and on 25 June 1961, the club played its first match at the stadium, while the main grandstand was still under construction. As most of the stadium had only concrete standing terraces, it was possible to accommodate as many as 20,000 spectators. During the 1967–68 season, when Maribor competed in the Yugoslav First League for the first time, the club renovated the dressing rooms, bathrooms and sanitary facilities, which were in poor condition and inadequate for the top division level. 1990s renovations Ljudski vrt remained in almost the same state for another thirty years without major developments until the early 1990s. In 1994, the wooden benches on the main grandstand were replaced by plastic seats. The stadium also received renovated dressing rooms and appropriate telecommunication connections. In the same year, on 24 August, the stadium received four floodlight pylons and the first match at night was played between Maribor and Norma Tallinn as part of the 1994–95 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, won by Maribor 10–0. In 1998, the concrete stands were abolished and replaced by a seating area as part of the ground's conversion to an all-seater stadium. A year later, Maribor became the first and, , the only Slovenian club to qualify for the UEFA Champions League. As a result, Ljudski vrt received further renovations, as the VIP area of the main grandstand, dressing rooms and club offices were all renovated. The terraces ring on the east side of the stadium was enlarged by 2,000 seats, bringing the total capacity to 10,030. In 2000, an irrigation system was installed, together with a new artificial grass training ground. 2008 reconstruction Maribor's results in domestic and international competitions in the 1990s were the reason why political and sports officials in the city began to think about a new stadium. In 1997, a tender was held and the "Project Ring" was selected with a plan for a complete renovation and modernisation of the stadium. However, due to financial problems, it took nearly a decade for the project to become a reality, when in 2006 the City Municipality of Maribor and MŠD Branik, with the help of the Government of Slovenia and the European Union, finally raised enough funds to start the first stage of the project. In the first phase of improvements, worth around €10 million, the existing uncovered stands surrounding the pitch from the north, east and south were demolished and