Blundell Park is a football ground in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England and home to Grimsby Town Football Club. The stadium was built in 1899, but only one of the original stands remains. The current capacity of the ground is 9,052, after being made all-seater in summer 1995, reducing the number from around 27,000. Several relegations in previous years meant the expansion seating was also taken away; that reduced the capacity further from around 12,000 to what it is now.
The stadium is Grimsby Town's fourth ground, having previously played at Clee Park, Lovett Street and Abbey Park in the club's first twenty years of existence. The record attendance at Blundell Park was 31,651 in an FA Cup tie against Wolverhampton Wanderers on 20 February 1937. The two clubs also hold the record attendance at Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium when 76,962 people saw the two sides meet again in the 1939 FA Cup semi-final.
History
Grimsby Town Football Club moved into their new Blundell Park stadium in the summer of 1899, having relocated from Abbey Park, and bringing with them all the fixtures and fittings, as well as the Abbey Park and the Hazel Grove stands. Blundell Park is named after Peter Blundell whose money enabled Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge to buy the land in 1616. The opening match was a Football League Second Division fixture against Luton Town on 2 September 1899, with 4,000 spectators seeing the teams draw 3–3. In 1901 a new Main Stand was built on the northern side of the ground.
In 1925 the Abbey Park Stand was demolished and in its place was built the Barrett's Stand. In 1937 the club's record attendance of 31,651 was recorded when the club met Wolverhampton Wanderers in an FA Cup tie on 20 February 1937. In 1939 around the time of the break-out of the Second World War the Hazel Grove Stand, the final remaining stand from the previous ground was demolished and was replaced by the Osmond Stand.
In 1953 the club introduced its first floodlights to the ground and with that enabling Grimsby Town to play night-time fixtures. Tall floodlights were purchased second hand from Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1958 and installed in 1960 at a cost of £9,000 which was raised by the supporters club, they have illuminated matches ever since when required.
In 1961, the 63-year-old Pontoon Stand was demolished and replaced with a new stand of the same name. In 1980 the ground was renovated again, the Main Stand the ground's only original stand was made an all-seater, and the Barrett's stand which was built in 1925 was demolished and replaced the two tier Findus stand, which now became the ground's largest stand. Following the Taylor Report which documented the Hillsborough disaster, Blundell Park was made an all seater stadium in 1995. The club in 1995 also introduced temporary seating in the partings between the Pontoon and Main Stands and the Osmond and Findus stands. The club's largest attendance since being made an all seater stadium was 9,528 on 3 March 1999 against Sunderland in a Football League Division One tie. Following Grimsby Town's relegation from the second tier of English football to the fourth between in 2003 and 2004, the club removed the expansion seating, which would only have made returns in high-profile cup fixtures.
Grimsby Town received a £19,000 grant in April 2015 from The Football Stadia Improvement Fund (FSIF) – the largest funder of non-league football in the country, which enabled the club to carry out repairs and maintenance to the floodlights at Blundell Park.
The stadium celebrated its 125th anniversary in September 2024 with a range of community and matchday activities around the ground and on social media.
The ground as it stands
Pontoon Stand In 1899, Blundell Park was opened with the original Pontoon Stand constructed alongside the Main Stand, but this stand was eventually demolished in 1961 and was replaced by the current Pontoon Stand which was built by funds raised by the club's supporters. The stand is situated behind the goal to the right of the tunnel and was converted to an all-seater facility in 1995 in response to the Taylor Report following the Hillsborough disaster of 1989 and the seats were laid out in black and white stripes to reflect the club's colours.
The Pontoon mainly houses the more vocal supporters of the club, and often houses a drummer; however in the mid-1980s the stand became the away stand with the Osmond Stand reserved for home fans, the thought being that the Pontoon's more open design would make the Grimsby Town supporters' presence more noticeable in the remainder of the stadium. This was extremely unpopular with club supporters and reversed.
The club constructed a new roof on the Pontoon Stand for the start of the 2023–24 season.
In May 2026, Technica were announced as the sponsor of the stand in a three-year partnership which meant the stand would be known as 'The Technica Pontoon'.
Findus Stand
The Findus Stand is the third to be built on the opposite side of the ground to the tunnel and changing rooms. Originally the club had moved the Abbey Park Stand from their previous ground the Abbey Park Stadium, this stand was eventually demolished in 1925 and was replaced by the Barrett's Stand. The Barrett's itself was eventually demolished in 1980 and was replaced with a two tier stand paid for by the fish processing firm Findus. The stand therefore was named the "Findus Stand".
The stand was opened in 1982 and is the largest inside the stadium with the upper tier offering a scenic view of the Humber Estuary, Spurn Point and the North Sea, from this point you can clearly view the shipping going down the estuary. The lower tier's front rows are uncovered and between the two tiers are a row of corporate boxes. Housed within the stand is the boardroom, ticket office, club shop, bars and the "McMenemy's" function suite and restaurant which is named after former manager Lawrie McMenemy.
In 1990s Findus ceased production in the town, so the stand went through several other sponsored names. Firstly the stand was renamed the Stones Bitter stand before later becoming the John Smiths stand in 1997 and then the Carlsberg stand in 2004. The stand was also sponsored by Viking FM for a short time before the Findus name returned in 2009 and the stand then reverted to its original name.
For the 2016–17 season, a new sponsorship deal with the club's long serving kit sponsor Young's Seafood was announced with the tiers being renamed to the Upper Young's and Lower Young's stands. Grimsby parted ways with Young's in 2023, with the stand continuing without any sponsorship.
Ahead of the 2025–26 season, local business Ramden's Home Interiors were named as the new sponsor of both tiers of the stand.on a multi-year deal.
Main Stand
Opposite the Young's stand, on the north side of the ground, is the Main Stand which dates from 1901 and is often claimed to be the oldest stand in the Football League until the club's relegation to Non-league football in 2010. Only the central part of the stand dates from 1901, the rest having been modified in some guise or other. This stand houses the changing rooms and disabled supporters' areas. The players' tunnel runs from the centre of this stand onto the pitch between the two dugouts. The back rows of the stand have restricted views of the pitch due to the height of the roof and the supports.
Ahead of the 2025–26 season, locally based company Technical Absorbents were named as the new sponsor of the stand.on a multi-year deal and would be known as 'The Technical Absorbents Stand'.
Osmond Stand
To the left of the Main Stand, is the Osmond Stand. This replaced the Hazel Grove Stand which was moved from the club's previous Abbey Park Stadium home. The Osmond was built in 1939 when the Hazel Grove was demolished shortly before the start of the Second World War. The Osmond stand is also a two tier stand, but unlike the Young's Stand, the Osmond only has steps separating the two parts. The stand houses the away supporters, with the stand being used as an over flow for home fans occasionally when the club are playing a visiting team with a low number of travelling fans, with the stand being halved. The stand holds around seats, 1,000 or so of those seats have a restricted view due to the roof supports and height of the roof.
The stand did briefly hold home supporters in the mid-1980s when the club decided the move the away supporters to the Pontoon Stand, but this proved to be unpopular with Grimsby supporters and so the decision was reversed. The corner between the Main Stand and the Osmond Stand is the only enclosed corner in the whole ground, the corner is shut off and this section is the only standing part of the stadium however with it being shut off from the fans the ground is still classed as an all seated stadium.
The Daphne Farquharson Wheelchair Stand Located between the Findus Stand and the Osmond Stand is the Daphne Farquharson Wheelchair Stand. The stand which provides viewing platforms for wheelchair users and disabled supporters was officially unveiled on 1 October 2026 but had previously been used in a trial game earlier on in the season. It was funded through a fundraising campaign and developed through a collaboration with the club, the Mariners Trust and the club's Disabled Supporters Association. The stand is named after Daphne Farquarson, who founded the Grimsby Town Disabled Supporters Travel Club alongside her late husband, Don Farquarson.
Additional seating When Blundell Park became an all seated stadium in 1995, the overall capacity of the ground decreased accordingly. The club erected temporary seating in the north-west and south-east corners, colloquially known as "the green seats". These consisted of four blocks of makeshift scaffold seating approximately 10 rows back. The temporary seating were intended to provide additional capacity when needed, but were in regular use on a weekly basis while the club enjoyed a lengthy spell playing in the English Championship.
Relegation from the Championship led to reduced match attendance and temporary seating became largely redundant. In special cup fixtures, for instance the 2005 League Cup games with Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United the temporary seating is reinstalled for one-off use.
Due to the changes in seating, the ground's overall capacity dropped from just under 12,000 while in the Championship to just under 10,000 in League Two.
Layout
A view for the Pontoon Stand looking at the Main Stand on the left, Osmond Stand Middle and Findus Stand right (taken on New Year's Day 2012).
International games Over the years Blundell Park has been host to a number of international matches. In 2001 it hosted France U18 against Finland U18, and over the years has also hosted England U17, England U18 and England women's national under-19 football team games.
Future