"Athletics Stadium"

Built for the 1986 Commonwealth Games, Meadowbank is the current home of Edinburgh City F.C. The drawbacks of watching football in an athletics stadium are well known and Meadowbank has all of these. Nevertheless it has to be said that from a spectating standpoint this venue does have assets which most small Scottish clubs below SPFL Division 2 lack. It is certainly amongst the better venues to watch football in this league when the weather is inclement.

Location

Situated on the main A1 route out of Edinburgh the ground is easy to find and is on several main bus routes, with frequent services, from Edinburgh city centre. The Stadium is part of a major leisure centre complex and shares a reasonable sized car park. Normally car parking is easily available on site except when there are other events in the complex - at such times street parking in the surrounding area can be difficult. The nearest rail station is Edinburgh Waverley in the city centre and this is a 20 minute walk from the ground - best to take a bus or one of the plentiful cabs.

View

The stadium has one large grandstand along the full length of the pitch, which is located in the centre of the athletics track. The stand capacity is large (doubtful if it is ever even half filled for games at this level), the seating comfortable, and well tiered ensuring good viewing even in larger crowds. due to its cantilever structure there are no obstructions to view of the entire pitch.
The significant drawback is the distance between the stand and the pitch - not only is there the standard athletics track but the long jump track and pit etc. are also between the stand and the pitch, resulting in spectators being a long way from the action on the football pitch.

Facilities

The toilet facilities for both sexes are situated underneath the grandstand and accessed from inside the stand. Only some are open at City matches but these are more than ample and they are modern and clean.

Food & Drink

Depending on the anticipated size of the crowd the catering facilities are either a mobile unit amid the stand seating and which has a very limited range and supply of hot and cold snacks; or a tea bar within the grandstand and this has the usual range of football match fare found at smaller clubs.

Police & Stewards

Police seldom in attendance and stewards only for larger crowd matches. In the latter case the stewards were helpful and pleasant

Atmosphere

the nature of the stadium, it vast seating area and distance from the pitch coupled with the normal small crowds make the generation of any atmosphere really difficult. This is not helped by the fact that the entrance to the seating is across the sprint warm up track inside the stand giving the impression that you are entering an aircraft hanger!

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