Stadium and pitch investment

[NickMcG]

3 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

Just to confirm, you are "not 100% convinced" that your trip from wherever you stay in France (including a drive to the airport lasting over an hour and a flight lasting over an hour, plus whatever amount of time you have to arrive before the flight, plus the border control at the airport, plus the tram/bus into Edinburgh) is longer than the time to get from somewhere in south-west Edinburgh to Hampden Park?

The last train from Glasgow to Edinburgh is at 11:45pm, I am struggling to consider any scenario where you are not going to make it there from Hampden in that time.

Part of it is my circumstances. The airport isn't particularly far from my house and I have a car in France, but not in Scotland. In Scotland, I'm also not that far from the airport so I don't need to go into Edinburgh. But I am taking hand luggage so, while that means I can arrive later at the airport, I can't really take it to the game so I'm going to go to my family"s house in the suburbs and leave from there. It's served by public transport but it's right at the end of the bus line and my family's house isn't that near the bus stop.  

 

I'm not going to bet my house on it, though. Next time I do it, we'll see.

 

 

[lubo_blaha]

1 hour ago, microdave said:

If you go to Murrayfield, you just end up in a long queue at Haymarket with no other train station nearby. As someone pointed out, there are six stations within walking distance of Hampden. I always go to King's Park and I have never had to queue to get into the station and always get a seat on the train too. I've been doing that ever since the Iwelumo game in 2008.

Haymarket does have the huge advantage of being able to take you directly to just about anywhere in Scotland. Hampden may have several train stations within walking distance but that’s clearly not as helpful if they can only take you around of the city you’re already in.

Fwiw, I think the transport aspect is exaggerated. As others have said, I’m not aware of many 50,000 capacity stadiums where it’s easy to get everyone in and out. 

[Gordopolis]

7 hours ago, V.Aye.R said:

Before we try and rebuild the stadium, we could probably focus on why getting a pie is near impossible without missing the game at some point.

Pie drones! (Swiftly followed by brown sauce weilding drones)

Edited March 26 by Gordopolis

[lubo_blaha]

The usage of the Hampden pitch will probably be more than you would think if you add it all up.

5x Scotland men’s team

~3x Scotland women’s team

3x Scottish Cup

3x League Cup

3x Women’s Cup

~5x Youth/Amateur/Schools cup finals

~5x concerts every summer

 

[jagfox]

10 minutes ago, lubo_blaha said:

The usage of the Hampden pitch will probably be more than you would think if you add it all up.

5x Scotland men’s team

~3x Scotland women’s team

3x Scottish Cup

3x League Cup

3x Women’s Cup

~5x Youth/Amateur/Schools cup finals

~5x concerts every summer

 

Was coming on to comment that concerts at Hampden are pish too.

 

[RandomGuy.]

The view behind the goals at Murrayfield is worse than anything at Hampden, IMO.

[Jambomo]

2 hours ago, Arch Stanton said:

Don't be a dick. You know fine well where the nearest main station is.

I was genuinely not being a dick. The easiest stations for Glasgow Airport is the airport bus to either Central/Queen St. the bus is frequent and takes about 20 mins (traffic dependant) and those are definitely the best train options. Where else would you go to?

[pub car king]

That fucking country estate of space behind each goal is the worst part of it. What it needs is 2 high bank stands instead that are each about 6 foot from the grass. They could easily be attached to the main standto keep it enclosed. 

Is there any scope to dig down and put the pitch lower than it is now?  Which would also let you add seats to both stands along the sides of the pitch. 

How the f**k it maintains it uefa rating for european finals is beyond me the place is a fucking throw back. 

[lubo_blaha]

17 minutes ago, pub car king said:

That fucking country estate of space behind each goal is the worst part of it. What it needs is 2 high bank stands instead that are each about 6 foot from the grass. They could easily be attached to the main standto keep it enclosed. 

Is there any scope to dig down and put the pitch lower than it is now?  Which would also let you add seats to both stands along the sides of the pitch. 

How the f**k it maintains it uefa rating for european finals is beyond me the place is a fucking throw back. 

There’s a river running underneath the stadium which would probably prevent you digging deeper.

[Lurkst]

1 hour ago, pub car king said:

How the f**k it maintains it uefa rating for european finals is beyond me the place is a fucking throw back. 

Now too small for a Champions League final. 

The five star rating is due to the facilities in the South Stand. 

 

[Andy_K_97]

2 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

The view behind the goals at Murrayfield is worse than anything at Hampden, IMO.

Hard agree - have been to Murrayfield for two events, one was Oasis in 2009 and one was Hearts v Killie in 2017. I was in the back row of the lower tier in the north stand (behind the goals) and the front row of seats was miles away from the grass pitch, let alone the distance from the grass to the goal line. Maybe that's not such a big deal for the rugby, but it wasn't great. Hampden is by no means perfect, but give me a game of football there any day over a game of football at Murrayfield.

[tamthebam]

I tend to avoid Hampden (unless it was a QP game- no traffic issues there) so yesterday was a rare outing to a Scotland game. I drove from Edinburgh, took a convoluted route and was able to park within 10 minutes walk from the ground. The 2pm kick off was handy as I wasn't in a hurry to get back home. Evening kick offs are more tricky, even for someone just 45 miles from the place let alone from Dundee or Aberdeen 

A new ground around Falkirk/Stirling would probably have seen me stuck in a car park for 40 minutes waiting for the traffic to dissipate. Ibrox has fairly good transport links but I've been stuck in Rangers traffic on the M8 before (can't remember where I'd been but it wasn't a case of Big Team found btw).

 

[latapythelegend]

21 hours ago, Donathan said:

Is there another European country which has a permanent national stadium that’s not in the capital?

 

The likes of Spain, Germany and Italy take games around the country whilst England, France, Wales and many others have a permanent stadium, but always in the capital.

 

Flatten it and play the games at Murrayfield. 

What benefit does Murrayfield have? Views are marginally better at best and you can stand for an hour waiting for a tram as well as a train? 

[Donathan]

37 minutes ago, latapythelegend said:

What benefit does Murrayfield have? Views are marginally better at best and you can stand for an hour waiting for a tram as well as a train? 

Bigger capacity and it’s actually in the national capital. 
 

 

Of course the best solution of all would be to bulldoze both Hampden and Murrayfield and build a 90,000 capacity genuine national stadium somewhere on the outskirts of Edinburgh. I’d suggest somewhere just North/West of the airport so with the tram line being extended accordingly.

 

 

Edited March 27 by Donathan

[eez-eh]

Glasgow is the biggest city and has a far richer footballing history than Edinburgh.

But lets ignore all that because of where the Scottish Government is located.

[craigkillie]

The capital such an aribtrary thing to think is important here, why is it relevant to where a sports stadium is?

[Donathan]

3 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

The capital such an aribtrary thing to think is important here, why is it relevant to where a sports stadium is?

Across UEFA’s 55 member nations, some have a national stadium (e.g., France, Norway, Denmark, England, Wales, Scotland, Austria), whereas others like Spain/Italy/Germany travel around the different club ground.

 

 

The key point though is that countries which do use a national stadium, it’s nearly always located in the capital. The only counterexample I can find (apart from Hampden) is Malta who play in Ta’Qali rather than Valletta.

 

 

[gannonball]

14 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

The view behind the goals at Murrayfield is worse than anything at Hampden, IMO.

Would have to disagree. Its not ideal for football but at least the pitch is lower and gradient steeper.

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

59 minutes ago, Donathan said:

Bigger capacity and it’s actually in the national capital. 
 

 

Of course the best solution of all would be to bulldoze both Hampden and Murrayfield and build a 90,000 capacity genuine national stadium somewhere on the outskirts of Edinburgh. I’d suggest somewhere just North/West of the airport so with the tram line being extended accordingly.

 

 

Aye in some ways its odd to not have it in the capital, in a normal country. But then i think theres an argument that Edinburgh is a hotbed of no voters who denied their own city the right to be a proper capital by wetting the bed in 2014. Now people can argue about the separation of football and politics all they want, but I disagree, the two are linked. Historically Glasgow is the birthplace of international football, its the working class capital of Scotland, its where our football has always been centred so who is anyone to change that without a genuinely compelling reason.

Could there be improvements, absolutely, attended on saturday for my sons first ever visit and its clear the place is a mess, turnstiles in the East stand were incredibly crowded, its impossible to walk around the ground properly at the East side too, which is a farce. The catering was a complete disgrace, queuing outside at the stalls and being knocked back by staff saying they didnt have any hot food, just drinks, going inside and being screamed at by catering staff to queue outside, telling them ‘we’ve just been outside and they told us they didnt have food’ then the staff being incredibly passive aggressive telling me that they didnt say that etc. basically 20 minutes to get a fucking pie that cost a fortune, £17 or something for 2 pies, 2 waters and a flat coke. On top of the £70 for tickets for a shite view. The costs of attending 1 game at Hampden would almost pay for a full season ticket at my club. Aye it was good to see a win, but the experience was pish. 

[PauloPerth]

I was in the lower tier for Hearts v Saints at Murrayfield 5 years ago or so when Tynecastle’s Main Stand being built.

As someone who’d previously felt Murrayfield would be ideal for big Scotland football internationals with it being square behind the goals etc, I was shocked at how poor an experience it was.  You are miles back behind the goals with a dreadful view of the far end and the facilities in the ground are very limited.

Its location near a major rail station and near lots of bars and restaurants is better, put purely on stadium alone it offers little improvement over Hampden.