"UK and Ireland" Euro 2028 bid - Hampden Park

[Shaundy]

Yeah . It’s fiscally, geographically, etc , etc for the city with all the club and national attendance records in Europe to possibly match the likes of Wales and Ireland much less London. 
too wee etc etc . 

[slasher]

8 hours ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Hampden just needs the stands reconfiguring to raise the attendance to around 60,000 by bringing in the stands closer to the pitch behind both goals. Its frustrating that our national football stadium is smaller capacity-wise than the Millennium Stadium in Wales by some way. We are now selling out quite regularly so there is a demand to be met and I am sure a 60,000 Hampden would rock and be filled for domestic cup finals.

What you are talking about would cost pretty much the same as building a new stadium and you would need years of renting Celtic Park and Ibrox to accommodate the work.

 

7 hours ago, Toepoke said:

It could be better but it's still literally a mile from the M74 and there are several train stations within a short walk.

 

It could be better is a politicians way of saying it couldn’t be any worse.

It took me 2 fuckin hours to get home to the shire after the Spain game.

Any new build would factor in proper transport links in a normal country. Problem is we’re far from normal in so many ways and in this case not in a good way!

Edited April 15, 2023 by slasher

[mccaughey85]

13 hours ago, slasher said:

What you are talking about would cost pretty much the same as building a new stadium and you would need years of renting Celtic Park and Ibrox to accommodate the work.

 

It could be better is a politicians way of saying it couldn’t be any worse.

It took me 2 fuckin hours to get home to the shire after the Spain game.

Any new build would factor in proper transport links in a normal country. Problem is we’re far from normal in so many ways and in this case not in a good way!

What other transport links would be feasible with hampden that arent already there. 

Theres a train station next to it, its next to the main roads that buses travel into the city centre where you can get a train or bus to where ever you want. Theres a motorway nearby. 

Not sure what ppl expect when it comes to hampden. What kind of transport links are there to the other stadiums in the uk that are better. 

Would it not be better taking the train down to ayrshire for scotland games?

Does the mount florida train station routes head down that way? 

[Toepoke]

7 hours ago, mccaughey85 said:

Does the mount florida train station routes head down that way? 

The Mount Florida line only goes as far as Neilston. 

If you walk to Crossmyloof you can get the Kilmarnock train.

 

[Diamond Scot]

There are several things that could be easiliy be done to improve transport for Hampden however the problem in Scotland is that all the privatisation and lack of forward thinking.

My nephew is just back from Switzerland and couldnt believe that when he arrived at the airport he could just buy a travel ticket which covered 2 different types of train, a bus and a ferry. In Scotland that would be 4 different tickets.

There are 3 train stations within 5 mins walk of Hampden. They could have each station doing express trains to one 3 different destinations. Ie Central station, Neilson and somewhere in another direction. If that was also done pre match then buses / supporters could park and ride.

The main issue with Hampden is that it becomes grinlocked because its a built up area. Remove the need for as much traffic and it eases the problem. 

[Judith]

As stated above. The problem with Hampdens transport links isnt Hampden, its who runs the transport.

Back in the 80s we used to regularly have much bigger crowds and it didnt take anywhere near as long to get back into town.

The football specials ran one after another until the crowd was gone.

Never once missed the last train home from Central and most games were 8pm kick offs on a Wednesday night.

And dont even start on the buses. I stood on Victoria Road for 40 mins after the Cyprus game and still ended up walking back into town. our public (private) transport is a joke.

Thats not Hampdens fault.

Edited April 17, 2023 by Judith

[Judith]

Id also add, that anyone thinking about moving the national stadium away from Hampden, really beed to get themselves to the museum. Hampdens place in international football history is something that should be cherished, and the main reason we should never move away from the current site. It needs to be recognised as a place of worldwide sporting significance and invested in accordingly. An independent country would ve able to raise the revenues as well as look after their sick and elderly.

[Malcolm]

On 4/15/2023 at 11:00 PM, slasher said:

What you are talking about would cost pretty much the same as building a new stadium and you would need years of renting Celtic Park and Ibrox to accommodate the work.

 

It could be better is a politicians way of saying it couldn’t be any worse.

It took me 2 fuckin hours to get home to the shire after the Spain game.

Any new build would factor in proper transport links in a normal country. Problem is we’re far from normal in so many ways and in this case not in a good way!

there are many ways to skin a cat.  You could reconfigure  the east and west stands in to terraces and cram in lots more people without rebuilding them.

othe countries have safe standing now and everyone stands anyway.

 

 

[Malcolm]

2 minutes ago, Judith said:

Id also add, that anyone thinking about moving the national stadium away from Hampden, really beed to get themselves to the museum. Hampdens place in international football history is something that should be cherished, and the main reason we should never move away from the current site. It needs to be recognised as a place of worldwide sporting significance and invested in accordingly. An independent country would ve able to raise the revenues as well as look after their sick and elderly.

agree, you take away hampden, you take away the memories and it’s just some guys running about an out of town, soul less stadium.  No more that was the goal that clemence was nut megged, that was the goal where mccoist scored for us to qualify for euro 96.

if we shut hampden no need to build another stadium, just use ibrox, murrayfield or parkhead.

Fix the real problem which is transport in Scotland .

[wanderer]

13 minutes ago, Malcolm said:

there are many ways to skin a cat.  You could reconfigure  the east and west stands in to terraces and cram in lots more people without rebuilding them.

othe countries have safe standing now and everyone stands anyway.

 

 

FIFA and UEFA do not allow safe standing for international games (both club and country.... Dortmund have to literally put all the seats back in place for Champions League games).

So until FIFA changes its rules on that, there is no need for them at Hampden.

[Malcolm]

1 minute ago, wanderer said:

FIFA and UEFA do not allow safe standing for international games (both club and country.... Dortmund have to literally put all the seats back in place for Champions League games).

So until FIFA changes its rules on that, there is no need for them at Hampden.

ah ok, didn’t realise that.

[wanderer]

On 4/15/2023 at 12:17 AM, slasher said:

Hampden should be razed to the ground and a new stadium built in Stirling or Perth in my opinion. This should be the the central plank of our bid 👍

Youre welcome 😉

No regional council in Scotland will give planning permission for a white elephant stadium that is bigger than the population of the town its being built near on a green field site.... and even if they did, the Scottish Government would most likely call it in and refuse it on the grounds that its a daft suggestion.

[Judith]

20 minutes ago, wanderer said:

FIFA and UEFA do not allow safe standing for international games (both club and country.... Dortmund have to literally put all the seats back in place for Champions League games).

So until FIFA changes its rules on that, there is no need for them at Hampden.

There is safe standing  at many of the modern stadia. Celtic Park, Old Trafford, Dortmund. Some are foldaway jobs that can be brought back out, others are just stancheons added to the back of seats to stop you falling over. As said above, the whole of the North Stand at Hampden stands for the entire 90 mins anyway so UEFA/FIFA just turn a blind eye which id absolutely fine by me. I dont think the days of the old terrace are returning, but Hampden could be imprived significantly by just sorting out behind the goals. Suttgart did a similar thing with their bowl.

 

Edited April 17, 2023 by Judith

[Caledonian Craig]

28 minutes ago, Malcolm said:

 

Fix the real problem which is transport in Scotland .

I agree with the essence of your post about the memories and history of the stadium definitely and about transport but the transport links are what they are. Hampden.is serviced by stations that all make up the Glasgow infrastructure designed totally to get around from one point in Glasgow with another. To change that would cost more than a total rebuild of Hampden Park and some more. An earlier poster made a good point saying stations in the immediate vicinty of Hampden should offer a direct route back to other major cities. Again it sounds simple and logical enough but you'd need to totally build new railway lines from scratch through densely populated communities - not possible structurally and certainly not financially.

[ceudmilefailte]

44 minutes ago, Judith said:

Id also add, that anyone thinking about moving the national stadium away from Hampden, really beed to get themselves to the museum. Hampdens place in international football history is something that should be cherished, and the main reason we should never move away from the current site. It needs to be recognised as a place of worldwide sporting significance and invested in accordingly. An independent country would ve able to raise the revenues as well as look after their sick and elderly.

You were doing great until the last statement.

[Caledonian Craig]

11 minutes ago, Judith said:

There is safe standing  at many of the modern stadia. Celtic Park, Old Trafford, Dortmund. Some are foldaway jobs that can be brought back out, others are just stancheons added to the back of seats to stop you falling over. As said above, the whole of the North Stand at Hampden stands for the entire 90 mins anyway so UEFA/FIFA just turn a blind eye which id absolutely fine by me. I dont think the days of the old terrace are returning, but Hampden could be imprived significantly by just sorting out behind the goals. Suttgart did a similar thing with their bowl.

 

To be hones the gist I got from Maxwell when talking about 'improvements' were more incremental and nothing of note structurally to the stadium as in extra seating and bringing fans closer to the pitch. It was more stuff like extra boxes and bars in the North Stand and that was about it.

[wanderer]

21 minutes ago, Judith said:

There is safe standing  at many of the modern stadia. Celtic Park, Old Trafford, Dortmund. Some are foldaway jobs that can be brought back out, others are just stancheons added to the back of seats to stop you falling over. As said above, the whole of the North Stand at Hampden stands for the entire 90 mins anyway so UEFA/FIFA just turn a blind eye which id absolutely fine by me. I dont think the days of the old terrace are returning, but Hampden could be imprived significantly by just sorting out behind the goals. Suttgart did a similar thing with their bowl.

 

Again, that is only for domestic games only.... for games in European Computations or National Teams, the seats would need to be placed in the "locked"position for the game.

So you are effectively adding these to Hampden, simply not to use them for 90% of the games that are played there (basically they would only be able to be fully used for the Scottish Cup and League Cup finals, and semi finals, not great value if you ask me).... also UEFA do not "turn a blind eye", as the SFA have had plenty of warnings from UEFA on the matter over the years.

Edited April 17, 2023 by wanderer

[wanderer]

13 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

To be hones the gist I got from Maxwell when talking about 'improvements' were more incremental and nothing of note structurally to the stadium as in extra seating and bringing fans closer to the pitch. It was more stuff like extra boxes and bars in the North Stand and that was about it.

Maxwell has spoken about this a number of times since the SFA purchased Hampden, and he has never went in to great detail on it (granted, Maxwell has always kept his cards close to his chest)... the suites in South Stand have recently had a major over haul, and you have the new disabled sections in the North Stand recently added, plus a new flood lights system and score board added.

I imagine any work he talks about will be more along the lines of this, rather than the builders actually moving in to make any major changes.

Edited April 17, 2023 by wanderer

[slasher]

So we’re keeping Hampden for the memories of what it used to be then? What about match day experience? What about transport links? What about generating a better atmosphere? 

1 hour ago, wanderer said:

No regional council in Scotland will give planning permission for a white elephant stadium that is bigger than the population of the town its being built near on a green field site.... and even if they did, the Scottish Government would most likely call it in and refuse it on the grounds that its a daft suggestion.

A national stadium would attract massive investment in infrastructure and associated retail. A national stadium that would attract some of the biggest names in football and music with huge crowds in attendance might be many things but a white elephant isn’t one of them. I’m old enough to remember the last time a move away from Hampden was mooted and local authorities were falling over themselves to say ‘build it here!’ It might be a daft idea but it’s certainly not a white elephant. 
As I said before we’re going to keep tinkering around the edges of this for years to come until it’s no longer viable. Sell it when land prices are at a premium and build anew somewhere else.

Edited April 17, 2023 by slasher

[ceudmilefailte]

1 hour ago, Malcolm said:

 

Fix the real problem which is transport in Scotland .

Lucky to get of the Islands half the time. Transport Systems in Scotland are are a disgrace and that's a goverment  responsibility not a Glasgow council on match day one or a Scotrail one.

Your right about Hampden it should bever be moved and if that was to be looked into it would be obvious to every one that using one of the large capacity stadiums we already have would make much more sense. 

Edited April 17, 2023 by ceudmilefailte

[wanderer]

34 minutes ago, slasher said:

So we’re keeping Hampden for the memories of what it used to be then? What about match day experience? What about transport links? What about generating a better atmosphere? 

A national stadium would attract massive investment in infrastructure and associated retail. A national stadium that would attract some of the biggest names in football and music with huge crowds in attendance might be many things but a white elephant isn’t one of them. I’m old enough to remember the last time a move away from Hampden was mooted and local authorities were falling over themselves to say ‘build it here!’ It might be a daft idea but it’s certainly not a white elephant. 
As I said before we’re going to keep tinkering around the edges of this for years to come until it’s no longer viable. Sell it when land prices are at a premium and build anew somewhere else.

Long time has passed since then, and there is now legislation about what can and can not be built on green field sites, so you can forget about Perth and Stirling (Historic Scotland would certainly have a thing or three to say about a eyesore in view of Stirling Castle) straight away.... if we are going to move to a purpose built new stadium, you are talking about somewhere like East Kilbride, or a brownfield site at somewhere like Robroyston or Mount Vernon.... not a prime real estate location. 

[Diamond Scot]

1 hour ago, Caledonian Craig said:

I agree with the essence of your post about the memories and history of the stadium definitely and about transport but the transport links are what they are. Hampden.is serviced by stations that all make up the Glasgow infrastructure designed totally to get around from one point in Glasgow with another. To change that would cost more than a total rebuild of Hampden Park and some more. An earlier poster made a good point saying stations in the immediate vicinty of Hampden should offer a direct route back to other major cities. Again it sounds simple and logical enough but you'd need to totally build new railway lines from scratch through densely populated communities - not possible structurally and certainly not financially.

I wasnt saying the trains would go direct to other major cities. My suggestion was for each station to run multiple express trains to a specific location where onward travel could be done. For example if everybody from the east could stop at Airdrie and get express trains in and then on way back do the opposite. Everybody from south or Ayr direction could stop somewhere else and do the same etc.

This problem is the congestion around the streets of Hampden and everybody wanting to go in different directions.

Stadium wise, the Stuggart redevelopment is the way forward but think it cost about 50 to 70 million and capacity stayed the same so only real benefit is fan experience which SFA likely wont care about.

[slasher]

8 minutes ago, wanderer said:

Long time has passed since then, and there is now legislation about what can and can not be built on green field sites, so you can forget about Perth and Stirling (Historic Scotland would certainly have a thing or three to say about a eyesore in view of Stirling Castle) straight away.... if we are going to move to a purpose built new stadium, you are talking about somewhere like East Kilbride, or a brownfield site at somewhere like Robroyston or Mount Vernon.... not a prime real estate location. 

I’m not bothered whether it’s on a brownfield site or not. What matters is it’s a top class stadium with top class transport links. Some people seem romantically attached to Hampden, I’m not. With this tinkering around the edges it’s never going to be better than average. We can and should look to do better…..but we won’t!

[wanderer]

26 minutes ago, Diamond Scot said:

I wasnt saying the trains would go direct to other major cities. My suggestion was for each station to run multiple express trains to a specific location where onward travel could be done. For example if everybody from the east could stop at Airdrie and get express trains in and then on way back do the opposite. Everybody from south or Ayr direction could stop somewhere else and do the same etc.

 

Problem is, with the exception of Newton (which would give you links to Larkhall and Lanark lines) the stations around Hampden are on a loop that do not really connect with anywhere.

You are either on the Cathcart Circle back to Central, or you go all the way to Neilston... there is no real hub points that you can do that (to connect Hampden to Ayrshire, you would need to find a way to integrate Crossmyloof in to the system, which would be both expensive and tricky to do).

Probably one of the best hopes for the future is the Clyde Metro Project getting passed, as there is plans for it to travel through the southside (how close to Hampden I am not sure, but there is certainly potential for a hub point at Aikenhead Rd.

Edited April 17, 2023 by wanderer

[wanderer]

5 minutes ago, slasher said:

I’m not bothered whether it’s on a brownfield site or not. What matters is it’s a top class stadium with top class transport links. Some people seem romantically attached to Hampden, I’m not. With this tinkering around the edges it’s never going to be better than average. We can and should look to do better…..but we won’t!

As I said to someone fairly recently on this subject, people will only come to figure out how good we actually have it at Hampden once its gone....

Its all very well have the transport links to make it easy.... its having a system in place that will see it properly run and fit for purpose (ie enough trains running to serve them).