"UK and Ireland" Euro 2028 bid - Hampden Park

[Texas Pete]

6 minutes ago, scotlad said:

What they could do is put all five countries into a qualifying group, with the top two qualifying automatically. We could still have the Nations League thing going too, which might come into play for any side finishing outside the top two.

That's probably too easy though. In any case, I hope the Turkish bid succeeds.

Surely it would be better if there was a chance of all 5 qualifying? 

I have a feeling the Turkish bid might not last very long. Wasn’t there rumours of them pulling out only a couple of weeks ago. 

[Toepoke]

27 minutes ago, Texas Pete said:

I have a feeling the Turkish bid might not last very long. Wasn’t there rumours of them pulling out only a couple of weeks ago. 

After the devastation of the earthquake they have more important things the focus resources on. Better to concentrate on building homes that conform to the required standards than new football stadiums. 

 

[Clyde1998]

I'd be much happier if the English decided to bid on their own. They don't have any requirement to have the Celtic nations added on the bid, other than for political reasons.

England had nine stadiums in the shortlist, with Old Trafford, the Olympic Stadium and the Stadium of Light all missing out. Other stadiums which they could've used include Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday, Derby, Coventry, Nottingham Forest, Brighton and Southampton. Some of these grounds could benefit from some redevelopment and this would've been the perfect opportunity to do it.

I'd rather the SFA considered a joint bid with the Welsh and Irish, as opposed to tacking on to an English bid. We'd almost certainly have more than one stadium used.

1. Millennium Stadium, Cardiff (74,500)
2. Croke Park, Dublin (~70,000 seated)
3. Murrayfield, Edinburgh (67,144)
4. Celtic Park, Glasgow (60,411)
5. Hampden Park, Glasgow (51,866)
6. Aviva Stadium, Dublin (51,700)
7. Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow (50,817)
8. Cardiff City Stadium (33,316)
9. New Aberdeen Stadium (~30,000 for the tournament, could be lowered to ~20,000 permanently - see the London Olympic Stadium for what I mean)
10. New Dundee Stadium (~30,000 for the tournament, could be lowered to ~20,000 permanently)
11. Swansea Stadium (Would need expanding from 21,088)
12. Easter Road, Edinburgh (Would need expanding from 20,421)
13. Racecourse Ground, Wrexham (Would need expanding from 15,500)

Ireland additionally has multiple GAA and Rugby stadia with capacities around 30,000, which could be redeveloped to host matches. Some of the smaller grounds in Wales could also be redeveloped with some temporarily given capacities of ~30,000 - Llanelli, Newport, etc.

Of course the big issue would be whether the funding would be coming from for the redevelopments - this is almost certainly why the SFA are willing to jump on to an English bid (funding to redevelop Hampden) - and having too many stadia in Glasgow. The latter point could be alleviated by ensuring one two of the grounds are used at any one point of the tournament.

I think Turkey would make more sense, for various reasons, but I have a feeling the UK/Ireland bid will win it.

[Clyde1998]

5 hours ago, JECK said:

When are Italy and Spain going to get their acts together and host a tournament, feels like way overdue

I believe the Italians are focusing on Euro 2032, with basically all the stadia listed being either redeveloped or new. The fact they'll need to redevelop so many stadia is a major factor as to why they're looking at a later tournament.

I think the Spanish have a joint bid for the 2030 World Cup with Portugal and Morocco.

[mccaughey85]

Dont really like several countries hosting tournaments.

Either 1 or 2 and that should be it. Dont see the benefit of this either unless we get automatic qualification which surely cant be the case considering theres 5 countries.

[Caledonian Craig]

We did start down the road of a Celtic only bid but the funding just was not there to make it happen. In any case even if it had would we (Scotland) have been just as guilty as England for feeding crumbs to Ireland and Wales with us having 60% of the stadia? 

Clyde1998 your stadia list for potential Celtic bid would not have met criteria so you would need to have omitted one of the Glasgow stadiums as only two per city are permitted in such bids. Also you would run.into huge funding issues with regards increasing Aberdeen and Dundee's new stadia (even temporarily) to 30,000. Funding issues I'd guess that could not be overcome.

As others have said I am against these joint bids. For me they water down the whole experience of the tournament. There are more than enough countries across Europe capable of hosting the tournament alone such as Germany, England, Italy, France, Spain and Turkey so why not just rotate between those countries and if any otger country can improve theit stadia and meet the criteria then they can join the list?

[mccaughey85]

12 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

We did start down the road of a Celtic only bid but the funding just was not there to make it happen. In any case even if it had would we (Scotland) have been just as guilty as England for feeding crumbs to Ireland and Wales with us having 60% of the stadia? 

Clyde1998 your stadia list for potential Celtic bid would not have met criteria so you would need to have omitted one of the Glasgow stadiums as only two per city are permitted in such bids. Also you would run.into huge funding issues with regards increasing Aberdeen and Dundee's new stadia (even temporarily) to 30,000. Funding issues I'd guess that could not be overcome.

As others have said I am against these joint bids. For me they water down the whole experience of the tournament. There are more than enough countries across Europe capable of hosting the tournament alone such as Germany, England, Italy, France, Spain and Turkey so why not just rotate between those countries and if any otger country can improve theit stadia and meet the criteria then they can join the list?

Us having 60% isnt feeding crumbs tk the rest imo. If we provide 4 stadiums, ireland 3 and wales 2 or 3 then i doubt the welsh and irish would complain. Maybe even ireland could provide 4 themselves. 

[wanderer]

12 hours ago, JECK said:

That new stadium in Belfast has got to be a joke - 34k capacity and considered for a major tourney, aye good one 

30k is the minimum requirement for a Euro's.

Also that stadium is going to be more GAA, as they own it and have been looking to redevelop it since early 2000's after pulling out of the proposed stadium to be built on the site of the Maze Prison. 

[Caledonian Craig]

15 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

Us having 60% isnt feeding crumbs tk the rest imo. If we provide 4 stadiums, ireland 3 and wales 2 or 3 then i doubt the welsh and irish would complain. Maybe even ireland could provide 4 themselves. 

I was just using an analogy used by someone earlier saying England were feeding the rest crumbs (similarly structured) to Clyde1998's Celtic-bid proposal in terms of a Scottish heavy set of stadia.

To be fair though it is all immaterial as the money is just not there for a Celtic bid. It was proposed and talked about but not carried forward.

[wanderer]

7 hours ago, Clyde1998 said:

 

I'd rather the SFA considered a joint bid with the Welsh and Irish, as opposed to tacking on to an English bid. We'd almost certainly have more than one stadium used.

1. Millennium Stadium, Cardiff (74,500)
2. Croke Park, Dublin (~70,000 seated)
3. Murrayfield, Edinburgh (67,144)
4. Celtic Park, Glasgow (60,411)
5. Hampden Park, Glasgow (51,866)
6. Aviva Stadium, Dublin (51,700)
7. Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow (50,817)
8. Cardiff City Stadium (33,316)
9. New Aberdeen Stadium (~30,000 for the tournament, could be lowered to ~20,000 permanently - see the London Olympic Stadium for what I mean)
10. New Dundee Stadium (~30,000 for the tournament, could be lowered to ~20,000 permanently)
11. Swansea Stadium (Would need expanding from 21,088)
12. Easter Road, Edinburgh (Would need expanding from 20,421)
13. Racecourse Ground, Wrexham (Would need expanding from 15,500)

Ireland additionally has multiple GAA and Rugby stadia with capacities around 30,000, which could be redeveloped to host matches. Some of the smaller grounds in Wales could also be redeveloped with some temporarily given capacities of ~30,000 - Llanelli, Newport, etc.

Of course the big issue would be whether the funding would be coming from for the redevelopments - this is almost certainly why the SFA are willing to jump on to an English bid (funding to redevelop Hampden) - and having too many stadia in Glasgow. The latter point could be alleviated by ensuring one two of the grounds are used at any one point of the tournament.

Unfortunately Scotland does not have the infrastructure for hosting a tournament as big as the Euros.... Euro 2008 was our best and last chance of hosting it before they expanded the tournament to what it is now where half of Europe qualify.

Hotels are the main issue, as the central belt does not have the capacity for 5 big stadiums like that (meaning there will be up to 10 nations descending on Scotland all at once)... just look back at Cop20 when you could not get a hotel room anywhere between Largs and Haddington..... 

[mccaughey85]

23 minutes ago, wanderer said:

Unfortunately Scotland does not have the infrastructure for hosting a tournament as big as the Euros.... Euro 2008 was our best and last chance of hosting it before they expanded the tournament to what it is now where half of Europe qualify.

Hotels are the main issue, as the central belt does not have the capacity for 5 big stadiums like that (meaning there will be up to 10 nations descending on Scotland all at once)... just look back at Cop20 when you could not get a hotel room anywhere between Largs and Haddington..... 

Surely another joint bid with ireland could be feasible. 

[wanderer]

6 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

Surely another joint bid with ireland could be feasible. 

Unfortunately it would still be a issue.... if we were to bid, we would still have 3 stadiums within a 5-6 mile radius of each other, and Murrayfield just over 30 miles away....

When UEFA expanded the Euro's, their hope was clearly that they hoped going forward that Germany, England, Italy, France and Spain would just rotate it between each other from now on.

Nations like us and Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands, and Scandinavian countries are just not big enough to hold the Euros in its current format.

[The Black Bra]

It’s highly unlikely but there is always the possibility of the bid winning, then England failing to get out of the group, or getting knocked out earlier than expected after all the hype.

Happened a few years ago with the rugby World Cup, England hosted it and we’re out after losing the first 2 games.

Still remember the appalling attitude of their pundits when they lost to Iceland in 2016. Classic comedy.

[scotlad]

12 hours ago, Texas Pete said:

Surely it would be better if there was a chance of all 5 qualifying? 

I have a feeling the Turkish bid might not last very long. Wasn’t there rumours of them pulling out only a couple of weeks ago. 

I suppose it would for the teams in question, but would five teams qualifying automatically be acceptable?

I haven't heard anything about Turkey pulling out, although that's not to say it isn't a possibility.

[Texas Pete]

59 minutes ago, scotlad said:

I suppose it would for the teams in question, but would five teams qualifying automatically be acceptable?

I haven't heard anything about Turkey pulling out, although that's not to say it isn't a possibility.

I doubt it but I don’t see why England should qualify automatically on their own while the rest of us didn’t. It would hardly be a joint bid if that was the case. I didn’t mean the 5 of us should qualify automatically though. I just meant if the 5 teams were in the same group there could only be 2 qualifiers (possibly more through the playoffs).

I read something a couple of weeks ago which suggested Turkey wouldn’t submit their application but that was clearly nonsense. They could still pull out though which would mean ‘our’ bid would win by default. 

Edited April 13, 2023 by Texas Pete

[mccaughey85]

2 hours ago, Texas Pete said:

I doubt it but I don’t see why England should qualify automatically on their own while the rest of us didn’t. It would hardly be a joint bid if that was the case. I didn’t mean the 5 of us should qualify automatically though. I just meant if the 5 teams were in the same group there could only be 2 qualifiers (possibly more through the playoffs).

I read something a couple of weeks ago which suggested Turkey wouldn’t submit their application but that was clearly nonsense. They could still pull out though which would mean ‘our’ bid would win by default. 

Perhaps a home nations tournament could be played with the top 2 qualifying and the other three having to go through uefa qualifying like normal.

[Texas Pete]

1 hour ago, mccaughey85 said:

Perhaps a home nations tournament could be played with the top 2 qualifying and the other three having to go through uefa qualifying like normal.

Not sure if there would be time for that. 

[scotlad]

6 hours ago, Texas Pete said:

I doubt it but I don’t see why England should qualify automatically on their own while the rest of us didn’t. It would hardly be a joint bid if that was the case. I didn’t mean the 5 of us should qualify automatically though. I just meant if the 5 teams were in the same group there could only be 2 qualifiers (possibly more through the playoffs).

I read something a couple of weeks ago which suggested Turkey wouldn’t submit their application but that was clearly nonsense. They could still pull out though which would mean ‘our’ bid would win by default. 

I don't think England would qualify automatically (their press are just making the assumption that they'll be there regardless, in that charming, self-confident way of theirs).

[Bzzzz]

On 4/13/2023 at 8:51 AM, wanderer said:

Unfortunately it would still be a issue.... if we were to bid, we would still have 3 stadiums within a 5-6 mile radius of each other, and Murrayfield just over 30 miles away....

When UEFA expanded the Euro's, their hope was clearly that they hoped going forward that Germany, England, Italy, France and Spain would just rotate it between each other from now on.

Nations like us and Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands, and Scandinavian countries are just not big enough to hold the Euros in its current format.

As usual, it's all about the money and unfortunately can't see that changing anytime soon. 

Really underwhelmed by this, aye it's "nice" to see a game or two at hame but there's no magic to a tournament controlled by and revolving around the English and their toe curling media. Much rather travel to Turkey, or any other country in Europe tbh. 

Edited April 14, 2023 by Bzzzz

[slasher]

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 😉

[Toepoke]

11 hours ago, 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 😉

A national stadium miles from a major city that over 90% of the crowd have to reach by road. Are there any similar examples elsewhere in the world?

[slasher]

30 minutes ago, Toepoke said:

A national stadium miles from a major city that over 90% of the crowd have to reach by road. Are there any similar examples elsewhere in the world?

Transport links aren’t exactly Hampdens strong suit are they? 
Anyway we missed the boat on a new stadium in the Thatcher years. We’re going to just keep in tarting up Hampden and having the same issues on repeat.

[Caledonian Craig]

3 hours ago, slasher said:

Transport links aren’t exactly Hampdens strong suit are they? 
Anyway we missed the boat on a new stadium in the Thatcher years. We’re going to just keep in tarting up Hampden and having the same issues on repeat.

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.

Edited April 15, 2023 by Caledonian Craig

[Toepoke]

3 hours ago, slasher said:

Transport links aren’t exactly Hampdens strong suit are they? 
 

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

 

[Toepoke]

53 minutes 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.

Can't see enough funds being available for a major rebuild. 

Possibly the most feasible way to raise capacity would be for the East and West stands to be converted to terracing (everyone stands there anyway).