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McDiarmid Park is a stadium in Perth, Scotland, used mainly for association football. It has been the home ground of St Johnstone since its opening in 1989. The stadium has an all-seated capacity of .
As well as St Johnstone matches, McDiarmid Park has been chosen to host the final of the Scottish Challenge Cup on nine occasions. It has also been used for rugby union, including a full international between Scotland and Japan in 2004, several Scotland A fixtures, and some home matches of the former Caledonia Reds team.
The stadium was designed by Percy Johnson-Marshall and built by Miller Construction.Official match programme: St Johnstone v. Manchester United, 17 October 1989 The stadium was a prototype and based on legislative advice that was soon to become out of date, but a good facility was built for a reasonable cost. Work started on the Tulloch farmland donated by Bruce McDiarmid in December 1988 and was finished in time for the start of the 1989–90 season. Although McDiarmid Park was opened after the Hillsborough disaster, all of the planning and most of the construction work had been done beforehand. Lord Justice Taylor visited the ground as part of his inquiry into the disaster.
The first match at McDiarmid Park was played on 19 August 1989, a 2–1 victory for Saints in a First Division match against Clydebank. This league fixture on the opening day of the season was deliberately kept low-key as a glamour challenge match had been arranged for the official opening. On 17 October 1989, St Johnstone lined up against English club Manchester United, who brought a full strength side to Scotland. The Manchester United team, managed by former St Johnstone player Alex Ferguson, included Jim Leighton, Steve Bruce, Gary Pallister, Bryan Robson, Paul Ince, Brian McClair, Mark Hughes and Lee Sharpe. McClair scored the only goal of the game, in front of a near capacity (9,780) crowd.Official match programme: St Johnstone v. Partick Thistle, 28 October 1989 The legendary Matt Busby and Bobby Charlton were also in attendance. With just 30 minutes played of the match, the stadium was temporarily plunged into darkness caused by a fault at an electricity substation. Although the stadium's emergency generators were able to provide lighting in the stands, it was 23 minutes before play was resumed.
St Johnstone enjoyed great success when the stadium first opened. The club won promotion to the Premier Division in their first season at McDiarmid. In the first season back in the top flight, the average attendance at McDiarmid was 6,000, approximately three times what it had been at Muirton. These high attendances led the club to create space for another 600 seats, raising the capacity to over 10,700. A record home attendance of 10,721 was set by a home game against Rangers on 26 February 1991. McDiarmid Park also hosted matches of the Scotland under-21 team and the Scotland women's national team. By the mid-1990s, however, attendances had drifted down to below 4,000, although this was still nearly double what they had been at Muirton.
In 2011, plans to demolish the 2,000 capacity North Stand were publicised. This would have allowed a commuter link road from the neighbouring A9 road to be built. St Johnstone chairman Geoff Brown justified the proposal on the grounds that comparable clubs, such as Inverness and St Mirren, have since built grounds with smaller capacities. The proposals were rejected by Perth and Kinross Council.
The South Stand is named the Ormond Stand, after Willie Ormond, a successful manager of St Johnstone who left the club in 1973 to manage Scotland. The Ormond Stand also houses the club's souvenir shop, which is only open on match days before and after the match. It was formerly nominated as a "family stand", for home fans and fans of the visiting club to sit together. The club has a number of options for housing visiting fans. Visiting supports of a few hundred or less are housed in a segregated section at the north end of the main stand, with the two end stands closed. Clubs who regularly bring a larger support are also allocated the North Stand. If a very large visiting support is expected the club has a further option to also open the Ormond Stand for away fans.
Being a prototype stadium, McDiarmid Park has some faults that critics of seated stadia picked upon. Spectators in the front rows of the stands are not necessarily sheltered, while the stadium has been criticised for lacking atmosphere. St Johnstone are routinely praised for their pricing structure especially for visiting families sitting in the Ormond/Family stand.
On 13 November 2004 the Scotland national rugby union team played Japan there in a historic first test match north of the River Forth. The result was a 100–8 scoreline in favour of Scotland, the first time the Scottish rugby team had scored a century. Chris Paterson scored 40 points (three tries, 11 conversions and one penalty).
The stadium has hosted several of Scotland's "A" team: a victory over Italy in 1999, a draw over Argentina in 1999, a win against Samoa in 2000, and a loss to Italy in 2003. On 21 November 2006, Scotland "A" faced Australia in Perth, their first appearance on home soil in three years.[2] On 23 February 2007, Scotland "A" hosted Italy at McDiarmid Park. Rugby returns to McDiarmid Park
On 6 July 2008, Elton John became the first musician to play at the stadium.
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