During Colchester's first season in the Football League, Layer Road hosted an average crowd of 10,573. This was to be the only time the club hosted a five-figure average at the ground. It wasn't until 1959 that the stadium had floodlights installed, with proceeds from an FA Cup game against Arsenal funding the installation. In 1971, the ground was purchased from Colchester Borough Council with a series of covenants placed on the ground, including the clause that the ground could not be sold for development into housing. In 1980, the club's chairman Maurice Cadman announced that Layer Road was in need of £280,000 of basic safety improvement to meet legislation. Plans were drawn up to remove the Open End altogether and construct a 5,000 capacity stand at the Layer Road End and a new main stand on the Popular side. The plans never came to fruition, as further plans for a new stadium were rejected by the Council on the basis of the covenant. Following the Bradford City stadium fire and the Heysel Stadium disaster, Layer Road faced £500,000 worth of safety improvements. With the club struggling financially, sections of the ground were closed off, reducing capacity to 4,900.