Tannadice Park, officially known as The CalForth Construction Arena for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Dundee, Scotland.

The ground that is now Tannadice (then called Clepington Park) was first used for football in the 1870s, when the surrounding area of Dundee was still largely open countryside.

In conjunction, it was decided to utilise the natural slope roughly a hundred yards to the west (below what is now Sandeman Street) in order to provide better views for spectators.

As well as enclosing the new pitch, now situated on approximately its modern alignment, the club built a modest grandstand, a simple uncovered wooden structure with bench seating.

However, rather than building a new ground from scratch, the new club's secretary Pat Reilly took the controversial step of approaching the landlord of Clepington Park to secure a ready-made venue.

The Hibs committee made an offer to the landlords which exceeded what Wanderers were paying; as a result, the established tenants were informed that their lease would not be renewed for the coming season.

[citation needed] The extent of Wanderers' anger at this development is evident from their decision to effectively dismantle Clepington's fixtures and fittings.

The grandstand, changing rooms, fencing and even the goalposts were removed,[7] leaving Hibs with an open field rather than the ready-made ground they had envisaged.

A cricket-style pavilion housing dressing rooms was constructed in the south east corner of the ground, where the players' tunnel is today; this survived until 1961.

The stand on the road side will be the whole length of the field and will seat about 1,000 people.The club's and the ground's inaugural match was against Hibernian on 18 August 1909, in front of a crowd of 7,000.

[7][8] The original capacity of Tannadice Park was around 10,000, the terracings were specially extended and additional temporary seating erected for a Qualifying Cup-tie against Forfar Athletic in 1913; all of this was necessary to allow a record crowd to be accommodated, and the reported attendance was 15,000.

The Scottish League Management Committee informed the club that Tannadice would be subject to an inspection during the close season to ensure that it was up to the standard required for the higher level, and this clearly concentrated the directors' minds.

There was a steep upwards slope towards the corner where the George Fox and East Stands now meet, and this necessitated solid rock being blasted to enable it to be levelled.

[8] The new Main Stand, opened in August 1962, was the first in Scotland to be constructed with a cantilever roof to provide column-free viewing for spectators.

Under-soil heating was installed during the close season of 1985 at a reported cost of £100,000, United were the fourth Scottish club to have the facility, following Queen's Park, Rangers and Hibernian.

At the time of the Taylor Report on football ground safety, which was published in January 1990, Tannadice had a capacity of 22,310, but only 2,252 seats (all in the 1962 Main Stand).

The only seated accommodation at the ground prior to the post-Taylor Report redevelopment, it was known simply as the Main Stand until 2003, when it was renamed in honour of Jerry Kerr, the manager who had overseen its construction.

With season ticket holders now accommodated in the more modern parts of the stadium, the Shed can be allocated to either home or away supporters as demand dictates.

The East Stand now houses the loudest and most passionate elements of the United support, whereas George Fox patrons have the reputation of being somewhat more restrained in their behaviour.

[citation needed] Promotion to the top flight in 1925 saw further ground improvements and two new records set, firstly when 20,000 were estimated to have watched Celtic's visit on 19 September 1925.

Then a much larger than anticipated crowd of 23,517 packed in to watch an important late season Tayside derby against St Johnstone on 17 April 1926, with both clubs fighting relegation.

To date, the official record attendance at Tannadice remains the 28,000 who watched the club's home European debut, an Inter-Cities Fairs Cup match against FC Barcelona on 16 November 1966.

Since then, in common with many other grounds, safety legislation and conversion to all-seating has drastically reduced Tannadice's capacity, with the modern stadium holding little over half that number.

[21] On 1 January 1941, during a season when Dundee United were inactive due to the Second World War, a boxing match was staged at Tannadice.