Boothferry Park
Hull (Kingston upon Hull), East Riding of Yorkshire, England
Boothferry Park, Hull (Kingston upon Hull), England — opened 31 August 1946 (as Hull City AFC's football ground; Hull City 0-0 Lincoln City, crowd 25,586), 11 rugby league games hosted, home of Not a permanent rugby league home ground — used occasionally by Hull FC and Hull KR (both normally based elsewhere, at The Boulevard and Craven Park respectively) for representative fixtures, cup finals/semi-finals, and bigger-crowd Hull derbies.
Ground facts
| Opened | 31 August 1946 (as Hull City AFC's football ground; Hull City 0-0 Lincoln City, crowd 25,586) (Rugby league use began later, from 1953, when the ground was used as an occasional shared/representative venue rather than a settled home ground.) |
| Home club | Not a permanent rugby league home ground — used occasionally by Hull FC and Hull KR (both normally based elsewhere, at The Boulevard and Craven Park respectively) for representative fixtures, cup finals/semi-finals, and bigger-crowd Hull derbies |
| Games hosted (rugby league, on record) | 11 |
| Top recorded crowd | 26,771 |
| Capacity | Peaked over 50,000 (football, in its heyday); down to 15,160 by closure in 2002 |
| Test matches hosted | 1 |
| World Club Challenge finals hosted | 2 |
| Floodlights installed | Yes — originally two gantries (96 lamps), replaced in 1963 by six pylons, first used 1964 |
| Surface | Grass |
| First rugby league match | 3 April 1953 — Hull FC 10-2 Hull Kingston Rovers (a Rovers "home" game, borrowing the ground during financial hardship), crowd 27,670, a Rovers record at the time; featured a young Johnny Whiteley (2 tries) |
| Years used | 1953–1997 |
| Location | Hull (Kingston upon Hull), East Riding of Yorkshire |
Name history
- Boothferry Park — used throughout; nicknamed "Fer Ark" locally in its later, run-down years, after only those letters remained lit on the stadium signage
Rugby league history
A landmark English football ground (Hull City AFC's home 1946-2002) used occasionally across more than four decades for rugby league's biggest local and representative fixtures when bigger crowds were expected than either Hull club's own ground could hold — including a full Ashes Test in 1982, a Yorkshire Cup Final, and a John Player Trophy Final. Demolition began 10 January 2008 and was largely complete by March 2008 (final structural remnants removed 2011); the site is now residential housing.
Historic Test matches, Cup & Grand Finals hosted
- 27 Oct 1984 — Yorkshire Cup Final: Hull 29-12 Hull KR (25,237)
- 26 Jan 1985 — John Player Trophy Final: Hull 0-12 Hull KR (25,326)
- 30 Oct 1982 — Ashes: Great Britain 4-40 Australia (26,771)
Pre-dates the site's structured match-by-match records for these competitions, so listed here as sourced facts rather than linked match pages.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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