I would happily buy the seat I was sitting in too if that helps fund a new ground should they go down that route.
Printable View
I think we are all agreed on that mate .... the question is what do we move on to? Do we pump even more money into the ugly sisters coffers?
The other thing to think about and something I didn't consider before now is the affect on the psyche of Scottish football if we don't have a national stadium .... in the minds of the SFA its already all about the Glasgow giants .... if their stadiums became home for the national team and national cup finals it will go even further towards making the rest of us an afterthought.
One of the few things Scottish football still has that could be considered notable to the rest of the world is one of the worlds oldest and most historic football venues ... it holds a number of attendance records and has hosted a number of famous matches, not least Real Madrid v Eintracht Frankfurt back in the day. Its loss would just be another negative to the standing of our game, from this point of view there's a lot to be said for saving the place.
Don't get me wrong, if the alternative was a shiny new stadium elsewhere I wouldn't be against that, but I don't find the prospect of replacing Hampden with Parkhead and Ibrox in the least bit appealing or desirable.
How much would the sale of Hampden generate should that option be taken?
Is there scope for scrapping a national stadium but the SFA support the redevelopment of our club stadiums? I'm thinking about specifically filling the corners at ER/Tynie and the SFA subsidising Aberdeen's venture?
Having 30k stadiums in the capital and north of the country would help for the less glamorous cup and international games.
Would also generate more income for some clubs.
Hampden's fine. We play there at the very max a couple times a year not every other week.
Theres nothing better than the early train through, few drinks and soaking up the atmosphere before a big semi/ final through there. Ibrox and Celtic Park wouldn't be the same plus sack giving Celtic or Rangers any more money.
Can you honestly imagine a Scottish Cup Final in some nondescript field on the outskirts of Perth or Stirling? Total pish.
Hampden is what it is, and the views from behind the goals are nowhere near as bad as some make out. Only in Scotland would you get supporters moaning about the view they need to 'endure' for all of 90 minutes while being lucky enough to watch their team in the latter stages of a national cup competition. Some supporters never get to see their teams play in finals and semi's yet you've got folk whining cause they're sitting twenty yards behind the byeline. Oh the hardship.
Murrayfield
I agree with much of that. But I think the issue with Hampden is not even so much the state of it as the deal the SFA have with Hampden Park Ltd to rent it. As I've said before its a fact that Hampden is only still usable as a national stadium because the owners have been able to attract grants and sponsorship on the back of the SFA and SPFL using it, without football it would be little more than a rarely used concert venue and they would find it next to impossible to keep it maintained, far less pay for any upgrades.
This is why Hampden's future is now in doubt .... You can understand why the SFA and SPFL are at the point of asking 'why the hell are we paying so much to rent a stadium that only exists because of us?' and more to the point, why should Scottish football make any attempt to stay at the stadium under these circumstances, let alone spend time, money and effort on any project to give the stadium the revamp it so badly needs ... saying its bearable for 90 minutes a couple of times a year is fine, but that doesn't detract from the fact that its lagging miles behind its equivalents in England, Wales and Ireland and there are clubs around Europe who have and are building stadiums that make it look like a 1970s hovel in comparison.
Queens park have been taking the piss for years ...... They are a club engrained in the history of Scottish football but clearly have little interest in its wellbeing, even to the point where they screw up the pitch inside the stadium they haven't paid for because they are too up themselves to use lesser Hampden for their games which are attended by about 300 people.
Its time the SFA called their bluff and put it to them that they either enter into an agreement that gives the SFA control of the stadium or they bolt .... The SFA must know that without them the stadium is doomed and more to the point Queens Park must know it as well. There are three scenarios here:
The SFA / SPFL renew the current deal ....... The stadium remains a dump and nobody gains apart from Queens Park.
The SFA / SPFL withdraw altogether ...... within 20 years the stadium becomes a housing scheme.
The SFA /SPFL enter into an agreement that gives them control of the stadium ..... That not only gives them scope to investigate ways to revamp it, in the long run events like concerts will put money into the coffers of Scottish football rather than Hampden park Ltd.
I would love to see a breakdown of exactly how Hampden operates .... Does it make a profit and if it does where does that money go? How much of it is used to maintain the stadium and how much of it goes into folks pockets? It should be noted that 17 years ago the stadium was a baw hair from liquidation, which the owners blamed on failure to quickly reach an agreement with the SFA on a rental agreement ... nuff said !
Quite. Hampden is where cup finals and certainly big Scotland games should always be played.
Finito for me. Chat of a national stadium built on the greenbelt in some central Scotland retail park because it's "easier to park" or whatever. Naw.
Probably some tweaking to be done on the rental deal, about which I confess to knowing zip, and the place could do with a new lick of paint perhaps.
But it's Hampden and should always remain so.
Hampden cost more to build that the millennium stadium. It has more seats and roof. Hate Hampden
Hampden sums up everything that is wrong with Scottish football the blazers have an impressive main stand while the fans get seats put into the terracing with appalling sight lines and miles from the pitch. Atrocious stadium especially in comparison to the Millenium stadium.
If Queens Park do own the holding company then the SFA should offer the ultimatum that we’re off to build a new stadium or use Murrayfield/Ibrox/Parkhead unless they sign the stadium over to the SFA. Pay them a small upfront fee, give them 10 years of rent free match day use of the stadium but stipulate that 3 weeks before any Internationals or cup games they have to play at Lesser Hampden and also agree to renovate Lesser Hampden before the 10 year point at which they have to make that their permanent home.
Knock down behind the goals and build two tier stands closer to the pitch. Add a tier above north and thats it done. Stuttgart managed it for 70m euros when they renovated the Mercedes-Benz Arena
Before
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...adion-2007.jpg
After
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I think that would be the best idea.
But still a pretty big project but do 1 end first then other and it should keep disruption to a minimum.
You wonder if they plan to ever use the stadium for athletics again?
Concerts could still take place as views and access would be better if required.
As a poster stated about - is there anyway finding out the agreement and money spent / used to rent the stadium and what it generates ?
UEFA continuing to accept Hampden as a venue for finals and now the Euros doesn't do us any favours. But its indicative of how the blazers at all levels see the ordinary fans ... so long as the south stand is ok for their jollies who cares about the poor views and crap facilities in the rest of the stadium.
What facilities does one require for the odd one of game that Hampden doesn't provide? A pie stand for grub to help soak up the bevvy and a pisser at half-time? The view directly behind the goal can be pish granted but its not quite central park that some are making it out to be!
Knock 3/4 of the stadium down and building stands with decent views of the pitch and closer, with a sliding room of course 😂😂
How are Queen's Park "taking the piss"? They own the stadium because they bought it and developed it over many years. It's not theirs by chance. They've got every right to charge a rent that will help cover costs. They're not owned by anyone other than the members - fan ownership since 1867 is pretty impressive - and no individual is making a profit from this. Queen's are pretty much a model club for community football running a host of teams for all ages and promoting football in a wide area. You're painting them like some ogres screwing money out of football and that's nonsense. Unlike almost every other club (including ours) they are non-profit making with every penny going back into football through the practical set up or maintaining the ground. What makes you think it "goes into folk's pockets"?
In the late 70s we were on target for a completely rebuilt Hampden until the Thatcher government came along and pulled the funding plug to the loud applause of those who were rebuilding Ibrox and saw the potential for a cash cow (not the plastic Tynecastle type) and the then Glasgow District Council (who were said by many to be the political wing of Celtic).
The SFA and SPFL are perfectly free to take their custom where they want if they can find a better deal somewhere but the idea that they're somehow being held to ransom by Queen's Park is a myth perpetuated best by those who want to see the revenue for international and neutral games monopolised by the sinister sisters of Ibrox and Parkhead.
I'd love to see more of these games taken round the country including to ER but there is still a crying need for a neutral national venue that doesn't fill the money chests of the combined forces of darkness and unless someone's serious about building a new one Hampden is the best we've got by a long way.
I wish it was bigger and I wish the seats were raised a bit steeper but the sight lines and distance from pitch are better than many large stadia in Europe and with a full crowd in the atmosphere can still be brilliant (eg. 21/5/16).
Instead of throwing unfounded accusations at Queen's Park they should be applauded both for their custodianship of Hampden and also for staying clear of the bigotry temptation whilst they were shaping so much of the Scottish game.
My beef with Queens Park is that their continued ownership of the stadium is a nonsense .... without the input of the SFA and SPFL over the years the place would have been a housing estate by now, or at the very least a crumbling ruin. Any money made available to it from public funds or sponsorship has been on the back of the stadiums connection with the Scottish national team and major cup finals and absolutely nothing to do with Queens Park .... on that basis the fact that they still own it and make the SFA and SPFL pay for the privilege of using it is a joke in my opinion.
You might be impressed with their custodianship of the stadium, I'm not. Thatcher might have pulled the plug on the redevelopment, but that was over 25 years ago, in the time since then they have built the millennium stadium ( with 46 million quid from the national lottery funding nearly half of it ) Wembley stadium has been constructed ( with nearly 300 million coming from the national lottery and local public funds ) and the AVIVA stadium in Dublin has been built. Not to mention Murrayfield, a far more impressive stadium with not a single penny of lottery or government money. I think the time to stop blaming Thatcher for the current state of Hampden has long passed. The last meaningful development at the stadium was 20 years ago.
They missed an absolute open goal when the Commonwealth games were going to be held there. The Scottish government and Glasgow city council between them spent between 500 and 600 million pounds ( even more by some accounts ) on the games. They were so desperate to see the games come to Glasgow they even went so far as to forcibly remove folk from their homes to make way for athletes accommodation.
They spent all that money and yet the one venue the games simply couldn't have taken place without, Hampden Park, emerged from the whole massively expensive process looking exactly the same and with the same facilities it started with, in spite of having an eye watering 14 million pounds spent on it to install a raised running track ..... That to me was a totally missed opportunity, they could have at the very least squeezed a promise out of the powers that be to commit to funding demolition and rebuilding of the east and west terraces after the games were finished, the cost of which would still have been a drop in the ocean compared to the massive amount of public money spent overall.
I'm sure Queens Park are a fine institution as a football club and do oodles for the community ..... as a business running what is supposed to be our national stadium they are not fit for purpose in my opinion.
I've been to all but two of Hibs visits to Hampden since 1979 and one of them was the Dunfermline replay which nobody went to :greengrin
The corporate facilities in the north stand were there before the games, but may have been tarted up for the occasion I suppose. If that's not what you are talking about I'm scratching my head to see where this expansion took place ..... according to Wikipedia 10 rows of seats were removed from the north stand for the games, reducing its capacity, and then reinstated afterwards. What was the expansion and how many seats did it add to the capacity making the post Commonwealth games stadium bigger than the pre games stadium? I'm not having a go, its a genuine question because for the life of me I haven't noticed it on my visits to the stadium.