Murrayfield Stadium

Murrayfield Stadium (known as Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium for sponsorship reasons, or popularly as Murrayfield) is a rugby stadium located in the Murrayfield area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It has a seating capacity of 67,144 making it the largest stadium in Scotland and the fifth largest in the United Kingdom. The stadium is the home of the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) and is mainly used as a venue for rugby union. The stadium hosts most of Scotland's home test matches and the Scottish Hydro Electric Cup final, as well as URC and European Rugby Champions Cup matches. Although primarily a rugby union stadium, Murrayfield has in the past hosted American football, rugby league and association football matches, as well as numerous music concerts. The SRU identified 19 acres of land at Murrayfield, purchasing this from Edinburgh Polo Club at Murrayfield, having raised money through debentures. A stand and three embankments were constructed, which took two years. Previous internationals had been played at Inverleith but it was not large enough to cope with the increasing number of spectators. Arthur Sellers was the stadium's first groundsman, having previously prepared the pitches at Inverleith. On 21 March 1925 were the first team to visit Murrayfield, with 70,000 people watching beat them to win their first Five Nations Championship Grand Slam. During the Second World War the ground at Murrayfield was offered to the nation and was taken over by the Royal Army Service Corps and used as a supply depot. During the war years the armed forces sports authorities managed to arrange two Scotland v. England services internationals each year, on a home-and-away basis. Scotland's home matches were played at Inverleith for the first two years with a return to Murrayfield in 1944 after that ground's derequisition. Murrayfield's record attendance of 104,000 was set on 1 March 1975 when Scotland defeated 12–10 during the 1975 Five Nations Championship. This attendance stood as a world record until 1999, and remains a European record.