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Display Ground information
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Portman Road has been a League ground
for 73 seasons;
from June 1st, 1938
to
the current day
.
Portman Road was the 140th
ground
to be used for a League game.
Current Capacity; 30,300.
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Regarded as the premier sporting location in the town for some years, East Suffolk CC and Ipswich RFC were in residence at Portman Road when Ipswich AFC arrived from Brook’s Hall in 1888. The two football codes amalgamated as Ipswich Town and played on the same area as the cricket pitch with a pavilion and wooden duckboards for standing spectators as the only facilities available for a number of years.
The rugby section moved out in 1893 and the Ipswich Cricket & Athletic Ground Company was formed in 1905 to provide the football club with their own pitch on waste land adjacent to the east side of the cricket ground. The facilities included a stand on the east side and, built one year later, a pavilion in the south west corner. After the stand roof blew off in 1911, the ground was commandeered by the army during WWI and by the time that they vacated in 1920 the pitch was totally ruined.
Whippet racing was experimented with in 1922 and no alterations to the ground were made until the 1930s when terraces and covering were built at each end and the stand (subsequently extended) installed with 650 second hand seats acquired from the redundant East Stand at Arsenal Stadium.
Post WWII improvements saw the installation of concrete terracing on the west side and at the north end and, in 1957, the construction of a seated stand on the west side. Major alterations commenced in 1971 with the opening of a new two-tier stand on the east side and this was extended just prior to the setting of the record attendance of 38,010 at the FA Cup 6th Round tie v. Leeds United (0-0) on March 8th, 1975. In 1984 the stand on the west side was enlarged with a third tier and supplied with a cantilever roof whilst, over the years, seats were gradually installed in all the standing areas eventually giving an all seater capacity of 22,438 by 1992.
A 7,130 seat stand was constructed at the south end in 2001 and, in 2002 a new 7,035 seat stand opened at the north end giving an all-seater capacity of 30,311 at the end of the 2006/7 season. The pitch size was 112 x 70 yards.
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