£100m-plus to rebuild the Mack? Give Hampden a kick of the ball

The National Stadium means more to the majority than Glasgow School of Art so funding should be dished out fairly

GLASGOW School of Art has apparently moved six inches after that second fire wreaked such devastation across the iconic site.

However, it would take a seismic shift in the public opinion of Scottish football fans to ever consider it the city’s greatest cultural asset. Supporters of the beautiful game would do well to pay attention to the narrative that emerges in the coming months as the future of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh building goes on the line.

A cost so far north of £100 million it’s currently waving at us from Cape Wrath has been estimated to rebuild the art school and if a penny of public funding goes into it, the SFA should publicly stamp its feet.

The future of Hampden Park is currently on the line and the collective memories it has created since 1903 has forged a cultural monument of such a size it makes one of Muriel Gray’s beloved Munros resemble an anthill.

With respect to Muriel, Peter Capaldi, Robbie Coltrane, John Byrne and all the other alumni from the august institution, the last time yours truly heard anyone down the pub talking up a painter it was the quality of big Heggie’s work in papering two bedrooms and a kitchen recess.

Trust me on this, the Hotline won’t be given up any time soon to discussing the relative merits of Vincent van Gogh against Leonardo Da Vinci.

Frank Smith, Toryglen: “I can’t believe Brendan Rodgers is looking at the Italian renaissance plodder. It’s time the board spent our Champions League money on the Dutch post-impressionist, even if questions remain about his temperament.”

Hampden, we are constantly being told, lacks atmosphere and needs a rebuild to ensure it keeps pace with other leading stadia, although no one was complaining about the lack of noise when Leigh Griffiths popped in two peaches against England.

Critics will also point to the rebuild in the early 90s which cost £70m, almost £30m of which came from lottery grants and another £18m from exchequerfunded agencies such as Sportscotland.

Those of us who suspect the prospect of a move to Murrayfield has been a smokescreen all along could have our suspicions confirmed if the SFA is asked to hand back a significant chunk of that initial windfall. It would make a move along the M8 a no-go and confirm the belief that chatter over the past 12 months has really been about a power grab of the stadium by the SFA against Queen’s Park (long overdue, by the way).

It’s not out of the ordinary for construction works to be proposed two decades after the last development and a revamp of the east and west stands at the national stadium should certainly be taken into consideration.

The Scottish government invested £55m in the new Reid building at the School of Art and also promised at least £5m for its fire appeal after a blaze first ripped through the building four years ago.

It awarded the National Museum of Scotland £16m towards its £47m refurbishment cost in 2011 and if Nicola Sturgeon wants to showcase Scotland on a world stage our national sport remains the best avenue for promotion.

The position of Glasgow Council is more delicate, not least because they are struggling to put jotters in the hands of under-privileged schoolkids in the city’s most deprived areas. Contributing to a refurb of Hampden then becomes hard to justify.

But if they move to invest in a rebuild of the School of Art it will only heighten suspicion of an uppermiddle-class clique calling the shots across arts funding in Scotland.

Most of us wouldn’t know our Velazquez from our Vettrianos but we certainly cherish our Baxters, Bremners, Laws and the memory of decades of Hampden heroics.

Rennie Mackintosh was a genius but the Scots who work with a ball at their feet deserve as much support as those who hold a fine pencil in their hands.

The collective memories it has created since 1903 has formed a cultural monument