Hampden Park

wee bud's pit boots said:
And do you remember the faux outrage in the early 80s, when people at Rangers said Ibrox could and should be utilised?

The letters pages were filled by disgusted from Croy, Carfin and the Scottish press were in an uproar. We need Hampden because it is neutral was the universal cry.

Yet not a peep from the same as the scum hut has been pushed forward in increments to the same end over the last few years.

Of course with the vermin that follow the national team, they'll be at ease sitting in a hovel flying the ira rhag as it's main flag.
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It was rumoured that Rangers promoting of Ibrox to play internationals was one of the reasons for the government's withdrawal of funding, but is there any truth in this? Or were we scapegoated again?
 
I’ve gave up Rangers tickets at Hampden when they were behind the goals because the view is terrible. Sure I miss out on the atmosphere, match day experience etc but I’d rather watch it in the house than be 100 yards away from it!
 
instructor said:
It was rumoured that Rangers promoting of Ibrox to play internationals was one of the reasons for the government's withdrawal of funding, but is there any truth in this? Or were we scapegoated again?
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Back in the late 70s Government funding was promised for Hampden Park refurbishment.Labour promised it and the Thatcher government inherited it.Money was tight inflation was raging and noises were being made about the justification of spending money on a project like this.
Rae Simpson our Chairman at the time did suggest it wasn't justifiable but I think he had an eye on hosting internationals at Ibrox but Glasgow District Council was also complicit as they withdrew their share of the funding and eventually the Thatcher government also withdrew theirs which was the major part and finally killed the project.
 
Hampden is a significant social, cultural and sporting facility whose renown and fame is genuinely worldwide. It means a lot to a lot of people. It has played a significant part in the history of our club, and I'd wager that, if not quite a majority, a sizeable number of Rangers fans would cite semi finals and finals at Hampden as some of their favourite games.

While I'd support bulldozing the place and starting again, calls to have it permanently done away with are absolutely mental. Football history is disappearing all around us. Clubs in England have sold their souls in the pursuit of money, in the process moving into soulless, identikit stadiums in the middle of nowhere with limited infrastructure for fans. Hampden is genuinely one of the only selling points of Scottish football. It's a stadium that is internationally and universally acknowledged and renowned. There can be few teams or countries that don't have some kind of association with it. Who the fck wants to see a genuinely significant institution turned into a Tesco? Does anyone in here support the removal of Wembley for similar reasons?

The Murrayfield suggestion is always just mad. It's undeniably a better stadium but I'm struggling to see the sense in moving semi-final and finals - usually involving at least one, but probably two Glasgow teams - to a city an hour away by car, and probably significantly, significantly more when you've got close to 60,000 people all converging there en masse. It would be absolute chaos. It's an utterly mental idea.
 
bilkobear said:
They would have been better off using Murrayfield.
Not something I like saying, but Hampden produced a nonevent atmosphere-wise.
The SFA needs to be rooted out from top to bottom, they are holding the game back at every turn.
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Can’t disagree with any of that but I have given up any hope and interest long ago about the game/product in Scotland improving significantly. I really don’t know what can be done about the SFA and then there’s the type of individuals still in and around the game and those not directly involved in the game but who have much influence and authority over the product such as the diddy government and police Scotland...all these things are preventing the product from being improved and the fact as a so called fitba daft nation we still have a piss poor national stadium tarted up with new seats and roofing with only one new stand built which only made the atmosphere worse with the reduced capacity and spectators are still too far away from the action from both ends of the ground behind the goals, meanwhile the less popular sport of rugby somehow gets a much bigger and better stadium that’s rarely full whilst the carbuncle in Glasgow that once was a true lion’s den and envy of other footballing nations around the world for its size and famous roar is what will still be standing as it is now for years/decades to come.
 
It is a valid point to say that it looks like a poor relation in comparison to some of the other grounds, especially when you see the faded empty seats of the north stand on tv. But we aren’t exactly comparing like with like. The newest part of it is 22 years old and was built on a comparative shoestring. Wembley cost over three quarters of a billion pounds. Hampden’s rebuild was a fraction of that. Some of the other stadia like the Gazprom and the Puskas arenas were major infrastructure projects of national importance just like Wembley.

If the south stand could be partially replicated for the north stand and the viewing angles behind the goals could be fixed by remodelling the terraces in order to bring the capacity up to around 70,000, then Hampden could be more than decent. In addition, if the ground where the prefabs were could be redeveloped to incorporate a hotel, shops, bars and restaurants it could even become a bit of a destination if the standard of finish was up to scratch.

Yes, Hampden is nowhere near as good as it could be but I don’t understand why so many are so keen to bulldoze it. Is it because Haughey effectively owns it by mortgaging it to the SFA? Is it because it is the h.q. of the SFA and the SPFL? I’m not exactly over the moon about those aspects of it either, but the fact remains that some of my greatest memories as a Rangers fan were from being at games in that stadium.
 
Ted Rangers said:
To be fair, there have been a couple of bomb threats in this competition. A car bomb was found in Italy and a terrorist was arrested for planning to use a bomb in Budapest. I think it's reasonable to be cautious with who they allow in.
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A bomb going off at Hampden would be an upgrade ffs!!
 
Wasn’t The Stade De Nonce re-meccano-ed about the same time as Hampdump?

did they get a gypsy special 2 for 1 deal along with the driveway monoblocked?
 
they should replicate the South stand over at the North stand then build rebuild the Mount florida and east stands into single tier ends accumulating to a 60,000-70,000 capacity ..............
 
Aragorn said:
It hasn't aged well and more though should have gone in to the refurbishment when it took place.

Having said that i still love getting on the train from Central to Mount Florida to go to our games there. The buzz on the train and banter afterwards.

Just can't see where the money will come from to bring it up to the standard we are seeing in the rest of Europe.
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Wales seemed to manage okay.
 
Cromwell said:
Ffs, do you work for the SFA? The place is a fucking toilet. The money spent on the BT stand was for the benefit of the SFA suits. The rest was polishing a shite. The views from all stands are shite, the gradient is too low, access etc is shit.

As many have said, it should have been raised to the ground. I can’t believe £60m was spent on it.

We have dinosaurs in charge at all levels of our football, we will never progress until we get rid of them. I mean we have a guy from an amateur team sitting as second in charge of Scottish football, and as for the guy in charge, how the %^*& can that happen?

All these charlatans have only ever had their own interests at heart, they’re feeding at the trough and will do for as long as it benefits them personally, been going on for 30+ years.
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Stop being so hysterical. You have completely ignored my points about the views being terrible and the atmosphere not being great but how can you describe it as a toilet?
The old Hampden and Piggery were actual toilets, they were disgusting and dangerous. Don’t think I have seen areas of the ground almost knee deep in pish with crumbling stairs and walkways that are strewn with gravel and stones.
Just because you/we don’t like the SFA or Hampden as a venue doesn’t mean it’s “dilapidated” or a “toilet” and I stand by my comments that Murrayfield is no better.
 
Blue Lew said:
Stop being so hysterical. You have completely ignored my points about the views being terrible and the atmosphere not being great but how can you describe it as a toilet?
The old Hampden and Piggery were actual toilets, they were disgusting and dangerous. Don’t think I have seen areas of the ground almost knee deep in pish with crumbling stairs and walkways that are strewn with gravel and stones.
Just because you/we don’t like the SFA or Hampden as a venue doesn’t mean it’s “dilapidated” or a “toilet” and I stand by my comments that Murrayfield is no better.
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Lol, you are misty eyed aren’t you. It’s the 21st century, it’s a shithole done up on the cheap whilst the majority of the money to refurb it was thrown into the ‘fat cat’ stand. It’s the meccano dome part 2.
 
Been to the new dump a few times and it's underwhelming.
The old ground before the seats where put in was much better atmosphere wise.
The from above view looks bad, the least they could do was paint it or give it a jet wash ffs.
 
Would it be possible to fund a new stadium nowadays with a sponsorship deal? Other countries have been able to build new, modern stadiums, so I'm assuming there is a way to fund them as countries like Hungary and Wales have managed to build stadiums without having money from a rich football league.
 
Blue Lew said:
Stop being so hysterical. You have completely ignored my points about the views being terrible and the atmosphere not being great but how can you describe it as a toilet?
The old Hampden and Piggery were actual toilets, they were disgusting and dangerous. Don’t think I have seen areas of the ground almost knee deep in pish with crumbling stairs and walkways that are strewn with gravel and stones.
Just because you/we don’t like the SFA or Hampden as a venue doesn’t mean it’s “dilapidated” or a “toilet” and I stand by my comments that Murrayfield is no better.
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I was shocked at how bad the piggery was the first time I went in the 80s.The toilet was basically a wall with a latrine in it. Fucking disgusting. Tannadice not much better.
 
It was renovated (only the South Stand was rebuilt) in time for the 1999 cup final.

It was shown for the Commonwealth Games in 2014 just how useless the place was. The stadium manages to get the poor view of the athletics stadium................without being suitable for athletics! Remember, they had to put everything on stilts so there could be an athletics track?

A shambles.

An embarrassment.

A patch up job.
 
Hampden is nothing short of being an absolute national disgrace. Been saying it for years the place needs to be demolished. Its beyond redemption.
 
ClockworkOrange said:
Hampden is a significant social, cultural and sporting facility whose renown and fame is genuinely worldwide. It means a lot to a lot of people. It has played a significant part in the history of our club, and I'd wager that, if not quite a majority, a sizeable number of Rangers fans would cite semi finals and finals at Hampden as some of their favourite games.

While I'd support bulldozing the place and starting again, calls to have it permanently done away with are absolutely mental. Football history is disappearing all around us. Clubs in England have sold their souls in the pursuit of money, in the process moving into soulless, identikit stadiums in the middle of nowhere with limited infrastructure for fans. Hampden is genuinely one of the only selling points of Scottish football. It's a stadium that is internationally and universally acknowledged and renowned. There can be few teams or countries that don't have some kind of association with it. Who the fck wants to see a genuinely significant institution turned into a Tesco? Does anyone in here support the removal of Wembley for similar reasons?

The Murrayfield suggestion is always just mad. It's undeniably a better stadium but I'm struggling to see the sense in moving semi-final and finals - usually involving at least one, but probably two Glasgow teams - to a city an hour away by car, and probably significantly, significantly more when you've got close to 60,000 people all converging there en masse. It would be absolute chaos. It's an utterly mental idea.
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Yeah just like its utter mental that 80,000 fans have to travel form Manchester or Liverpool to a city 3 hours away by car to visit Wembley for FA Cup finals and semi finals, crazy crazy people.... Hampden is outdated and needs changed, fully agree regarding history and memories but it need bulldozed to the very foundations and rebuilt to a modern International Stadium with facilities that cater for everyone, until that happens Murrayfield is a better alternative by a county mile, an hour by car or not.
 
Diego Maradona said:
It’s a fantastic monument of mis-management and total incompetence
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A simple 1 liner in a nutshell. Now, even going forward, are their any plans for improvement, plans to raise money to make it fit for purpose going forward from either the SFA or the Scottish government?! Or is it just hoping we can hang on to the coat tails of a Home Nations tournament bid & get some hand out's from that?

Since Hampden got some 'redevelopment', England totally rebuilt Wembley, Wales built the Millennium / Principality Stadium, Northern Ireland renovated Windsor Park, & Republic rebuilt the Aviva Stadium. Its frankly embarrassing how backwards our government & the SFA are!
 
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Old man of Hoy said:
Yeah just like its utter mental that 80,000 fans have to travel form Manchester or Liverpool to a city 3 hours away by car to visit Wembley for FA Cup finals and semi finals, crazy crazy people.... Hampden is outdated and needs changed, fully agree regarding history and memories but it need bulldozed to the very foundations and rebuilt to a modern International Stadium with facilities that cater for everyone, until that happens Murrayfield is a better alternative by a county mile, an hour by car or not.
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It wouldn't be an hour by car, though. It'd be significantly more and present a massive logistical nightmare.

Let's say it's moved to Murrayfield. Over the course of a year we can expect to play up to four times there: LC and SC semis and LC and SC finals. That's four extra trips to Edinburgh a year for a club for whom the majority of fans live in the west of Scotland.

Now imagine that two of those games are against Celtic. We're suddenly talking about tens and tens of thousands of fans clogging up the same motorway, train stations and bus services to attend a game taking place 50 miles east of where most of them live. It's a mad idea, and not one the police are likely to allow.

I've literally attended one game at Murrayfield: the away game against Hearts a few years ago. It was only after this game that Murrayfield was suddenly presented as the solution to all our problems. What most people forget is that travel in and out of the game was mostly fine because one set of fans already lived in the city and the numbers of fans travelling from the west was lower because it was an away game. Can you imagine 30,000 Rangers and 30,000 Celtic fans all trying to get there at once?
 
Cromwell said:
Lol, you are misty eyed aren’t you. It’s the 21st century, it’s a shithole done up on the cheap whilst the majority of the money to refurb it was thrown into the ‘fat cat’ stand. It’s the meccano dome part 2.
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I’m not a massive fan of the stadium by any means and yes it wasn’t was badly redeveloped but it’s clean and safe, it’s not a shit hole and I think I will be waiting for a long time before I see any factual proof...
 
jigster said:
they should replicate the South stand over at the North stand then build rebuild the Mount florida and east stands into single tier ends accumulating to a 60,000-70,000 capacity ..............
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I don't think they would get planning permission to raise the North stand due to light issues with the row of villas on Somerville Dr. That's why they should have moved the pitch south.
 
Sam English said:
Some cracking stadiums are hosting Euro 2020 games, then you have Hampden park.

That stadium is an embarrassment and should've been demolished years ago.

I read somewhere that's it up for a refurbishment in a couple of years time. Until that stadium is raised to the ground, there's no point throwing more cash at it.
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I have been saying the same thing for decades

The place is a relic of the 1900’s. Should have been bulldozed, not just had a few seats slapped on terracing
 
An example on how shambolic the whole late 1990's refurb was when Hampden was awarded the 2002 Champions League Final. Many of the changes that were made in 1999 such as the position of turnstyles at the Toryglen end of the North Stand had to be returned to their former position on the orders of UEFA to accommodate extra kiosks. The best illustration of this is the empty seats visible at the Konterman LC semi final.
 
ClockworkOrange said:
It wouldn't be an hour by car, though. It'd be significantly more and present a massive logistical nightmare.

Let's say it's moved to Murrayfield. Over the course of a year we can expect to play up to four times there: LC and SC semis and LC and SC finals. That's four extra trips to Edinburgh a year for a club for whom the majority of fans live in the west of Scotland.

Now imagine that two of those games are against Celtic. We're suddenly talking about tens and tens of thousands of fans clogging up the same motorway, train stations and bus services to attend a game taking place 50 miles east of where most of them live. It's a mad idea, and not one the police are likely to allow.

I've literally attended one game at Murrayfield: the away game against Hearts a few years ago. It was only after this game that Murrayfield was suddenly presented as the solution to all our problems. What most people forget is that travel in and out of the game was mostly fine because one set of fans already lived in the city and the numbers of fans travelling from the west was lower because it was an away game. Can you imagine 30,000 Rangers and 30,000 Celtic fans all trying to get there at once?
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I completely understand where you are coming from and respect your concerns however both Rangers and Celtic fans come from all over the country, not only that they travel far and wide outwith Scotland..by air, by train and by road.
 
BigDGrant said:
When you see it from above it looks what it is.
A fucking dump.
Should have been bulldozed and built elsewhere, preferably in the central belt and not in Glasgow.
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It looks like it has sunk into the ground from aerial shots.
 
Old man of Hoy said:
I completely understand where you are coming from and respect your concerns however both Rangers and Celtic fans come from all over the country, not only that they travel far and wide outwith Scotland..by air, by train and by road.
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True, but the vast majority of both fans come from Glasgow and the west coast. A large number of fans who attend games at Hampden are only travelling across the city!
 
Blue Lew said:
Stop being so hysterical. You have completely ignored my points about the views being terrible and the atmosphere not being great but how can you describe it as a toilet?
The old Hampden and Piggery were actual toilets, they were disgusting and dangerous. Don’t think I have seen areas of the ground almost knee deep in pish with crumbling stairs and walkways that are strewn with gravel and stones.
Just because you/we don’t like the SFA or Hampden as a venue doesn’t mean it’s “dilapidated” or a “toilet” and I stand by my comments that Murrayfield is no better.
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Any time that I have sat in the ‘new’ south stand, the view has been excellent, especially so in the top tier. At the Hearts LC semi recently, my brief was for the comfy padded seats and it was superb. If the rest of the stadium was built to that standard it would be more than adequate.

The capacity needs to be a bare minimum of 70,000.
 
kingboyd1 said:
I’ve gave up Rangers tickets at Hampden when they were behind the goals because the view is terrible. Sure I miss out on the atmosphere, match day experience etc but I’d rather watch it in the house than be 100 yards away from it!
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It’s a pish view but I wouldn’t be giving up my tickets
 
TCWNS1872 said:
Perhaps not.

But if Hampden wasn’t there, Ibrox would need to be expanded to ensure that big games didn’t automatically go to the Chamber of Secrets due to the bigger capacity.
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Well yes it would need to be rotated fairly, include the other grounds too

Well Hibs and Hearts anyway
 
Henry Hill said:
Well yes it would need to be rotated fairly, include the other grounds too

Well Hibs and Hearts anyway
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Yes, agreed. Other clubs should be rewarded for having good facilities by being awarded games.

If money was no object, I’d be in favour of demolishing the existing Hampden and moving its current footprint so that a proper multi-tiered bowl could be constructed. It is fortunate insofar as having a decent amount of space around it (assuming the physical structure was moved southwards). If a retractable roof was fitted and (possibly) some sort of concealed, mobile running track, to enable Glasgow to compete for world athletics championships etc, etc, we could have a sporting venue to be properly proud of.

As I mentioned previously on the thread, the land on the Toryglen side is ripe for development. Unfortunately, in the real world, money is an object and like most things in this country, when push comes to shove, there is a dearth of real ambition where creating models of best practice is concerned.

Without sounding like a broken, sentimental record, I genuinely think that Hampden as a world class venue is an unbelievably missed opportunity.
 
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mfgorm said:
I don't think they would get planning permission to raise the North stand due to light issues with the row of villas on Somerville Dr. That's why they should have moved the pitch south.
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cheers was unaware of this
 
On the subject of Hampden Park, Talksport were advertising their coverage of the Scotland v Croatia game this morning and some Scottish bloke with the usual faux, growling, hardman accent, kept referring to the ground as Hampden Stadium.

Bewildered from Tunbridge Wells.
 
TCWNS1872 said:
Yes, agreed. Other clubs should be rewarded for having good facilities by being awarded games.

If money was no object, I’d be in favour of demolishing the existing Hampden and moving its current footprint so that a proper multi-tiered bowl could be constructed. It is fortunate insofar as having a decent amount of space around it (assuming the physical structure was moved southwards). If a retractable roof was fitted and (possibly) some sort of concealed, mobile running track, to enable Glasgow to compete for world athletics championships etc, etc, we could have a sporting venue to be properly proud of.

As I mentioned previously on the thread, the land on the Toryglen side is ripe for development. Unfortunately, in the real world, money is an object and like most things in this country, when push comes to shove, there is a dearth of real ambition where creating models of best practice is concerned.

Without sounding like a broken, sentimental record, I genuinely think that Hampden as a world class venue is an unbelievably missed opportunity.
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If you want a running track you have an oval shaped stadium which is a big part of the current problem, the seats at the ends are so far from the pitch, affecting the atmosphere and providing a poor view of the pitch.
 
Clicker said:
If you want a running track you have an oval shaped stadium which is a big part of the current problem, the seats at the ends are so far from the pitch, affecting the atmosphere and providing a poor view of the pitch.
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True.

However, if the tiers (2 or preferably 3) were steeper on the three sides (assuming the gradient of the South Stand was replicated throughout) the view and atmosphere issues would be significantly lessened.
 
instructor said:
It was rumoured that Rangers promoting of Ibrox to play internationals was one of the reasons for the government's withdrawal of funding, but is there any truth in this? Or were we scapegoated again?
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That I couldn't tell you. I only remember were were the bad guys and everyone and their dog shouting from the rooftops that Scotland/Glasgow had to have a neutral stadium. That being Hampden.
 
TCWNS1872 said:
True.

However, if the tiers (2 or preferably 3) were steeper on the three sides (assuming the gradient of the South Stand was replicated throughout) the view and atmosphere issues would be significantly lessened.
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I see where you’re coming from, is it not the case that the current North, West and East Stands are just seated terracing with a shallower gradient than a proper stand?
 
jigster said:
they should replicate the South stand over at the North stand then build rebuild the Mount florida and east stands into single tier ends accumulating to a 60,000-70,000 capacity ..............
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Would love this to happen but there being tenement flats in close proximity it might be a problem, not sure though
 
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