EXILED ATHLETIC COME HOME
Seamer Road's capacity at the time of their promotion from the Alliance Premier League to
the Football League was 11,000, with the main stand, which seated 833 and was built in
1979, the most modern part of the ground. Terracing stretched round the rest of the
ground, with a covered terrace, nicknamed The Shed, sited opposite the main stand. In
1988, Scarborough started a trend by becoming the first Football League club to sell the
naming rights of the ground, in their case a link up with locally based frozen food company
S EAMER R OAD
Views of Scarborough’s Seamer Road showing
The Shed (top left); the Main Stand (top right);
the exterior (middle left); one of the stands be-
hind the goal (above); and the turnstile block
(left)
Photos: Colin Peel & unknown source
McCain Foods resulting in the ground be-
coming the McCain Stadium.
In 1995 and 1996 similar looking cantilever
stands were built at the east and west ends, raising the seating capacity to 3,500. By this
time, the McCain Stadium was a pleasing blend of old and new, but after a couple of near
misses in the promotion play-offs, Scarborough were relegated from the Football League
in 1999. Not too many seasons later, the club slipped into a downward spiral, and after
finishing bottom of the Conference North in 2006/07 with debts of £2 million, Scarbor-
ough went into liquidation. The McCain Stadium was padlocked and put up for sale, and
Scarborough's long and distinguished existence as a football club came to a sad end.
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G r o u n d t a s t i c - T h e F o o t b a l l G r o u n d s M a g a z i n e