BACK in the 1980s when Hampden Park was a tip, there was general agreement in Scottish football that the National Stadium needed to be rebuilt. The biggest problem was who would pay for it.
The Kicker can remember a day that there wasn’t a National Lottery, and while it has its critics, the Lottery has undoubtedly done great things, even if Scotland doesn’t get its fair share.
We did at one point. That was shortly after the Lottery got going in late 1994, soon after which the Millennium Commission bunged £26 million towards the redevelopment of Hampden Park and more Lottery money was chucked in as the rebuild hit financial problems with the overall cost soaring to more than £60m.
Remember the “rescue package” in 2000 that then sports minister Sam Galbraith put together with £2m-plus of taxpayers’ money? In all, including the Lottery, there was well over £40m of public money ploughed into the redevelopment.
So does anyone think that the Lottery authorities and the Scottish Government, not to mention Glasgow City Council who also put in dosh, are going to sit by and let Stewart Regan and the SFA stop Hampden being the National Stadium?
Not a chance.
There also appears to be a concerted effort to rubbish Hampden to further Regan’s twisted agenda. Hampden is far from perfect but it is the home of the Scotland national team and the Cup finals, not to mention Queen’s Park, and must stay that way.
Some of the criticism is risible. Take, for example, the Scottish Football Supporters Survey that says only 15 per cent of fans want internationals and cup finals to stay at Hampden. That got big headlines because most journos don’t have time to understand statistics.
For a start the headline claim that most fans want Murrayfield to be the National Stadium is mince – those voting for retaining Hampden or wanting a new Hampden totalled 39 per cent while the vote for Murrayfield was 34 per cent. Go figure…
Apparently 25 per cent wanted games played at other club stadia. Yeah right. If you are a Rangers fan and you’re in a final against Celtic, how do you fancy playing the final at Parkhead, and vice-versa.
Read the survey and you find out that, actually, the biggest gripe is parking with 82 per cent rating it bad or very bad, and “value” with 80 per cent of respondents saying the value for internationals was bad or very bad. Can’t disagree with either of those findings…so fix them, SFA.
Then you discover that the survey was held online, so therefore was not in any way a proper independent opinion poll, and less than 3,000 people took part with 93 per cent of respondents being male, 70 per cent of whom were between aged between 30 and 59. How very representative…
The SFSA would have been fairer if they had asked supporters this question – do you think money should be taken out of cash-starved Scottish football and given to Scottish rugby? Answers on a postcard to the SFA at, ahem, Hampden Park.
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