Club historian Duncan Simpson looks back at the big attendances at KDM Group East End Park over the years ahead of what looks to be another bumper crowd this weekend.
With the number of ticket sales for Saturday’s Scottish Cup tie against Hibernian now beyond the 9,000 mark, and with attendances at KDM Group East End Park generally on the up, it’s worth having a look at our best crowd figures since the stadium became all-seater in 1998.
First off, let’s remind ourselves that East End Park’s record attendance is 27,816 (although there were many more who hadn’t paid inside the ground after entrance gates were broken) for a league match against Celtic on 30 April 1968. The best attendance for a Scottish Cup tie was for the game against Rangers on 1 March 1958 when 24,377 attended. Days of those sorts of attendances are long gone of course, and these days the stadium the stadium can officially hold 11,480 spectators.
On 26 September 1998, the visit of Rangers for a league game attracted a crowd of 11,507 which remains the biggest crowd at Dunfermline since the stadium was reconstructed. Since then a number of Old Firm visits, but by no means all, have attracted five-figure crowds, with the most notable being another Rangers visit on 30 December 2013. At that time both clubs were in Scotland’s third tier division, League One, and the crowd of 10,089 was not only the last time that East End Park had over 10,000 spectators, but it was also a club record for any third tier match.
Matches against non-Old Firm opponents have only breached the 10,000 mark twice since the stadium reconstruction – on 15 November 1998 a league match against Dundee United attracted 10,704 to the game, while, more famously from a Pars perspective, Dunfermline’s ‘title decider’ against Raith Rovers on 23 April 2011 attracted 11,052 fans (just in case you’ve forgotten, the Pars won and went on to take the title!).
Dunfermline’s big Scottish Cup crowds since 1998 have been few and far between, in part because the club’s participation in the Scottish Cup has been, let’s say, limited! There is also the matter of season ticket holders, who in today’s world, cannot use their season tickets for Cup matches, and this is an issue that has impacted on Cup attendances for many years now, not just at Dunfermline but across Scottish football. The best crowd since the stadium reconstruction have been 9,875 who watched Dunfermline’s tie against Rangers on 23 March 2003, while the quarter-final tie against Aberdeen on 7 March 2009 attracted 9,696. The Scottish Cup record for the all-seater stadium was achieved on 17 February 2001 when 11,222 watched as Dunfermline drew 2-2 with Celtic.
More recently, Dunfermline’s home crowds have been on the up. Crowds against local rivals Raith Rovers and Falkirk have attracted more than 8,000 spectators, with the game against Falkirk on 7 May 2023 watched by 9,530 fans, the highest of this decade.
Finally, the new stadium has never had a five-figure crowd for a match against Hibernian, with the best being the 9,715 that watched the league game on 20 September 2003. Can that be beaten this week? Indeed can any of these records be beaten this week? We’ll soon find out.
You can secure your seat for KDM Group East End Park, as The Pars take on Hibernian in the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup now. 🎟️ Click here to purchase.