium was showing its age and clearly in need of major work to bring it up to date. The demands of the Taylor Report meant that all stadiums in the highest two divisions of English football had to be all-seater by the start of the 1994–95 season. The surrounding residential area gave limited scope for expansion to an all-seater capacity of no more than 20,000, and with the club wanting a considerably bigger capacity, by 1993 the decision had been made to relocate the club to a new site in the town's docks area.
