Malmö Idrottsplats ("Malmö sports field"), commonly referred to simply as Malmö IP and sometimes as Gamla IP ("The old sports field"), is a stadium in Malmö, Sweden, that is primarily used for association football. it is the home of women's association football club FC Rosengård, currently playing in Damallsvenskan; the men's clubs Malmö FF and IFK Malmö have played there in the past. The stadium is the third largest in Malmö behind Malmö Stadion and Stadion, the current home grounds of IFK Malmö and Malmö FF respectively. The Sweden men's national football team has played at Malmö IP twice, in 1929 and 1949. The stadium's capacity has changed throughout the years with various redevelopments and renovations; it is today 7,600, but was historically much higher. The record attendance at the ground was set on 1 June 1956 when 22,436 people attended an Allsvenskan match between Malmö FF and Helsingborgs IF.
The stadium was built as a multi-purpose sports field between March and July 1896 with a grand opening on 4 July 1896. IFK Malmö took up residence at the ground in 1903, with Malmö FF also doing so seven years later; both remained until 1958, when they moved to Malmö Stadion, which had just been built for the 1958 FIFA World Cup. Extensive redevelopment and restoration was carried out between 1978 and 1980, and in 1999; the two Malmö clubs returned following this latter renovation, but Malmö FF went back to Malmö Stadion after a single season. The laying of artificial turf before the 2008 season led IFK to return to Malmö Stadion in protest. The stadium is located on the northern side of Malmö's largest park, Pildammsparken, with Malmö Stadion and Stadion both to the park's south.
History
Construction and early history (1896–1938) Malmö IP was built in 1896 to host cycling, gymnastics, wrestling, athletics and tennis events.Smitt, 2009, p. 11. Cycling competitions had been organised by Malmö Velocipedklubb (MVK) since 24 August 1890, at a temporary sports field in Rörsjöstaden. This was also the venue for the first association football match in Malmö, a friendly match on 12 October 1890 featuring Kjøbenhavns Boldklub of Denmark.Smitt, 2009, p. 11. The members of MVK were impressed by the new sport and started a football section of their own. After the Rörsjöstaden field was earmarked for a new housing development in 1893, MVK began to explore the idea of a new ground.Billing, 1996, p. 10. The club pitched this to the local municipality, Malmö Stad, which in February 1894 presented plans for a new sports field in the north-east of the city, in what is today Teatern, a neighbourhood in Innerstaden district. The MVK board consulted its members, then agreed and signed a 15-year lease on the site.Billing, 1996, p. 12.
To raise funds for the ground's construction and the annual lease payments, an aktiebolag (limited company) called AB Malmö Idrottsplats was formed in March 1896 under the chairmanship of Carl Frick, a locally-born sea captain and sports enthusiast. The final construction costs for the new ground were 44,000 kronor, roughly 2,930,000 kronor in modern terms. The ground originally spanned ; an oval cycling track surrounded the grass pitch where association football and other sports were played.Billing, 1996, pp. 21–22. Construction began in March 1896 and ended in July the same year.
Malmö IP opened on 4 July 1896 with cycling competitions, accompanied by organised betting. MVK disbanded its cycling section in 1902, five years after Sweden outlawed gambling in 1897; this had caused attendances to plummet.Billing, 1996, p. 23. The construction of a large pavilion in the centre of the pitch in 1899 made football impossible, contributing to the end of MVK's football section in 1900; the sport had so far failed to win much local popularity in any case.Billing, 1996, p. 33. After football became more popular in Malmö in the early 1900s, the pavilion was removed in 1905, with a new pitch concurrently laid out. On 18 September 1897, Malmö IP hosted a large celebration marking King Oscar II's Silver Jubilee; over 10,000 people attended. The ground continues to be used on events such as national holidays to the present day.Billing, 1996, p. 35.
Athletics overtook football and cycling competitions at Malmö IP after MVK's exit and the foundation of IFK Malmö in April 1899. IFK arranged events such as the 100 metres, the mile run, early forms of the high jump, and pentathlons involving the long jump, javelin throw, 100 metres, discus throw and wrestling. Equestrianism was popular at Malmö IP around the turn of the century, and ice skating was held during the Swedish winter months. Crown Prince Gustaf, who later became King Gustav V, attended one of IFK's athletics competitions on 7 November 1901, and reportedly enjoyed the experience very much. When he was stationed at Malmö three years later during his military education, he regularly returned to the ground to play tennis. played tennis at Malmö IP when he was stationed in Malmö during his military education in 1904.
The most successful and first club dedicated solely to football in these early years was Malmö BI (then abbreviated MBI, and now called FC Rosengård after various changes of name), which was founded in 1904 by former MVK players, and based at Malmö IP. The ground also became home to IFK Malmö's football division, which was formed in 1903. A third club, Malmö FF, took up residence at the stadium following its own foundation on 24 February 1910 by 19 men at the Malmö IP restaurant.Smitt, 2009, p. 14. Several members of IFK Malmö's athletics division left the club on 26 August 1908 due to differences in opinion regarding its administration; the dissidents formed Malmö Allmänna Idrottsförening (MAI) two weeks later. Swedish javelin thrower Eric Lemming set two new world records in the first international competition that MAI hosted on 10–11 July 1909.
Following the banning of betting in Sweden, as well as other events such as rainy summers and wet winters, AB Malmö Idrottsplats started to have financial difficulties and applied to the municipality for help.Billing, 1996, p. 32. The annual lease payments were cancelled in 1899 and replaced with a subsidy of 1,500 kronor a year, conditional on local schoolchildren receiving free access to the pitch for a few hours each day. Stora Hallen ("The great hall"), an adjoining building that had served first as a tennis arena, then riding stables, was redeveloped in 1910 into a dance hall and restaurant called Boston Palace. This was done in the hope of increasing the ground's profits as it was struggling financially. The redevelopment was criticised by some who contended that dancing was an immoral pastime with nothing to do with sport. The financial difficulties continued into the 1910s and the city was forced to raise the yearly grant for Malmö IP.Billing, 1996, p. 58. IFK Malmö and Malmö FF, the city's main association football clubs, by this time regularly played home games at the ground. When Malmö hosted the Baltic Exhibition in 1914, Malmö IP hosted relevant sporting events during June and July.Billing, 1996, p. 62. The exhibition forced the municipality to rearrange the area surrounding the sports field and the surrounding road network was redrawn. Malmö IP was given a large compensation for this as the sports field area was affected by the changes.Billing, 1996, p. 61.
The sports field surpassed into municipal ownership in 1938 when AB Malmö Idrottsplats's financial difficulties became too great to bear. There was also widespread criticism from minor sport clubs in Malmö against the company's tendency to favour the bigger clubs such as IFK Malmö, Malmö FF and athletics club MAI.Billing, 1996, p. 152. Malmö Stad therefore voted to nationalise the ownership of both Malmö IP and other sport fields in the city in 1935, the motion passed with a small margin, 25 voted for nationalization and 23 voted for continued private ownership.Billing, 1996, p. 154. Lengthy negotiations between AB Malmö Idrottsplats and the municipality's sports committee began in 1935 and ended in 1937 with a settlement of 160,000 kronor, roughly 4,600,000 kronor in modern terms.Billing, 1996, p. 157. The municipality formally took over Malmö IP on 1 January 1938.
Municipal ownership; plans for a new stadium (1938–58) Association football and athletic clubs continued to share Malmö IP after the municipal takeover. The events that attracted the biggest crowd in the 1930s and the 1940s were Malmö FF's home matches in Allsvenskan, which could attract capacity crowds of 14,000 spectators.Billing, 1996, p. 164. After the capacity was increased, the record for attendance was broken again in 1939 when MAI hosted a competition honouring 25 years since the 1914 Baltic Exhibition in Malmö; over 25,000 people attended over two days.Billing, 1996, p. 174. MAI also hosted other international competitions that brought large crowds to the sports field, including Amerikagalorna (The America galas), which involved visiting athletes from the United States and Swedish sportsmen and women.Billing, 1996, pp. 173–174.
Malmö IP's future came into official discussion first in 1933 with the proposed building of the Malmö Opera and Music Theatre; the original plans called for Malmö IP and the surrounding area to be completely demolished. The theatre was ultimately built on the edge of the stadium grounds, and only some nearby structures had to be destroyed—however, these included the building in which Malmö FF had been founded in 1910. The ground's main entrance was moved from the north to the east, where it remains to this day. A commemorative table was placed at the exact site of Malmö FF's founding in 2010 as part of the club's centenary celebrations, in what is today the theatre's parking lot.
Malmö was one of the most successful sporting cities in Sweden during the 1940s and 1950s; its clubs won national championships in several sports.Billing, 1996, p. 201. Malmö FF won their first football championship at Malmö IP during the 1943–44 Allsvenskan season, and over the next decade and a half added another four league titles and five Svenska Cupen (Swedish Cup) wins. MAI, wrestling clubs Sparta and Enighet, IFK Malmö's handball division and others also won Swedish championships during this time. Several major European football clubs visited Malmö IP in the years following the Second World War to play friendlies against Malmö FF; these included A.C. Milan of Italy and Wolverhampton Wanderers, Birmingham City and Charlton Athletic from England. These matches caused new attendance records to be set several times.Billing, 1996, pp. 209–210.
Malmö was affected by World War II more than most of Sweden, which was neutral, because of the city's close proximity to German-occupied Denmark, with the Danish capital Copenhagen just opposite Malmö on the other side of the Øresund. During these years many public celebrations and events of national unification were celebrated at Malmö IP such as the National Day of Sweden on 6 June 1941, when Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson, who was born in Malmö, gave a speech.Billing, 1996, p. 196. Wartime athletics competitions for military recruits were also held; events included the throwing of grenades.Billing, 1996, p. 195. Athletics continued to draw large crowds to Malmö IP during the 1940s, when Gunder Hägg and Arne Andersson battled at the running tracks. The world record for the mile run was beaten twice at the stadiumSmitt, 2009, p. 13.—first by Andersson on 18 July 1944, and then almost exactly a year later 17 July 1945 by Hägg.