Victoria Stadium

The need to provide the Gibraltarian community with a sports stadium was recognized as far back as 1947. In this year the War Department officially handed over to then Colonial Government the plot of land where part of the Victoria Stadium is now situated.

The plot transferred was then developed with reclamation to increase the land available and this provided the area for the stadium complex “as it is today”.

The original stadium was inaugurated on the 19th June 1949 and leased by the Colonial Government to the Gibraltar Sports Association. There were facilities for Football, Cricket, Hockey and Athletics. It was named “Victoria” in honour of the wife of the late John Mackintosh, a local benefactor, who contributed to the facilities provided.

The situation remained the same until the late 60’s when the lack of proper maintenance rendered the complex virtually unusable.

In order to address this problem, the local government constituted the Victoria Stadium Control Board to pave the way for the Stadium complex to be redesigned to cater for the needs of the day.

As phase one of this project, the pitches were resurfaced with Nortex and new spectator stands and changing facilities were built, in 1970, (with the help of the Royal Engineers, who provided their labour services free of charge), these works were completed and the inauguration of the “New” Stadium took place in 1971. St this point the management of the complex was taken over directly by the Government as part of its Education Department, and a Manager was appointed, the Minister becoming Minister for Education and Sport.

In order to meet the ever growing demands for outdoor playing facilities the Government installed floodlights for the main pitch during the course of 1974.

Phase two of the works originally identified by the Victoria Stadium Control Board commenced in late 1974 with the help of a grant from the Improvement and Development Aid Fund of the United Kingdom Government.

Included in these works were the indoor sporting facilities, offices, bars and main spectator stands, producing basically, the complex as we now know it. The Stadium then became a Government Department on its own with its own Minister for Sport. (The indoor facilities became available for use in February 1976).

The development of Sport in Gibraltar has always out-paced the facilities available and consequently in 1990, a Community Use of Schools’ Sports Facilities Scheme was introduced, administered by the Stadium Management, whereby sports facilities at Westside School, Bayside School, College of further Education, Mackintosh Hall, South Barracks and Hargraves were made available for non-school use during evenings and weekends.

Synthetic surfaces for the outdoor playing facilities had been sought after by the local sports community for long as we became more and more successful in international events. Good as the Nortex surfaces were at their time, it was undeniable that they were severely curtailing the development of outdoor sports in Gibraltar.

Government, in association with a local company, took up the challenge of producing these surfaces with works commencing during the month of August 1990. 10,000 sq metres of synthetic turf, Omniturf sand-filled, were installed in the Main Pitch together with a full-urethane Bolidtan 6-lane athletics track, long/triple jump area, and new shot/discuss throwing facilities. Works were carried out by the Dutch Firm, KWS Sport.

The outdoor facilities at the Stadium became beyond doubt, a match for the best available anywhere, certainly as a local government facility, and no doubt enabled outdoor sports in Gibraltar to continue their progress.

The project not only provided better playing surfaces but also large increase in the number of allocations that could be made available. The new surfaces were completed and inaugurated in April 1991.

As part of the ongoing improvement process, in March 1992 a new Junkers wooden sprung floor was installed in the Stadium’s Sports Hall, the same used for the Barcelona Olympics. Similarly extra “portable” seating was provided, mainly for outdoor use.

Later in 1992 new, permanent, two-lane cricket nets were erected, with the help of a sponsor, which greatly enhanced facilities for that sport.

All the buildings were also completely refurbished and the indoor changing rooms re-designed to meet increased usage.

In 1993, Government was approached by a local company who wished to acquire a plot of land “belonging” to the Stadium. As part of the deal, new changing rooms for the outdoor facilities, a larger and better car park and resurfacing pitch No 2 with Omniturf were financed. The new improved facilities were inaugurated in March 1994, providing a further boost in allocations for Gibraltar sports.