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Was that Hampden's last hurrah?


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6 hours ago, Goalie Hamish said:

If the SFA buy Hampden could it be the first step towards redevelopment?

It would be a necessary first step (no chance of Queens doing it unless / until it falls to bits), but they would probably need the government to help.

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Found an interesting story in the Evening Times about the SFA potentially buying Hampden:
 

Quote

 

HAMPDEN: THE S.F.A. MAY SEE THE LIGHT!

HAMPDEN PARK MAY VERY SOON BELONG NOT TO QUEEN'S PARK, BUT TO SCOTLAND!

To-night - on this sad last Saturday of 1958 - the dear old, well-beloved Queen's are in some slight financial embarrassment.  For years now they have been trying bravely and valiantly to compete with floodlight football - and all the time they have been on the losers' end.

International matches which would normally have been sent to Hampden without a word of dissent are now being directed to Ibrox and Shawfield Stadiums and to places like Firhill and Tynecastle Park.  And such competition is queering the Queen's Park pitch.

On this last Saturday night of 1958 I understand that Queen's feel they cannot go on much longer "working in the dark" against the bright lights which shine elsewhere.

A CONFERENCE

In fact, up in the SFA offices right now, is a letter from Queen's.  In effect, this is what it says - "Can we please have a conference as soon as possible on the question of floodlights and Hampden?"

From that I add up two and two - and I make the total this - The Amateurs know, as they have known for years past, that floodlights are a MUST for the top grounds in the country.  THEY ARE GOING TO PUT THEM IN FORTHWITH - AND WANT TO KNOW WHAT HELP, IF ANY, THEY CAN EXPECT FROM THE S.F.A.

And I say to-night, that Queen's Park are entitled to all the help they can get.  Hampden is unquestionably in the "win or a place" class among the greatest stadiums in the world - and year after year the Welsh, the English, the Irish and top foreign teams come to Glasgow and always they say that Hampden is a Scotland showpiece.  Which is very nice for the S.F.A. but not so wonderful for Queen's, the owners of the ground.

The Scottish officials realise all this, and for that very reason they will be holding a conference with the Queen's officials very early in 1959.  I forecast that, not only will there be an offer of financial help in the floodlight business, but the S.F.A. may even be prepared to go the length of making a suggestion whereby they will take over the running of Hampden and, of course, will allow the top amateur club in Britain to play there every Saturday throughout the season.

That would, of course, cost a small fortune.  It would make Queen's independent for years and years to come, but there would need to be smart financial arrangement, for, although the S.F.A. are by no means in the pauper class, they have nothing like enough cash in the bank to buy Hampden outright.

But watch for developments - negotiations will start very soon.  Hampden will have the most up-to-date floodlight system in the world before next season - and Scotland will be the first country in Britain to have a national ground of its very own.

(Evening Times, 27th December 1958)

 

 

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2 hours ago, craigkillie said:

Found an interesting story in the Evening Times about the SFA potentially buying Hampden:
 

 

That doesn't sound right, in particular this bit: 

International matches which would normally have been sent to Hampden without a word of dissent are now being directed to Ibrox and Shawfield Stadiums and to places like Firhill and Tynecastle Park.  And such competition is queering the Queen's Park pitch.

Pretty much every Scotland home game from the end of WW2 until 1990-ish was played at Hampden. Firhill has hosted only one Scotland game, in 1928. Tynecastle hosted some of the lesser internationals (usually the Wales game) up until the 1930s, then didn't host another Scotland game until the late 1990s. Shawfield never hosted a Scotland game. Unless the article is referring to other representative matches (inter-league or amateur)? 

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Arbroath could advise.


 

20 hours ago, JamesM82 said:

That doesn't sound right, in particular this bit: 

International matches which would normally have been sent to Hampden without a word of dissent are now being directed to Ibrox and Shawfield Stadiums and to places like Firhill and Tynecastle Park.  And such competition is queering the Queen's Park pitch.

Pretty much every Scotland home game from the end of WW2 until 1990-ish was played at Hampden. Firhill has hosted only one Scotland game, in 1928. Tynecastle hosted some of the lesser internationals (usually the Wales game) up until the 1930s, then didn't host another Scotland game until the late 1990s. Shawfield never hosted a Scotland game. Unless the article is referring to other representative matches (inter-league or amateur)? 

It will mean the games we no longer class as full internationals...

There was an (almost) annual Scotland v British Army game, and by then it had been at Hampden once, Tynecastle twice, Ibrox once (postponed) and Shawfield once.

An experimental Scotland v Scotland B had had been played at Easter Road and the first 2 editions of a new annual Scotland v Scottish League game had been played at Easter Road and Ibrox.

Traditionally the Scottish League v Irish League fixtures were at Ibrox and Scottish League v League of Ireland were at Parkhead however the Scottish League v Football League fixtures were also played at Ibrox after the war (except for 1955 at Hampden).

'B' internationals had been played at Easter Road and Dens Park.

Intermediate internationals (aka U23s) had been played at Shawfield, Ibrox and twice at Tynecastle.

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On 03/04/2018 at 23:14, Goalie Hamish said:

If the SFA buy Hampden could it be the first step towards redevelopment?

With what money? It’s taken nearly 26 years for the SRU to pay off the debt incurred by redeveloping Murrayfield in ‘93. Any debt incurred will be much higher and take just as long if not more to clear knowing how incompetent the SFA is. 

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It's all quite desperate, isn't it?  Not that I'm against staying at Hampden - in fact, selfishly, it's my number 1 choice - but articles like that as a bald attempt to say "look, Hampden's pure dead brilliant byraway!" are just a bit sad.  Everyone knows that Hampden can have a good atmosphere, as it has done for Scotland matches in the past.  But it likely won't most of the time.  Just like most of the cathedrals of football can have electric atmospheres sometimes, but probably won't achieve that when there's a sub-capacity crowd in there on a freezing midweek for a league match with little at stake.

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