{"id":3147,"date":"2012-02-10T06:10:41","date_gmt":"2012-02-10T06:10:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stadiumguide.com\/?p=3147"},"modified":"2012-08-01T00:01:44","modified_gmt":"2012-08-01T00:01:44","slug":"pittodrie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stadiumguide.com\/pittodrie\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittodrie Stadium"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Key facts<\/h3>\n

Club: Aberdeen FC | Opening: 1899 | Capacity: 21,412 seats<\/p>\n

History and description<\/h3>\n

Pittodrie Stadium was first used as a football ground in 1899 by the original Aberdeen football club. The opening match, on the 2nd of September, was between Aberdeen and Dunbarton (7-1).<\/p>\n

When the club merged in 1903 with Orion and Victoria to form Aberdeen FC, they kept Pittodrie as their home.<\/p>\n

Pittodrie underwent several developments in the 1920s, most notably the construction of a new main stand in 1925. Around that time the first modern dugout in the history of football was also introduced to the stadium.<\/p>\n

Pittodrie hosted a record crowd of 45,061 during a match against Hearts in 1954. Further renovations were made in the decades following, and in 1978 the ground became the first large British all-seater stadium. In 1980, the South Stand received covered and the benches were replaced by individual seats.<\/p>\n

The most recent development dates from 1993, when the Beach End got demolished and replaced with the two-tier Richard Donald Stand.<\/p>\n

By the mid 2000s, Pittodrie had severely aged though, and the board of Aberdeen started looking into the option of further renovating the stadium. They, however, soon realised that due to a lack of space any renovations would lead to a reduction in capacity to about 12,000, and therefore instead decided to build a new stadium in the south of the city.<\/p>\n

In 2011, the Aberdeen city council approved the plans of the Aberdeen Arena<\/a>, but due to various minor legal issues start of construction has been delayed with a year. Aberdeen now hopes to occupy its new stadium at the start of the 2014\/15 season.<\/p>\n\n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t