Our Goodison Photographs

[adi dassler]

Yes, the current mainstand replaced the Archibald Leitch stand in 2 construction phases around 1969-71. Both
half stands existing side by side for our league winning season (69-70). The old Goodison Road terrace was massive. In his book (Engineering Archie), Simon Inglis claims it held only 11k, but I think that is an error and estimate it to be approx 21k. The old stand above holding just under 4k. When completed, the new stand had just over 10k seats over 2 tiers and just under 6k standing capacity in the enclosure (before the boxes went in approx 10yrs later). So that probably left an approximate 56-57k capacity in 1971. New ground safety regs in the mid 70s dropped that slightly, as did the loss of the rear section of the Park end in approx 1980 (but with reinstatement of the 2 semi-circular terraced cut-outs behind the goals), which left capacity at approx 52-53k in the early/mid 80s.

Thanks Tom. Yeah, if the only enclosure held 6k standing there's no way the terracing on the old Goodison Rd grandstand was only 11k! Definitely an error there.