Following the sale of
Airdrieonians' home ground
Broomfield Park to supermarket chain
Safeway in 1994, the club searched for several years for a suitable site, and planning permission for, a new home. Guidelines set by the football authorities in the period were for top division clubs in Scotland to have all-seater stadia with a minimum capacity of 10,000, and having only been relegated from the
Scottish Premier Division in 1993, the club sought to comply with this. The building work on Excelsior Stadium was eventually completed in 1998, and Airdrieonians played here until the club went out of business due to heavy debts (caused in part by the burden of the construction cost of the new stadium, and made worse by a fall in supporter numbers in the four years based away from their home town) in May 2002. This left an opening in the Scottish League, which was filled by
Northern Premier League side
Gretna. To attain a position in the league, Jim Ballantyne bought out the ailing
Clydebank, renamed the club
Airdrie United, changed the strip and relocated the club to
Airdrie and Excelsior Stadium. Airdrie United are now known as 'Airdrieonians', the same name as the club dissolved in 2002. The ground seats and, as well as hosting
Airdrieonians first and youth team games,
Motherwell Under 20s games and various local amateur sides, it has also played host to
Scottish Challenge Cup finals in
1999 and
2005, as well as
Scotland under-21 fixtures and
Old Firm reserve matches. The stadium has also hosted several charity events. In 2003
Falkirk enquired about groundsharing at the stadium for a season, as their former home,
Brockville did not meet
SPL criteria. This was later rejected in a meeting between SPL chairmen, meaning Falkirk were denied a place in the SPL. In August 2008 it played host to
Queen of the South's
UEFA Cup 2nd qualifying round 1st leg against
Nordsjælland. The stadium also hosted all of
Motherwell's
Europa League qualifying round ties in the 2009–10 season, against
Llanelli,
Flamurtari and
Steaua Bucharest.
Queen's Park used the Excelsior Stadium as their temporary home ground while
Hampden Park was being converted for use as an athletics stadium in the
2014 Commonwealth Games. In women's football, the stadium has been the home ground of
Scottish Women's Premier League clubs
Glasgow City between 2014 and 2017 and
Motherwell during the 2020–21 season.
Glasgow University F.C. have also used the ground since joining the new
West of Scotland League in 2020. From the 2021–22 season,
Celtic F.C. use the ground as the home venue for both their
women's team in the SWPL and their
B team, who play in the
Scottish Lowland Football League. In January 2016,
East Kilbride of the
Scottish Lowland Football League drew
Celtic in the
Scottish Cup. As their
K-Park stadium was inadequate for the crowd expected, the match was held at Excelsior Stadium; 7,767 fans attended. In June 2017 the stadium underwent refurbishment prior to hosting a concert by singer
Elton John. ==Records and facts==