THE CURRENT HAMPDEN, 1981 to date

With the Tory government reneging on their promised cash the outlook for Hampden looked bleak. The club had no access to the levels of cash required to upgrade the stadium, and for a time the prospect of Hampden closing and the club upgrading Lesser Hampden, with the rest of the land being sold off, was a real possibility. 

However, the club was not going to give up with a fight, and various improvements were undertaken to ensure that the stadium did not fall too far behind the standard required. The North Stand, now a ramshackle structure, was demolished, and all the ash terracing was concreted over. Undersoil heating with 23 miles of piping was installed, the enclosures in front of the South Stand were filled in and the seating at the front of the stand extended. The West Stand was turned into an 11,200 seat stand. 

By now, UEFA had stipulated that stadiums used in the qualifying rounds for the 1994 World Cup should be played in all seater stadiums, and Scotland's qualifying games were played at Ibrox. In April 1992, following an offer from the government to provide £3.5 million, provided that amount was matched by the National Stadium Committee, it was announced that a £12 million scheme to roof and seat the East and North stand was to be the first stage of the redevelopment of Hampden. 

Work commenced in June 1992 and was completed on schedule (and on budget) in 1993. The North and East Stands now catered for 20,000 spectators, and the approaches to the stadium had also been upgraded to avoid the rivers of mud that prevailed on rainy days. The stadium reopened with a goalless draw against Holland in February 1994.

That was only half the job, and now thoughts turned to the re-roofing of the West Stand and the replacement of the South Stand. The advent of the National Lottery in 1994, and their fund for Millenium projects, looked like the best chance of getting the funds required. 

In anticipation of being awarded funds, the old South Stand was demolished in late 1996. In March 1997 it was confirmed that the club had funding commitments of £37.45 million, with the Millennium Commission the largest contributor. The balance was to be made up mainly through a debenture issue, sponsorship and other grants from various bodies.

Building work commenced later in 1997, and the framework for the new South Stand rose quickly, with the stadium due to open in March 1999. However, as this deadline drew closer it became clear that the stadium project was overrunning, and it took round the clock working to ensure that the stadium would be ready in time for that year's Scottish Cup Final in May. 

The stadium eventually opened on Friday 14th May with an all stars eleven against a Queen's Park old crocks team. Poor weather curtailed the crowd, but the stadium had been given the "dry run" it needed before the Scottish Cup final the following week.

The first hint that the project to rebuild the West and South stands was in trouble came in the summer of 1999. The main building contractors, McAlpine, had not been fully paid for their work and this plunged Hampden and Queen's Park into nine months of crisis which almost saw the closure of both.    

The dispute dragged on and in January 2000 Queen's Park placed themselves into administration to avoid receivership, which would have meant the automatic loss of their league membership. In March 2000, with Queen's Park less than 48 hours away from going out of business, a deal was reached which involved the SFA taking over management of the stadium for 20 years, with an option for a further 20 years if they wished, with Queen's Park retaining ownership of the stadium and its environs. 

At the inevitable parliamentary enquiry, Queen's Park took most of the flak, some of it deserved, while despite not having put a penny into the rebuilding project the SFA were portrayed as white knights, hardly an objective view, and it's a pity that the parliamentary committee didn't take more interest in the part played by Sam Galbraith his Scottish Office officials . 

It is interesting that an overspend of around 10% on a £60 million project drew such vehement criticism from politicians, who were impervious to the Scottish Parliament project which exceeded a £400 million bill against a original estimate of £40 million. Of course, that was no fault of the politicians either.

However, the stadium and Queen's were saved, and Hampden was awarded the UEFA Champions League Final in May 2002, where Real Madrid defeated Bayer Leverkusen 2-1, and this was followed by the UEFA Cup Final between Sevilla and Espanyol in 2007, Sevilla winning on penalties following a 2-2 draw after 120 minutes.

The next stage of the redevelopment is to upgrade Lesser Hampden and its temporary offices, with the Lesser Hampden pitch to be replaced by an astroturf pitch during the summer of 2007, but further development depends on the outcome of the vote to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Hampden being the main venue for the Scottish bid, with the decision due in November 2007.

On 31st October 2003, the third and greatest Hampden celebrated its 100th birthday, although the scoreline of the opening day, a 1-0 win for Queen's over Celtic in a league match, may not be repeated for some time.

However, despite all the problems and the disputes over whether Hampden is required or not, there is no place quite like Hampden when one of footballing superpowers comes to Scotland to take on the national side.    

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