ArabFC Posted June 19 Share Posted June 19 (edited) 9 minutes ago, Big Bobo said: Not going to turn this into politics. It's all about the football. A win tonight will put a smile on every Scotland fans face. Not even being political about it - blame whichever party you want for it, but as a country we are skint, and there's not a chance Hampden is receiving money from any governmental source in the short or medium term future. The SFA and SRU should have at some point recognised that there's actually no real need or resources for two national stadiums and joined together to build something good rather than seeing the current two rot. It would've obviously pissed a lot of people off though, so... Edited June 19 by ArabFC 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Bobo Posted June 19 Share Posted June 19 2 minutes ago, ArabFC said: Not even being political about it - blame whichever party you want for it, but as a country we are skint, and there's not a chance Hampden is receiving money from any governmental source in the short or medium term future. The SFA and SRU should have at some point recognised that there's actually no real need or resources for two national stadiums and joined together to build something good rather than seeing the current two rot. It would've obviously pissed a lot of people off though, so... Cannot argue with this. Good post, spot on about having two National stadiums. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piehutt Posted June 19 Share Posted June 19 (edited) With regards to Hampden - it's just about fit for purpose in it's current state. It can host big games, concerts, conferences, functions etc. A new stadium doesn't transform that. Building a nice new stadium so everyone has a better view and the atmosphere is hopefully better unfortunately just doesn't cut it in terms of 'ways we can spend half a billion pounds we don't have'. Whether that's public funds, SFA funds or a 50 year mortgage. Also agree that it makes enormous sense to have 1 National Stadium for football & rugby. I doubt we'll see that, but it should happen and I couldn't even make the case for it to be at Hampden. I've had some great afternoons at Hampden that will live long in my memory... but what I would do is flatten Hampden and Lesser Hampden. Build a 25,000 seater with a roof. Use the rest of the significant acreage for hotels / apartments / conference suites / pop up bars etc. Hopefully this would be enough to make a business case for the development that doesn't currently exist. You then have a stadium that can host Friendly internationals, cup semi finals & some finals, lower league playoff finals, woman's internationals, U21s, Glasgow Warriors games, some Rugby Internationals and concerts all year round. Play big internationals & cup finals at Murrayfield, Celtic Park, Ibrox. I'm well aware this will never happen as both the football and rugby institutions are too full of their own importance but I can't see any possibility of a new Hampden being built for the current use given what it would cost and that it wouldn't make that much additional revenue than they can make currently. Edited June 19 by Piehutt 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahemps Posted June 19 Share Posted June 19 2 hours ago, ArabFC said: Not even being political about it - blame whichever party you want for it, but as a country we are skint, and there's not a chance Hampden is receiving money from any governmental source in the short or medium term future. The SFA and SRU should have at some point recognised that there's actually no real need or resources for two national stadiums and joined together to build something good rather than seeing the current two rot. It would've obviously pissed a lot of people off though, so... Does the SRU need to join with the SFA though? I remember hearing a director from the SRU (pre covid) and they were having great success with selling out events at Murrayfield and it sounded like the finance side of things were quite healthy for them as they made a lot of money from these events. If this is still true then why would they want to share a resource with football? Football being more popular would probably take a bigger share of any profits from a shared stadium and the SRU might find themselves worse off. It is sad that with football being more popular that they can't emulate the financial success that the SRU seem to be having. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piehutt Posted June 19 Share Posted June 19 3 hours ago, ahemps said: Does the SRU need to join with the SFA though? I remember hearing a director from the SRU (pre covid) and they were having great success with selling out events at Murrayfield and it sounded like the finance side of things were quite healthy for them as they made a lot of money from these events. If this is still true then why would they want to share a resource with football? Football being more popular would probably take a bigger share of any profits from a shared stadium and the SRU might find themselves worse off. It is sad that with football being more popular that they can't emulate the financial success that the SRU seem to be having. The trigger being if either Hampden or Murrayfield needed significant redevelopment. Which they will do at some point. They are both the guts of 30 years old at this point. I'm sure Hampden is doing quite nicely as well with the improved football results and the success of the Nations League. But doesn't mean there's several hundred million available for a new stadium or even half a new stadium. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JS_FFC Posted June 19 Share Posted June 19 I can’t see the SFA ever wanting to move to Edinburgh. Could rugby be tempted by Glasgow? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BB_Bino Posted June 20 Share Posted June 20 18 hours ago, Piehutt said: I'm well aware this will never happen as both the football and rugby institutions are too full of their own importance I'm really not sure it's their own importance that stop these things from happening, I think it's the identity and the importance of each others sport is what they fear losing. Hampden is a problem for the SFA. As someone who has only missed only 1 Scotland game there in nearly 20 years, the problem is glaringly obvious and it's one that probably won't be sorted in my life time (And I'm 43). You could live in the past, if only the South Stand was built all the way round, we should get the same amount of money as England and Wales did etc etc, it's all things I have heard for years. At the end of the day, it is what it is, there's no money to change it to what the beaks or the fans would want...so we just have to live with it. I just hope someone somewhere is squirrelling away money so we can do something in time, but I suspect that's not happening either. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topcat(The most tip top) Posted June 20 Share Posted June 20 15 hours ago, Piehutt said: The trigger being if either Hampden or Murrayfield needed significant redevelopment. Which they will do at some point. They are both the guts of 30 years old at this point. The real problematic bits of Hampden are the ends which are basically the pre-Taylor report terracing with seats bolted on. That' more than a 30 year old problem The 41 year old East Stand at Murrayfield is still fine although it's probably better suited for football than rugby 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piehutt Posted June 20 Share Posted June 20 2 hours ago, BB_Bino said: I'm really not sure it's their own importance that stop these things from happening, I think it's the identity and the importance of each others sport is what they fear losing. Hampden is a problem for the SFA. As someone who has only missed only 1 Scotland game there in nearly 20 years, the problem is glaringly obvious and it's one that probably won't be sorted in my life time (And I'm 43). You could live in the past, if only the South Stand was built all the way round, we should get the same amount of money as England and Wales did etc etc, it's all things I have heard for years. At the end of the day, it is what it is, there's no money to change it to what the beaks or the fans would want...so we just have to live with it. I just hope someone somewhere is squirrelling away money so we can do something in time, but I suspect that's not happening either. Agree that we won't see any changes. We've got what we've got and in both football and rugby, they are good enough, if not great. Don't think you lose the identity of each sport with a single national stadium and if the stadia were in the same city, it probably would have been done already (i.e. Wales & Ireland). Would be very interested in the finances of the SFA over the last few years with tournament appearances, decent attendances and hosting Euros games in 2021 and 2028. My assumption is that they are pissing it away on things that won't return very much, when they could have put together a hard nosed business plan to increase their 'profit' and actually have a plan to rebuild or redevelop the stadium at some point in the next decade or two. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topcat(The most tip top) Posted June 20 Share Posted June 20 21 hours ago, ahemps said: Does the SRU need to join with the SFA though? I remember hearing a director from the SRU (pre covid) and they were having great success with selling out events at Murrayfield and it sounded like the finance side of things were quite healthy for them as they made a lot of money from these events. If this is still true then why would they want to share a resource with football? Football being more popular would probably take a bigger share of any profits from a shared stadium and the SRU might find themselves worse off. It is sad that with football being more popular that they can't emulate the financial success that the SRU seem to be having. Basically the SRU have finally finished clearing the debt they ran up constructing Murrayfield and have the smugness of someone living in a nice house mortgage free. The Millenium stadium was built with £46m of lottery funding but about double that in loans Other sports and countries have better grounds but they've had to pay them off over time. Scottish Football had no interest in investing money that wasn't provided by someone else and got left behind In the SFA's defence though, the peculiar arrangements between Queens Park FC, Hampden and the SFA means it's not clear whether that kind of strategy was even possible for the SFA back in the '90s. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BB_Bino Posted June 20 Share Posted June 20 55 minutes ago, Piehutt said: Agree that we won't see any changes. We've got what we've got and in both football and rugby, they are good enough, if not great. Don't think you lose the identity of each sport with a single national stadium and if the stadia were in the same city, it probably would have been done already (i.e. Wales & Ireland). Would be very interested in the finances of the SFA over the last few years with tournament appearances, decent attendances and hosting Euros games in 2021 and 2028. My assumption is that they are pissing it away on things that won't return very much, when they could have put together a hard nosed business plan to increase their 'profit' and actually have a plan to rebuild or redevelop the stadium at some point in the next decade or two. Totally agree with you Piehutt, but just to be clear on my post above regarding the fear of losing the identities of each sport, I should have stressed that this would be if the SFA moved to Murrayfield, and it's why I don't think it will ever happen. It probably won't be in my lifetime, but if the point comes where both grounds are in serious disrepair that the 2 parties will sit down to discuss things in their own interest, however at the moment the SRU would probably only be interested in renting Murrayfield to the SFA and the SFA won't consider that, which is why they ultimately bought Hampden off Queens Park a few years back. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted June 20 Share Posted June 20 Public purse is burst. Even if wasn't there are more necessary causes for investment than football. Even if there weren't there are more worthy priorities within football than Hampden. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Master Posted June 25 Share Posted June 25 Something of a non-update on Casement. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c8449vk850wo 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArabFC Posted June 25 Share Posted June 25 7 hours ago, The Master said: Something of a non-update on Casement. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c8449vk850wo More chance of Nou Campy getting built. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JS_FFC Posted June 26 Share Posted June 26 Wonder which two teams will beat us at Hampden and which one we’ll get a plucky point off in the second game. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Golden God Posted July 26 Share Posted July 26 Bit of fun here in regards to Casement Park and who it’s currently named after. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lubo_blaha Posted July 30 Share Posted July 30 On 19/06/2024 at 14:40, ahemps said: Does the SRU need to join with the SFA though? I remember hearing a director from the SRU (pre covid) and they were having great success with selling out events at Murrayfield and it sounded like the finance side of things were quite healthy for them as they made a lot of money from these events. If this is still true then why would they want to share a resource with football? Football being more popular would probably take a bigger share of any profits from a shared stadium and the SRU might find themselves worse off. It is sad that with football being more popular that they can't emulate the financial success that the SRU seem to be having. SRU are in a poor position financially. Eight figure losses in the last year and they’re laying off around thirty staff. Exorbitant executive pay and running two pro clubs more than cancels out all the games and events seemingly. I would imagine the SFA are doing much better in that regard after taking over Hampden and significantly increasing the number of games, concerts etc being hosted, as well as improving the hospitality offering. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topcat(The most tip top) Posted July 31 Share Posted July 31 9 hours ago, lubo_blaha said: SRU are in a poor position financially. Eight figure losses in the last year and they’re laying off around thirty staff. Exorbitant executive pay and running two pro clubs more than cancels out all the games and events seemingly. Or Alternatively put they're in such a good position financially that they could choose to run an eight figure deficit "Offset by deficit of £10m as recent external investment programme - which generated circa £52m - is re-invested for growth" https://scottishrugby.org/2022-23-scottish-rugby-union-annual-report/ 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonS Posted July 31 Share Posted July 31 4 minutes ago, topcat(The most tip top) said: Or Alternatively put they're in such a good position financially that they could choose to run an eight figure deficit "Offset by deficit of £10m as recent external investment programme - which generated circa £52m - is re-invested for growth" https://scottishrugby.org/2022-23-scottish-rugby-union-annual-report/ That's Dodson-era thinking, the fantastical belief that if they spend lots of money they'll magically make more money. Since his departure they've announced cost-cutting, including 35 redundancies: https://www.theoffsideline.com/scottish-rugby-staff-cuts/#:~:text=The target is understood to,of £57%2C142 per employee.&text=The head count at Murrayfield,year was £10.5m. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realmadrid Posted July 31 Share Posted July 31 As a debenture holder my opinion is that they will run Hampden until 2039 or 2040 when the lottery grants don't then have to be paid back and will sell the land. There is no drive to improve the facilities for the majority of the fans Having been in the lower tier at Stuttgart in June id also say that's not the answer, at the end with the Scotland fans it was a great view but very shallow so play at the far end was hard to see. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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