DizzyVizion Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 4 minutes ago, Texas Pete said: There was nowhere near 28,000 there. Official attendance was just over 20,000 which will be the number of tickets sold. I reckon there was about 18,000 there although admittedly it is hard to tell and that is just my opinion. The SFA’s policy appears to be to play all qualifiers and glamour friendlies at Hampden but to move friendlies against run of the mill teams round the country (even the Netherlands game wasn’t at Hampden). Why was this one any different? Big decision due this summer on the future of Hampden. I’m hoping they decide to stay and improve the stadium- to include improving the experience for less glamorous matches with smaller crowds. So maybe this was an intense fact-finding mission for the SFA, who knows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Pete Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 3 minutes ago, DizzyVizion said: Big decision due this summer on the future of Hampden. I’m hoping they decide to stay and improve the stadium- to include improving the experience for less glamorous matches with smaller crowds. So maybe this was an intense fact-finding mission for the SFA, who knows. Maybe. Could just be that having games in Aberdeen and Edinburgh was Regan’s policy I suppose. I would have preferred to see this game at Easter Road (even though I live in Glasgow) as it was probably the worst atmosphere I’ve ever experienced at a football match. Hindsight is always 20/20 though. I suppose we could have sold 25,000 tickets and the SFA’s decision would have been justified. Personally I was a wee bit surprised that the official attendance was so high. Definitely a bit of home harvesting going on I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DizzyVizion Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 (edited) I wouldn’t complain if all Scotland games were played at Hampden (I’m from Edinburgh). A Scotland game at a sparsely attended Hampden isn’t as bad as people make out. Attending a Scotland home match for someone not familiar with doing so, it would be far more special for them to attend Hampden than say Easter Road or Tynecastle or Pittodrie. Hampden and the Scotland national team go hand-in-hand. For all the negative press, Hampden is still a very special place indeed! It’s science. Edited March 25, 2018 by DizzyVizion Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toepoke Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 8 minutes ago, Texas Pete said: His point may stand in that he is entitled to his opinion but most other friendlies against teams that are not full of superstars (including the Netherlands) are moved round the country. What’s the point in playing at a 40% full stadium in a terrible atmosphere when you could have a full house in Edinburgh or Aberdeen? It also gives people from those cities the chance to go to a Scotland match without traveling to Glasgow. I have a feeling the SFA predicted a crowd of around 30,000 due to it being McLeish’s first game in charge. Shows how out of touch they are. Not sure about your first point, looking back over the past decade most of our friendlies have been in Glasgow. Which makes sense as the bulk of our support live in west / central Scotland. As I mentioned above moving a friendly to the likes of Easter Road does not result in the same size of crowd. That said I am in favour of moving games particularly to Aberdeen as fans from the north east put in a lot of miles to follow us. The atmosphere on Friday would've been fine if the team put in a more exciting performance but that's for another thread... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Pete Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 1 minute ago, DizzyVizion said: I wouldn’t complain if all Scotland games were played at Hampden (I’m from Edinburgh). A Scotland game at a sparsely attended Hampden isn’t as bad as people make out. Attending a Scotland home match for someone not familiar with doing so, it would be far more special for them to attend Hampden than say Easter Road or Tynecastle or Pittodrie. Hampden and the Scotland national team go hand-in-hand. For all the negative press, Hampden is still a very special place indeed! Its science. If the was the SFA’s policy then I don’t think many people would complain. I doubt anyone who was at Hampden on Friday night would have thought it was anything special though unless they don’t get out much. I just reckon it would have made more sense to play it in Edinburgh. I’m not exactly up in arms about it though. If they choose to play all Scotland games at Hampden from now on the I could live with it. If the SFA buys Hampden then I have a feeling we will play all out games there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DizzyVizion Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 1 minute ago, Toepoke said: Not sure about your first point, looking back over the past decade most of our friendlies have been in Glasgow. Which makes sense as the bulk of our support live in west / central Scotland. As I mentioned above moving a friendly to the likes of Easter Road does not result in the same size of crowd. That said I am in favour of moving games particularly to Aberdeen as fans from the north east put in a lot of miles to follow us. The atmosphere on Friday would've been fine if the team put in a more exciting performance but that's for another thread... The performance wasn’t great, and that affected the atmosphere no doubt about that. I understand the reasons why the performance wasn’t great (it wasn’t terrible either btw). This was a cold Friday night with a new set-up playing a friendly against Costa Rica. It was never going to be an all-or-nothing performance and it was never going to be well attended. Necessary evils in our quest. Just remember that we are playing the long game - not looking for a short term high. Loads of development on and off field happening and everyone agrees it’s desperately needed. Extremely happy the crap cricket cock Regan is gone. Honestly, f’kin cricket man in charge of Scottish football - what did you expect to happen? Winning the World Cup? First team on Mars? Jeez! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DizzyVizion Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 13 minutes ago, Texas Pete said: If the was the SFA’s policy then I don’t think many people would complain. I doubt anyone who was at Hampden on Friday night would have thought it was anything special though unless they don’t get out much. I just reckon it would have made more sense to play it in Edinburgh. I’m not exactly up in arms about it though. If they choose to play all Scotland games at Hampden from now on the I could live with it. If the SFA buys Hampden then I have a feeling we will play all out games there. Those kids in the east stand on Friday probably loved being at Hampden. Bless them - they done some good for the atmosphere! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Pete Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 7 minutes ago, Toepoke said: Not sure about your first point, looking back over the past decade most of our friendlies have been in Glasgow. Which makes sense as the bulk of our support live in west / central Scotland. As I mentioned above moving a friendly to the likes of Easter Road does not result in the same size of crowd. That said I am in favour of moving games particularly to Aberdeen as fans from the north east put in a lot of miles to follow us. The atmosphere on Friday would've been fine if the team put in a more exciting performance but that's for another thread... 6 out of our last 9 home friendlies have been away from Hampden so that’s hardly most. One of them was England at Celtic Park though so 5 of our last 9 home friendlies (not including Costa Rica) were not in Glasgow. Of the four friendlies played in Glasgow, one was England which could not have been played anywhere else, one was Northern Ireland which was understandably played in Glasgow. They brought a good crowd with them if I remember. The other two were the USA (over 21,000 were there) and Denmark (around 18,000 I think). England, USA and NI were correctly played in Glasgow in my opinion. Denmark could have been moved. The four friendlies in Glasgow were all against teams we could have expected a decent crowd against and who would bring a decent traveling support. Would you put Costa Rica into that category? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Pete Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 6 minutes ago, DizzyVizion said: Those kids in the east stand on Friday probably loved being at Hampden. Bless them - they done some good for the atmosphere! I wasn’t in the east stand so I didn’t see them. I’m sure they would also have loved it at Easter Road though. Or at least the Edinburgh school kids would have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DizzyVizion Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 2 minutes ago, Texas Pete said: I wasn’t in the east stand so I didn’t see them. I’m sure they would also have loved it at Easter Road though. Or at least the Edinburgh school kids would have. I was in the south stand which was particularly quiet - worst I’ve seen it at Hampden so far. Sure, the kids would have enjoyed the game no matter where it was - but they have now been to a Scotland game at Hampden which they get more street cred for than saying they’ve been to a Scotland game at Easter Road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Pete Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 16 minutes ago, DizzyVizion said: I was in the south stand which was particularly quiet - worst I’ve seen it at Hampden so far. Sure, the kids would have enjoyed the game no matter where it was - but they have now been to a Scotland game at Hampden which they get more street cred for than saying they’ve been to a Scotland game at Easter Road. Sadly I think the days of going to Scotland games attracting any sort of street cred are long gone but I do take your point. Hampden is a special place with an incredible history. I doubt most kids would appreciate that though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toepoke Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 33 minutes ago, Texas Pete said: 6 out of our last 9 home friendlies have been away from Hampden so that’s hardly most. One of them was England at Celtic Park though so 5 of our last 9 home friendlies (not including Costa Rica) were not in Glasgow. Don't want to get deep into hair splitting but I did say most home friendlies over the past decade were played in Glasgow. A quick look back shows that's 9 out of 16 games. Fair enough Costa Rica (as decent a team as they are) don't have much prestige, but there's more to selecting a venue for an international than the expected attendance. As I alluded to earlier Hampden is Scotland's only 4 star stadium with the best facilities for international football players and officials. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Pete Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 3 minutes ago, Toepoke said: Don't want to get deep into hair splitting but I did say most home friendlies over the past decade were played in Glasgow. A quick look back shows that's 9 out of 16 games. Fair enough Costa Rica (as decent a team as they are) don't have much prestige, but there's more to selecting a venue for an international than the expected attendance. As I alluded to earlier Hampden is Scotland's only 4 star stadium with the best facilities for international football players and officials. Fair point but the reason I only went back to 2010 was our attendances have fallen off a cliff since then (except huge games obviously). In 2008 we hadn’t gone through the Burley and Levein years and qualifying for tournaments was still relatively fresh in the memory. We had over 30,000 for Argentina and 28,000 or so for Croatia and the Czechs so those games were rightly played at Hampden. What sort of crowd would we get at Hampden for a friendly against the Czech Republic now? Around 15,000- 20,000 I would suspect depending on the day/time of year and weather etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotland Ever More Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 Can't say I had any problems myself to be honest. Arrived at the west stabd about 7.35 and was in on time for both anthems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
euan2020 Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 (edited) 2 hours ago, Toepoke said: Not sure about your first point, looking back over the past decade most of our friendlies have been in Glasgow. Which makes sense as the bulk of our support live in west / central Scotland. As I mentioned above moving a friendly to the likes of Easter Road does not result in the same size of crowd. That said I am in favour of moving games particularly to Aberdeen as fans from the north east put in a lot of miles to follow us. The atmosphere on Friday would've been fine if the team put in a more exciting performance but that's for another thread... is that not self perpetuating ? more people from glasgow, attend fa match in glasgow,, because they actually live in glasgow Edited March 25, 2018 by euan2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toepoke Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 16 minutes ago, euan2020 said: is that not self perpetuating ? more people from glasgow, attend fa match in glasgow,, because they actually live in glasgow Possibly so, but then the majority of people in Scotland live within an hour of Glasgow, so it's a reasonable assumption that most fans of the national team do too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Pete Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 9 minutes ago, Toepoke said: Possibly so, but then the majority of people in Scotland live within an hour of Glasgow, so it's a reasonable assumption that most fans of the national team do too. Ideally, all Scotland games should be played at Hampden but the atmosphere Friday’s game was pathetic. Yes, the first half performance wasn’t good which didn’t help but the atmosphere was flat from the start. The national anthem was dire and it was closer to a Queen’s Park game atmosphere than what you should get at an international. We should be taking advantage of other stadiums when the situation requires it. Even 12-13 thousand at Easter Road would have been better than a less than half full Hampden. I do appreciate that the extra tickets sold at Hampden would give the SFA a bit more money but I personally couldn’t give a shit about that. They’d only waste it on their Christmas party or something. Shower of idiots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mee Posted March 26, 2018 Share Posted March 26, 2018 17 hours ago, Texas Pete said: . We should be taking advantage of other stadiums when the situation requires it. Even 12-13 thousand at Easter Road would have been better than a less than half full Hampden. I can imagine the abuse the SFA would be taking on here if folk had just paid 50 quid for SSC membership and then couldn't get a ticket to a Costa Rica friendly cause it was sold out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
euan2020 Posted March 26, 2018 Share Posted March 26, 2018 18 hours ago, Toepoke said: Possibly so, but then the majority of people in Scotland live within an hour of Glasgow, so it's a reasonable assumption that most fans of the national team do too. I misread you - thought you said majority in Glasgow, rather than West/Central Scotland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceudmilefailte Posted March 26, 2018 Share Posted March 26, 2018 8 hours ago, Mee said: I can imagine the abuse the SFA would be taking on here if folk had just paid 50 quid for SSC membership and then couldn't get a ticket to a Costa Rica friendly cause it was sold out Spot on. There was no way they could guess the attendance with new travel club, players and management Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Pete Posted March 26, 2018 Share Posted March 26, 2018 9 hours ago, Mee said: I can imagine the abuse the SFA would be taking on here if folk had just paid 50 quid for SSC membership and then couldn't get a ticket to a Costa Rica friendly cause it was sold out Fair point but was that ever likely to happen? How many members are there so far? I’d be surprised if it was any more than 15,000. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exglasgowasc Posted March 28, 2018 Share Posted March 28, 2018 On 25 March 2018 at 11:06 AM, Toepoke said: That was a great turnout for a friendly and I do think we should play up there at least once a season, especially once the new stadium is complete. New stadium. Pie in the sky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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