Hampden has had its time — let’s now think about some fresh options
FROM the outside looking in, everything looks pretty good for Hampden Park right now.
The old lady of Mount Florida will be a host venue for the not ridiculous at all European Championships in 2020 which is taking place, not in one or at the most two countries, but all across Europe from these islands to the historic football city Baku.
As always, UEFA are putting the ordinary supporters first by staging games thousands of miles away from one another.
The national stadium’s bosses will also find out soon whether their bids for the 2019 Europa League Final and Super Cup Final are successful. They also want to host the Women’s Champions League Final that same year.
When you add in the big Scottish Cup games, two semis and a final, England coming to town in June and vital World Cup qualifiers throughout the year, this is not bad going for an arena which has been about in one state or another since 1903.
But when you literally stand outside Hamden looking at it, as I did yesterday, what strikes you is that it’s, well, rubbish. Then you go inside and it doesn’t get any better, which we’ll get to in a bit.
Hampden does not look like a national football stadium; certainly not one known worldwide where some genuine iconic matches have taken place. It instead looks like a really big call centre. As you walk to the main stand from the Mount Florida end, you can see some fuzzy images on the first pillar. You have to get up really close to make out Jimmy Johnstone and Davie Cooper. It’s Denis Law and Kenny Dalglish next door. I think. There are no statues or plaques, no boasts about the 1960 European Cup Final (AKA the greatest football match of all time), Zinedine Zidane’s volley, Jim Baxter, Danny McGrain, Willie Miller and the rest. You will find them mentioned inside, and the Hampden museum is well worth a visit, but unlike so many other stadiums which I have been extremely fortunate to visit in this job, there seems a real lack of pride in what we are all about. Or at least were all about.
Go to Celtic Park now. Big Billy and the European Cup greets you, wee Jimmy is at the front stand along with Brother Walfrid and Mr Stein who did have the “Celtic End” named after him at Hampden many years ago. That tribute seems to have vanished.
Sure, Ibrox could do with some tarting up but that Archibald Leitch front stand is a thing of beauty. Sandy Jardine has a stand named after him and the John Greig statue, a tribute to the fallen 66, is simple, emotive and just right.
Go to England and even the smaller clubs have gates and stands bearing the names of past heroes. Statues are common place, as are memorial gardens. Every ground in Britain seems to have the names of stands written into the ground or walls.
And what about Hampden? The place where the roar of the crowd was as famous as the terraces themselves? It is dull outside and in.
The crowd is too far away. If you are unfortunate to be seated near the front you’ll get a crick in your neck from looking up at the big screen to see the action. It is just about functional. That is all. Something has to change.
The SFA are looking at other options. The lease with Queen’s Park, who remember own the stadium, runs out in 2020. The yearly rates are going to increase by £350,000, which might, above anything else, make up minds.
In short, Hampden has had its time. It’s sad but true. The redevelopment in 1999 had proven to be an expensive failure. They built a big stand with no heart and put seats on the terraces. Not for the first time, those in charge of our game had as much foresight as an especially gung-ho lemming. For me, there are three possibilities. They bulldoze Hampden and start all over again. Not going to happen. So therefore games get moved around, and those inside Murrayfield wouldn’t be impossible to deal with when it came to the bigger matches. Hampden is either too small or too big.
Or a brand new Scottish national stadium is built with the help of the Scottish and UK governments. It would have to be at least 60,000 seats, could host athletics, concerts as well as the football. The crowd would be right over the pitch instead of miles away to help with the atmosphere.
I like that last one. Surely there is enough lottery money about to help. Perhaps we shouldn’t pay for the upgrade of some palace which nobody gets to see, and instead put it to something we can all use and love.
And this time do it properly; because when all these foreign visitors make their way to G42 over the next few years, we are all going to be left embarrassed by having a dirty hoose.