Was that Hampden's last hurrah?

[kenny131]

4 minutes ago, Lurkst said:

Heard their spokesman on the radio this morning, he sounds like an Englishman. Are there no Scots capable of running our football organisations?

The issue is there's been little or no investment in sport across the board in scotland for decades so no fecker is interested anymore. If sky stopped paying the SFA 50 odd million every 3/4 years to show our games then it's pull the shutters down.

[Gordopolis]

2 hours ago, Armand 2 said:

Fergus McCann calling it correctly again.

I agree with a lot of what he says but the last part - demolishing all but the south stand and using it as an athletics venue and offices for the SFA - sounds awful. Can you imagine future generations asking what the husk that remained of Hampden is/was? "Oh it was our national stadium, but we bulldozed it to save some money."

Especially when the other home nations have and presumably will continue to use modern, impressive national stadiums.

New, fit-for-purpose stadium please.

[SpoonTon]

4 hours ago, Armand 2 said:

Fergus McCann calling it correctly again.

Celtic Park has never been the finest stadium in the UK. 

[banana]

2 hours ago, kenny131 said:

The issue is there's been little or no investment in sport across the board in scotland for decades so no fecker is interested anymore. If sky stopped paying the SFA 50 odd million every 3/4 years to show our games then it's pull the shutters down.

Not while the North Koreans have a say in it.

[HibeeJibee]

McCann makes much of how much was "given" to Queen's Park to rebuild it, but doesn't mention it's been leased to SFA since with them making all the profits and avoiding extra rentals.

His comparison of renting other grounds going forward to the cost of rebuilding it in the 1990s is also redundant - that's history, it was rebuilt, that money has gone and can't be recovered.

Clearly the idea of demolishing everything except the Main Stand, turning it into an athletics stadium (?) and selling the rest of the land to the SFA for £1 is total fantasy.

He'd just as well have cut to the chase and said "move QP into Lesser Hampden, hand the land to the SFA, let them sell it on and use the money to pay Rangers and Celtic".

[Lurkst]

8 hours ago, Armand 2 said:

Fergus McCann calling it correctly again.

Really?

"Celtic Park soon became the largest and finest stadium in the UK"

[NathanQP]

Why would Queen’s Park sell Hampden for a pound, surely we have every right to get the most money out of Hampden as possible

[HibeeJibee]

It probably was the largest stadium in the UK apart from Wembley, Twickenham and Murrayfield for a brief spell.

Millennium Stadium opened in 1999 and Old Trafford was extended in 2000.

[Mick1867]

Can somebody tell me where Celtic would have played that season if the "mean spirited" Queen's Park committee hadn't agreed to groundshare that season with them?.. (for a small fee of course) 

[gannonball]

55 minutes ago, Mick1867 said:

Can somebody tell me where Celtic would have played that season if the "mean spirited" Queen's Park committee hadn't agreed to groundshare that season with them?.. (for a small fee of course) 

I'm guessing the CP rebuild would have been more phased, clause was a bit hunesque though tbh.

[Scary Bear]

That's correct though they resurfaced it a few years ago with astroturf, logos, and such like so isn't actually the 8-lane 100m straight now. I'm never sure what it was for... the New Year Sprint after it left Powderhall and before it went to Musselburgh?



For football purposes only the East stand - older, smaller one - hugs the pitch.

Murrayfield would be great for the football. The rugby is a much better experience as you can buy beer at the game, but I think football at Murrayfield would also be a winner.

The old terraced Hampden was great. The new Hampden is rubbish. Get rid.

[Worktheshaft]

Murrayfield would be great for the football. The rugby is a much better experience as you can buy beer at the game, but I think football at Murrayfield would also be a winner.

The old terraced Hampden was great. The new Hampden is rubbish. Get rid.

So you'd rather move to a bigger stadium with 3 stands miles from the football pitch than stay at one where at least 2 stands are close In?

[Mick1867]

13 hours ago, gannonball said:

I'm guessing the CP rebuild would have been more phased, clause was a bit hunesque though tbh.

So play at Parkhead with a vastly reduced capacity each season? Perhaps re-build a stand at a time over a few seasons? Was that even an option?

By all accounts McCann was a hard man to negotiate with right from the start ( which wasn't unexpected) He came in with some ridiculous demands. He seemed to forget that the club that owned the ground was still playing there every fortnight. He basically wanted to turn the inside of the place into Celtic Park for the season. Wanted the offices, hallways, boardroom, and other lounges in the old South Stand re-decorated in Celtic colours with Celtic memorabilia up on the walls etc. He even wanted some carpets -which had the QP club crest woven in - ripped up and replaced with green ones. QP said that was fine...as long as everything was back to normal for the next Queen's Park game ( so it obviously never happened)

The QP committee just got fed up with all his constant shite so started giving him some back.....and 22 years later he is still seething about it

He tried to play hardball over everything, including the rental fee , but his problem was he wasn't negotiating from a position of strength

[harry94]

35 minutes ago, Worktheshaft said:

 

So you'd rather move to a bigger stadium with 3 stands miles from the football pitch than stay at one where at least 2 stands are close In?
 

This. I'm not sure I'm really following the argument that has been put forward by many on here that Hampden is so bad watching football that Murrayfield (a stadium designed for a different sport and even further from the pitch) would be an improvement on that aspect. If you're in the equivalent of the north stand at Murrayfield, it's basically just an equivalence to the north stand at Hampden. I don't see how moving to a ground even further away from the pitch and then adding another 10k seats is suddenly going to bring any improvement to the atmosphere in games where we are even struggling to fill Hampden.

The only thing I can think of is maybe better matchday experience in getting to the ground and having a day in Edinburgh coming from the north but that would be exchanged with a nightmare for our west based supporters

In all honesty, the SFA should have been working with the SRU years ago so Hampden/Murrayfield could have been a joint project. Now, we're kind of at a precarious time where Hampden is actually still relatively new and I don't see any money coming from government that soon. The least bad option for me right now is to continue with Hampden but try and get some qualified people who are on the ball and able to make a good proposal the next time there is even the possibility of a single penny towards any sort of redevelopment.

The Fergus McCann piece trying to deconstruct the economic argument is absurd and a total misrepresentation of the facts as well. We pay pretty much nothing for it and diverting that money to the Old Firm doesn't improve the SFA's standing in any way. Fair enough if you don't like the stadium but the idea we'll save loads of money because Queen's Park have the audacity to try and negotiate certain terms is complete fantasy.

[Lurkst]

1 hour ago, Scary Bear said:

The old terraced Hampden was great. The new Hampden is rubbish. Get rid.

 

 

It's pretty much the same stadium, in fact it's greatly improved as it's completely covered.  Everybody still stands too!

 

[HibeeJibee]

Incidentally how can the views outwith the South Stand be much worse than before?

In the sections where people stand they're surely exactly the same as previously (perhaps even a few inches higher due to reconcreting).

In the sections where people sit they're the same except every respective head is a couple of feet lower.

[Honest_Man#1]

I think the people saying old Hampden was so much better are just nostalgic. That and the fact that they would let far larger crowds in so the atmosphere would undoubtedly have been better, but that's irrelevant now as no stadium allows for that.

[Ross.]

The main point that McCann raises is entirely correct, Hampden as it is now was a horrendous example of how to use money and showed a great deal of contempt for the average football fan given next to f*ck all was spent on the majority of it and a huge majority of the cash was spent on the area that would see the bigwigs and money men congregate.

FWIW I still don't see how we cannot redevelop the ends behind both goals. Hampden appears to generate a lot of revenue and seems to operate at a profit. Who cares if we have to do it one end at a time, as long as we get it right. F*ck athletics and other sports, it's a football stadium so remodel it thinking only about football. Square off the ends and increase capacity as a minimum and if anything can be done with the north stand it's a bonus. The only real issue I see is structural and whether or not it would be easy to integrate the north and south stands with any redevelopment of each end.

Edited December 13, 2017 by Ross.

[gannonball]

5 hours ago, Mick1867 said:

So play at Parkhead with a vastly reduced capacity each season? Perhaps re-build a stand at a time over a few seasons? Was that even an option?

By all accounts McCann was a hard man to negotiate with right from the start ( which wasn't unexpected) He came in with some ridiculous demands. He seemed to forget that the club that owned the ground was still playing there every fortnight. He basically wanted to turn the inside of the place into Celtic Park for the season. Wanted the offices, hallways, boardroom, and other lounges in the old South Stand re-decorated in Celtic colours with Celtic memorabilia up on the walls etc. He even wanted some carpets -which had the QP club crest woven in - ripped up and replaced with green ones. QP said that was fine...as long as everything was back to normal for the next Queen's Park game ( so it obviously never happened)

The QP committee just got fed up with all his constant shite so started giving him some back.....and 22 years later he is still seething about it

He tried to play hardball over everything, including the rental fee , but his problem was he wasn't negotiating from a position of strength

Yeah thats whats happened here  I dont think even you believe that tbh.

At the end of the day QP where in a position of strength as the other option would have meant a significant loss of revenue for us. They had every right to f*ck off demands but lets not pretend the rejection of the flag was to piss McCann off given that he wasnt exactly fussed about the whole irish history himself.

 

[Scary Bear]

So you'd rather move to a bigger stadium with 3 stands miles from the football pitch than stay at one where at least 2 stands are close In?

Yes. I’ve been for the rugby and the view is excellent from every seat. It holds 68,000 and the atmosphere will be great. It has decent enough transport links too.