In later years, financial constraints forced Hull City to allow Kwik Save and Iceland supermarkets to embed themselves into the stadium's structure.

Financial difficulties severely hampered this development, with the playing area and part of the terracing appearing over the following 12 months before work and progress ground to a halt.

This, not unexpectedly, had an adverse effect on the playing area – following the end of the war, the pitch was in very poor shape and prone to waterlogging.

The ground was opened in August 1946, 17 years after its initial proposal, but only had planning permission for one stand along the west side with an upper cost limit of £17,000 (£1.3 million in 2024).

The ground was still not fully completed and it became a race against time to make the stadium ready for its opening match against visiting Lincoln City.

Sergeant Brooke was a detective and mounted officer in the Hull Police and was a veteran of the First World War and the Battle of the Somme where he was a machine gunner with the Royal Horse Guards.

The terracing embankments were raised and by February 1949 a ground and club record which still stands was hit as 55,019 spectators turned out to watch Hull City play Manchester United.

[4][3] In October 1977, England's under-21 football team recorded their biggest ever win at the stadium, beating Finland 8–1, with a hat-trick from Tony Woodcock.

[3] The final football match to be staged at Boothferry Park saw Hull City lose 0–1 to Darlington in December 2002.

Boothferry Park was also the scene of a rugby league international when it hosted the first Ashes series test of the 1982 Kangaroo tour between Great Britain and Australia on 30 October.

In January 1990, the Taylor Report required all clubs in the top two divisions of English football to have an all-seater stadium by August 1994.

The stadium became affectionately known by supporters as "Fer Ark" in its later days, due to the lack of finances for maintenance which meant that only those letters were illuminated on the large "boothFERry pARK" signage.