Boundary Park – stadium description

Name derives from location at the boundary of neighboring cities in Greater Manchester. But it wasn’t called that since the beginning. In early years, since 1896, it was called Athletic Ground. Make no mistake, though, Oldham Athletic didn’t exist back then, the ground was used by Oldham County. This changed in 1904 when tenants changed and the venue had its first revamp.

There is another name, one used more as an anecdote – Ice Station Zebra. Thanks to its location high above sea level (at 155m asl – one of highest stadiums in England) it was exposed to cold winds and thus regarded as one of the coldest stadia in the country. Zebra part refers to the club playing in black-white stripes.

In the first decades it was very big with crowds in excess of 40,000 possible. Capacity reached its lowest point in 2008, when one of the long end stands was demolished to make way for a new structure. The new stand in its place was built in 2014-20.

The oldest stand, the main one, still has some elements of the initial stadium of the early 20th Century.  However, all sections are nowadays seated, as Athletic were playing in the Premier League in the early years after Hillsborough, when seating was made mandatory.

Interestingly, Oldham laid artificial pitch already in 1986, long before it became a recognized solution. This brought accusation that good results are based on pitch advantage. But those results led the club to Premier League in 1991 and forced Oldham to lay a natural turf, as synthetic ones aren’t accepted in top tier football in England.