Favourite quirks of Scottish stadiums.

[HibeeJibee]

21 minutes ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

Meadowbank had a capacity of around 5,000 doesn't it? I'm not sure if that means it's big or not. I do remember the ends being a but unusual though - doesn't the stand fan out slightly with the rows nearest the pitch being wider than the seats at the very back? And there might have been pillars at the very back unless I'm misremembering?

Capacity was 16,500 comprising 7,500 in the stand - 25% bigger than ER East Stand - plus 9,000 open benches.

Nowadays all the open seating has gone and although still fully seated the stand isn't allowed much beyond 5,000 for safety reasons (presumably unallocated seating etc.).

It is slightly tapered at both ends.

Edited September 7, 2016 by HibeeJibee

[CityDave]

The only two remaining pitch long covered standing areas left in the Scottish Leagues, one at Station Park, Forfar. The other at Borough Briggs, Elgin (below). Not sure which is the longest though. Prefer standing in the shed than sitting in the Main Stand. The Main Stand has very little leg room, certainly from an era when people were a lot shorter and thinner.

I don't think Borough Briggs has changed at all since Elgin City took the step up. So you want to revisit the 1980's then this is the place. Great place when its full and jumping, that shed is the place to be for the noise levels. Below Elgin City playing old rivals from the Highland League Buckie Thistle back in 2006 when there was a very strong Buckie team with a strong support.

 

 

Edited September 7, 2016 by CityDave

[CityDave]

Two pictures from the Roseburn Stand, Tynecastle as Hearts play Celtic in a league game. You can get a good idea of the steepness of the stand from that high up. Also for this game played on the 6th August 2006 it might have been the first time the home support shared the traditional away stand with the away support. Celtic's ticket allocation cut due to the demand for tickets from the Hearts supporters. Reading there that the Wheatfield Stand partially shown on the right of the second photo has an angle just under 34 degrees the maximum allowed.

[CityDave]

34 minutes ago, Hawkeye the Gnu said:

Good to see that the ref was on good terms with the goalie, if the pat on the back is anything to go by.

 

There were a few jokers and wind-up merchants in that City team back then.

[resk]

This was City playing Buchanhaven Hearts, an unusual game as the referee asked the City players to change tops at half time as they were too similar to Buchanhaven.

It's pretty bizarre that he allowed two teams, one wearing an all-red kit, and the other wearing all-.... um..... dark red, to kick off on a muddy park in the first place.

Great thread BTW. Especially love the auld aerial shots of Hampden with the packed terraces.

[GordonD]

11 hours ago, Zen Archer said:

Off topic.

The seating over the tunnel at Old Trafford can be raised hydraulically to allow Fergie's ego access to the pitch.

Fixed.

[TheScarf]

12 hours ago, CityDave said:

This was City playing Buchanhaven Hearts, an unusual game as the referee asked the City players to change tops at half time as they were too similar to Buchanhaven. I remember this game was played in awful conditions which made an already heavy pitch even worse. The date for that game was the 12th March 2011.

Unfortunately the Bucht Park is not permanent and the club have to find somewhere else to play as from next season, extremely difficult to find a suitable pitch in Inverness. I'll put some photos up from City games at the NMP later.

 

 

I was at that game.

[Mackie The Staggie]

11 hours ago, CityDave said:

Unfortunately the Bucht Park is not permanent and the club have to find somewhere else to play as from next season, extremely difficult to find a suitable pitch in Inverness. I'll put some photos up from City games at the NMP later.

Its a pity they don't have anywhere permanent to build upon, not 100% sure on this but didn't they miss out on promotion a couple of times due to not having the required stadium/pitch facilities?

Apart from the Bught and Northen Meeting Ground, there is only really one other place I can think of which is the parks in Culloden, but I know a fair number of those pitches are used by the Inverness District Leagues  so that would be an issue to work around.

[Sherrif John Bunnell]

I've noticed an ICT team of some sort (U20's?) training on the Meeting Park quite often in the morning recently, so maybe the cricket club are more open these days to football ruffians using their ground?

[CityDave]

The now called The Cheaper Insurance Direct Stadium home of Dumbarton photoed back in 2009 vs East Stirlingshire. The quirk factor has to be the castle overlooking the ground, not many football clubs can boast this. Not sure what to make of this ground itself, been there a few times before the houses were built nearby.

Had one of the strangest experiences at a football ground during a match there vs Stirling Albion 10 years ago when the Stadium fire alarm went off during the second half of the game and everyone had to evacuate the stand and move onto the pitch while and wait for the fire brigade to give the all clear, players, coaches, staff and supporters all on the pitch together. 15 minutes later we all returned to our places and the match continued.

 

[Malcolm Malcolm]

3 hours ago, CityDave said:

The now called The Cheaper Insurance Direct Stadium home of Dumbarton photoed back in 2009 vs East Stirlingshire. The quirk factor has to be the castle overlooking the ground, not many football clubs can boast this. Not sure what to make of this ground itself, been there a few times before the houses were built nearby.

Had one of the strangest experiences at a football ground during a match there vs Stirling Albion 10 years ago when the Stadium fire alarm went off during the second half of the game and everyone had to evacuate the stand and move onto the pitch while and wait for the fire brigade to give the all clear, players, coaches, staff and supporters all on the pitch together. 15 minutes later we all returned to our places and the match continued.

 

The pitch at this stadium is pretty uneven these days. It's also not as fun an away day as Boghead.

[Kennboy1978]

You can draw a straight line between Celtic Park, Shawfield and Hampden, not a lot of people know that.

You'd need some size of pencil though

[AyrshireTon]

Boghead could be a great away day. I remember us taking a good support through for the 1987 promotion clash and standing behind the goal with the larger terracing, then feeling a bit squashed when we changed ends at half time. Jimmy Boag "scored" the winner when the Sons keeper hit a clearance off his back and it rebounded over the line. He then ran to us like he'd scored a peach

[Hampden Diehard]

On 9/6/2016 at 19:15, Arch Stanton said:

AFAIK they come down when high winds are forecast for extra roof support.

My understanding is that the load on the roof at Parkhead was erroneously calculated before they added the skybox on, hence the addition of the supports which were, if I remember correctly, not in place when the stand opened.  

This tallies in quite nicely with the "soft touch" that Parkhead received from the building control people at Glasgow District Council, as I think it was then, compared to Hampden when both were extensively rebuilt around the turn of the last century.  Apart from allowing Celtic to extend their stand over a cemetery and having what was the most crushing exit I ever encountered behind that stand (since closed), the away section in the corner requires you to queue for a pie by standing on exit stairs.  With the toilets being located directly beside the pie stall, those using either have to battle for position on the stairs as well as negotiate the stairs with those queuing.

I knew a brickie who worked on the new stand at Parkhead and he was appalled at what they were allowed to get away with.  I was a bit closer involved with QP then when the new South Stand was being built, and the difference in attitude of the Council to Hampden compared to what was fairly common knowledge at what was happening at Parkhead was marked.

For instance, the capacity of Hampden for health and safety was increased to count the capacity of the hospitality lounges....when people were obviously either in their seats or in the lounges.  This resulted in major works to extend the width of doors to allow for these ghost punters to leave.  Additionally, the wooden frames of the photos on the wall in Hampden corridors were deemed to be a fire hazard and had to be replaced.  QPFC were raging that Celtic seemed to get away with so much, yet QP were tripping over building control guys every time they opened a door. 

No one can convince me that the overhang or the exits re the stand opposite the main stand at Parkhead or the situation with the away end stairs would be tolerated elsewhere.

[Davie Bhoy]

My understanding is that the load on the roof at Parkhead was erroneously calculated before they added the skybox on, hence the addition of the supports which were, if I remember correctly, not in place when the stand opened.  

This tallies in quite nicely with the "soft touch" that Parkhead received from the building control people at Glasgow District Council, as I think it was then, compared to Hampden when both were extensively rebuilt around the turn of the last century.  Apart from allowing Celtic to extend their stand over a cemetery and having what was the most crushing exit I ever encountered behind that stand (since closed), the away section in the corner requires you to queue for a pie by standing on exit stairs.  With the toilets being located directly beside the pie stall, those using either have to battle for position on the stairs as well as negotiate the stairs with those queuing.

I knew a brickie who worked on the new stand at Parkhead and he was appalled at what they were allowed to get away with.  I was a bit closer involved with QP then when the new South Stand was being built, and the difference in attitude of the Council to Hampden compared to what was fairly common knowledge at what was happening at Parkhead was marked.

For instance, the capacity of Hampden for health and safety was increased to count the capacity of the hospitality lounges....when people were obviously either in their seats or in the lounges.  This resulted in major works to extend the width of doors to allow for these ghost punters to leave.  Additionally, the wooden frames of the photos on the wall in Hampden corridors were deemed to be a fire hazard and had to be replaced.  QPFC were raging that Celtic seemed to get away with so much, yet QP were tripping over building control guys every time they opened a door. 

No one can convince me that the overhang or the exits re the stand opposite the main stand at Parkhead or the situation with the away end stairs would be tolerated elsewhere.

I disagree with the overhang part. What 'soft touch' did we get with regards to that? We paid for the airspace above the cemetery and built over it. Not uncommon in the construction trade.

I also sit in that stand in the upper tier, just a few rows in front of the pillars & I've never felt the exits were crushing. It seems to work ok on matchdays & there is never an issue.

As for the pie stall queue in that corner. Can only recall being in there a couple of seasons back for a one-off game in the cup when the upper tier was closed and I don't remember people queuing up & standing on exit stairs on that occassion. Was it a Scotland game or a Celtic game you were at? Maybe different fans naturally didn't really know the way the queue normally snakes & it ended up like that. Although sometimes on rare occasions the queues at Celtic games in my own section can go differently to how they normally go. It's the sheep affect. Someone stands in the wrong bit and the next person just blindly stands behind them. Stewards should maybe do more in terms of crowd control here.

[jagfox]

There'll be a quirk at Parkhead tomorrow.  One big toilet with 60,000 asreholes present

[CityDave]

8 hours ago, AyrshireTon said:

Boghead could be a great away day. I remember us taking a good support through for the 1987 promotion clash and standing behind the goal with the larger terracing, then feeling a bit squashed when we changed ends at half time. Jimmy Boag "scored" the winner when the Sons keeper hit a clearance off his back and it rebounded over the line. He then ran to us like he'd scored a peach

I think it would be nice to put up some photos of Boghead from the internet and remind us of the old ground. One of the grounds I never got to see, sadly.

 

Looks an unusual mix of stands. One covered enclosure looks like something you would find at a railway station. That ground must have had a lot of character about it.

[ajwffc]

9 minutes ago, CityDave said:

I think it would be nice to put up some photos of Boghead from the internet and remind us of the old ground. One of the grounds I never got to see, sadly.

 

Looks an unusual mix of stands. One covered enclosure looks like something you would find at a railway station. That ground must have had a lot of character about it.

It was from a closed station in Aryshire (I think it was Turnberry?)

[The Mantis]

31 minutes ago, CityDave said:

I think it would be nice to put up some photos of Boghead from the internet and remind us of the old ground. One of the grounds I never got to see, sadly.

 

Looks an unusual mix of stands. One covered enclosure looks like something you would find at a railway station. That ground must have had a lot of character about it.

That last one was an ICT game Dave. Lost 1-0 to Clydebank. The first photo - I was at a Rangers game back in the 70s and that street was one huge crush.

Edited September 9, 2016 by The Mantis

[CityDave]

17 minutes ago, The Mantis said:

That last one was an ICT game Dave. Lost 1-0 to Clydebank.

This would have been a 2nd Division match from 1998, Clydebank won promotion that season.