Opened in 1988 at a construction cost of £2.5 million, it was the first new purpose-built Football League stadium to be built in England for 33 years, since Southend United moved to Roots Hall in 1955.

The ground's record attendance was set at 9,077 for a Football League Cup Third round tie against Manchester United on 22 September 2010.

Glanford Park was bought on 29 November 2023 by The New Show Ground Community Interest Company, the creation of local born barrister Tahina Akther.

[4] Scunthorpe United originally played at the Old Show Ground, which was located towards the centre of the town at the junction of Doncaster Road and Henderson Avenue.

Ultimately it was decided that the best course of action was to relocate to a new out of town site, with the sale of the land occupied by the Old Show Ground being used to raise much needed revenue for the club.

[6] Construction, which was undertaken by Birse Group,[7] began during 1987 on a site located on the outskirts of Scunthorpe, close to the start of the M181 motorway and approximately 1.5 miles West of the Old Show Ground.

Premier League side Manchester City visited Glanford Park on 24 January 2010, in the FA Cup fourth round.

[11] The record attendance for a Football League game stands at 8,921 for a 2–1 win over Newcastle United in the Championship, coming on 20 October 2009.

In January 2023, David Hilton had completed a takeover of Scunthorpe and announced the deal included the stadium and surrounding land.

[13] However, Hilton's legal team raised concerns about the valuation, the stadium's status as a community asset and issues of planning permission and access.

Hilton did not buy the stadium within the agreed timeframe; instead he found a loophole solution: a lease agreement that let the club stay at Glanford Park for 7p a week rent – something Swann considered to be trespass and squatting.

[13] Swann began legal proceedings to sue both Hilton and the club, with an initial court hearing at the end of August 2023 being adjourned until between January 2024 and March 2024.

[14] On 28 September 2023, after club owner David Hilton withdrew funding, the club said that, after its 7 October league game against Brackley, future fixtures would be played at Gainsborough Trinity's home ground, The Northolme, due to a land dispute with Glanford Park's owner, Coolsilk (owned by Peter Swann).

Members of the media are allocated a small area of seating at the rear of the stand, and a television gantry is also positioned within the roof space.

The Clugston Stand now also features a can bar and a food outlet in the void beneath the seating with " Pukka Pies " a local favourite, which along with additional toilet facilities was installed at a cost of £100,000 in 2006.

In announcing the plan for expansion, the club's chairman Steven Wharton acknowledged that they were not currently filling the stadium to capacity on a regular basis, but added that he was preparing for a future situation where a larger capacity could be required, as the club were promotion contenders in League One that season, and finished the season being promoted as champions to reach the second tier of English football for the first time since the 1960s.

In January 2014, it was revealed that Scunthorpe United proposed a move to a brand new stadium, which could have seen Glanford Park closed and more than likely demolished within 30 years of being built.

[25] In February 2019 Mr Swann claimed in a statement on the Scunthorpe United website that promises have been broken and that the truth about what happened with the development continue to be hidden from the public.