Hampden Park: Scotland / Queen's Park
From Queens Park FC
We all know how much Scottish people love being compared to the English, so it feels only right to refer to Hampden Park as the Scottish Wembley. The similarities between the two stadiums are marked, with Hampden Park not only hosting the Scottish national side but, much like Wembley, also used as the venue for the latter stages of the Scottish Cup and the Scottish League Cup.
There’s more to the ground than that alone, of course. It’s also the home of the Scottish long time amateur side Queens Park Football Club (they turned professional in 2021) and it regularly hosts concerts and other such frivolities in its grounds. A little known fact about the ground is that there were actually two stadiums called Hampden Park built in Glasgow at the end of the 19th and start of the 20th century, though the second one had its name changed to Cathkin Park before shutting down completely.
As Hampden Park is the home of both Scotland’s national side and Queens Park FC, we’ll cover all of the important things twice in this particular stadium guide. Naturally anything that doesn’t need discussing twice, such as the stadium’s seating plan or the history of Hampden Park, we won’t talk about twice. Just to avoid any confusion…
Stats
| Hampden Park Stats | |
|---|---|
| Year Opened | 1903 |
| Capacity | 51866 |
| Average Attendance | 50597 |
| Record Attendance | 149547 (Scotland v England (1937)) |
| Pitch Size | 105 x 68 (7140) |
| Owner | Queen's Park F.C. |
| Clubs Hosted | Queen's Park F.C., Scotland national football team, Glasgow Tigers, Scottish Claymores, Celtic F.C. |
| First Fixture | Queens Park v Celtic (31/10/1903) |
| Queens Park FC Stats | |
|---|---|
| Year Founded | 1867 |
| Nickname | The Spiders, The Glorious Hoops |
| Club Mascot | Harry the Hippo |
| Rivals | Partick Thistle, Clyde, Albion Rovers |
| Previous Stadiums | Queen's Park Recreation Ground, first Hampden Park, Titwood, second Hampden Park |
| Kit | Black & Whte (Home) / Red (Away) |
| Training Ground | Lesser Hampden |
| Shirt Sponsor | City Facilities Management |
| Team Owner | Queen's Park Football Club Ltd |
| Record Goalscorer | Mutt McAlpine () |
| Record Appearances | Mutt McAlpine () |
| Scotland Stats | |
|---|---|
| Year Founded | 1872 |
| Nickname | The Tartan Terriers |
| Club Mascot | Hampden Roary |
| Rivals | England, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Wales |
| Previous Stadiums | Hamilton Crescent, first Hampden Park, second Hampden Park, Celtic Park, Ibrox Park |
| Kit | Blue & Wihte (Home) / Yellow & Blue (Away) |
| Training Ground | Murray Park |
| Team Owner | Scottish Football Association |
| Record Goalscorer | Kenny Dalglish, Dennis Law (30) |
| Record Appearances | Kenny Dalglish (102) |
Hampden Park Photos
By V&A Dudush (Panoramio) [CC BY 3.0]
By yellow book (Flickr: Olympic Football) [CC BY 2.0]
By Cal Umbra (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0]
Hampden Park Seating Plan and Where to Sit
Hampden Park is a ‘Bowl Style’ stadium, meaning there is a bowl of continuous seating that goes around the entire pitch. Here are the various sections of the stadium you need to consider:
- The North Stand – This section of the ground is rarely seen by those who watch matches on the television as it features the TV gantry. It’s a single-tier structure, though there are a row of boxes at the top.
- The East Stand – This section of the ground is also mostly single-tiered, though the roof slopes up slightly as part of The South Stand’s upper tier creeps into this part of the stadium.
- The South Stand – This is the only part of the ground that has two tiers. Known as The BT Scotland Stand, it is the main part of Hampden Park as it contains the dugouts, the tunnel and the dressing rooms. The two tiers are separated by a number of corporate boxes.
- The West Stand – The South Stand end of this section of the ground is where the away fans are normally housed. There is a great big Scottish flag imprinted in the seating here, just in case you’d forgotten where you were.
Queens Park FC Ticket Prices
Thankfully, Queens Park make their ticket pricing much easier to understand. Adults pay £22 on the door on the day of the game, senior citizens, the unemployed and juniors pay £15. It doesn’t matter where you sit, prices are the same.
How To Get Queens Park FC Tickets
Tickets for Queens Park matches are available on the day of the game and we absolutely promise that you’ll be able to get one. Given that Hampden Park can house over 50,000 people and Queens Park have an average attendance of about 1,800 it won’t be a wasted journey if you wait until the day to get your ticket.
Where to Buy
Scotland Ticket Prices
The Scottish national side’s ticket prices change depending on the opposition and the reason they’re playing. A friendly game against Ukraine, for example, will cost more than a tournament qualifying game against England. Here, though, are the cheapest and most expensive ticket prices for the 2018 World Cup Qualifying matches at Hampden Park for adults and juniors. The cheapest price is for SSC Members going to the game against Malta, whilst the pricier tickets are for non-members going to the England game:
- East & West Stands: £17 – £45 / £5 – £15
- South Stand: £27 – £60 / £10 – £20
- North Stand: £27 – £60 / £10 – £20
How To Get Scotland Tickets
For Scotland games things are slightly trickier. The Scottish Football Association’s website is always a good place to start, though for international tournaments and the like you might need to look for the tournament organiser’s webpage first.
Where to Buy
Getting To Hampden Park
Hampden Park is in Glasgow, so as long as you can get to one of Scotland’s major cities then you’re well on your way to being able to get to the ground. Here are some of the more typical journeys you’ll take:
Train – Hampden Park is a mere five minutes walk from Mount Florida Station and King’s Park Stadium. You can get to both of those from Glasgow Central Station easily enough, and that itself is reachable from Euston in about four and a half hours.
Bus – Buses 5, 6, 7, 7A, 34 and 90 all call near to the stadium from the centre of Glasgow and run on a regular basis.
Car – From England take the M6 to the A74/M74 following signs to Glasgow. After Hamilton Services follow signs for Shettleston/Cambuslang then Rutherglen. Follow these signs until you see signs for the stadium itself. If you’re heading to Hampden Park from elsewhere then your best bet is to stick the post code, G42 9BA, into your satellite navigation device.
By Air – Glasgow Airport is the place you’ll fly into if you’re coming from abroad or elsewhere in the UK by plane. You can get a bus to the centre of Glasgow or a bus and then a train, if you’d prefer.
Taxi – A taxi from Glasgow Central Station to the ground will cost about £13 and shouldn’t take much longer than fifteen minutes to complete its journey.
Parking Near Hampden Park
There is a car park at the stadium but it’s only available to permit holders on match days. There is little to no on-street parking as Glasgow Council put restrictions in place to protect the residents of the area. There are a couple of public car parks around the city though.
Useful Resources
- Parking - Just Park
Hampden Park Hotels
Glasgow is a major city that is used to housing large numbers of visitors, so there are plenty of places for you to stay in the city. Here are some of our favourites:
Brunswick Merchant City Hotel - £50+
Number 52 Charlotte Street - £70+
Kings Park Hotel - £100+
Pubs and Bars Near Hampden Park
Let’s be honest, the Scots love a drink. For that reason you are certain to be in for a cracking night out if you head to Glasgow for a pre-match pint or two – as long as you’re not wearing an England top! Here are some of our favourite Glaswegian watering holes:
The Florida Park
Clockwork Beer Co.
Montford House
Facilities
Hampden Park has exactly the facilities you’d expect of a national team’s stadium that also hosts the final stages of major tournaments. The large concourses have places to buy food and drink before and during the game and there are virtually no bad seats in the ground as far as your view of the action is concerned.
Prices
- Programme: £3.5
- Pie: £2.9
- Cup of tea: £2
Hospitality
Scotland
There are a number of executive lounges at Hampden Park as well as the usual executive boxes. The Lomond and Nevis lounges are both in The South Stand and promise a friendly and relaxing environment as well as a fine dining experience. Alternatively you can enjoy a hospitality experience inside the Scottish Football Museum itself.
The standard hospitality package offers a champagne reception, access to a complimentary bar before and after the game, a four-course meal with accompanying wine and spirits, half-time refreshments, a car park pass and numerous souvenirs or gifts.
Queens Park
Queens Park offer similar match day experiences, including the ability to dine in the museum. With Queens Park, though, you’ll get a glass of sparkling wine when you arrive, a three-course meal with waitress service, a seat in the main stand and half-time refreshments. You’ll get some free beer or wine as well as the chance to buy more as the day goes on.
If you’d like to hire an executive box for between 5 and 20 people then you can, or you enjoy a guided tour of the facilities and a look around the museum before having a meal in the Millennium Lounge with complimentary pre-match drinks and a half-time buffet. You’ll watch the game from premium seats underneath the director’s box as well as car parking and appearances from players.
Private Hire
Hampden Park is available for use for any number of private occasions. Meetings, conferences, product launches, gala balls, award ceremonies, annual dinners and more have all been held at the ground in the past. Basically, if there’s an event you want to put on in Glasgow then this place has got you covered and then some.
Stadium Tours & Museum
The Hampden Experience is the name given to the opportunity to look around the Scottish Football Museum, housed at Hampden Park, and the stadium itself. The museum is open from 10am until 5pm Monday to Friday and from 11am until 5pm on Sundays. The tours run every day the stadium is available to be toured at 11am, 12.30pm, 2pm and 3pm.
As far as prices go, it depends on how old you are. Adults will pay £16 for the museum and the tour. For Under-16s and concessions it is £9.
About Queens Park FC
Queens Park were, until 2021, the only amateur side in the Scottish Professional Football League. The club’s motto is Ludere Causa Ludeni, or ‘To Play For The Sake Of Playing’, reflecting its belief that football is about more than just making money and winning at all costs. Perhaps it is because the club is the oldest association football club outside of England and Wales, tracing its history back to its formation in 1867. It is a history that is full of interesting and wonderful information, making it many Scottish football fans’ second favourite team to look out for the results of.
Did you know, for example, that Queens Park are the only Scottish side to have played in the FA Cup Final? They did so over two consecutive years in 1884 and 1885, losing 2-1 to Blackburn Rovers in the first final and losing 2-0 to the same side the following year. Both matches were played at the Kennington Oval and Queens Park were actually the favourites for the 1884 final, having already won the Scottish FA Cup when Vale of Leven decided to decline the opportunity to participate in the game. Queens Park have won the Scottish Cup ten times, third only to Celtic and Rangers – this in spite of the fact that they haven’t won it since 1893.
The club was founded on the 9th of July in the year 1867 with the amazing sentence of “Tonight at half past eight o’clock a number of gentlemen met at No. 3 Eglinton Terrace for the purpose of forming a football club” confirming its formation. If voting had gone differently it could have had a different name, too, with The Celts, The Northern and Morayshire all suggested, but The Queens Park Football Club won out by just one vote. The club was also the first Scottish side to appear on TV, something that happened in March of 1951 when they played Walthamstow Avenue, winning the game 2-0.
About Scotland
Scotland claim to be the oldest national football team in the world alongside England, with the two teams having faced each other for the first time back in 1872. Teams representing both countries actually played games at the Oval cricket ground between 1870 and 1872, but they weren’t officially endorsed by either team’s Football Association, hence the 1872 declaration as the start of the country’s football existence. From 1884 until 1984 Scotland competed against England, Wales and Ireland in the Home Championships football tournament, winning it 41 times, 17 of those times being shared.
Scotland lost a mere two of their opening 43 international games, with both of those being against England. It wasn’t until 1903 that they lost to a different team, when Ireland won 2-0 in Scotland. In 1928 the Scotland international team beat England 5-1, earning themselves the nickname ‘The Wembley Wizards’. The first international game outside of the British Isles came in 1929 when they beat Norway 7-3 in Bergen.
Scotland are eligible to compete in the UEFA European Championship tournament and the FIFA World Cup. They have qualified for the former twice, in 1992 and 1996, and the latter eight times. The country’s most successful spell was in between 1974 and 1998, when they qualified for every World Cup apart from in 1994. Scotland are not a member of the International Olympic Committee, however, meaning that the country does not qualify for the Olympic Games. Occasionally Great Britain enters a football team that includes Scottish players, but this is quite rare.
Hampden Park History
Queens Park played their games at Hampden Park from 1873, though not the Hampden Park that exists nowadays. It was located close to a terrace named after an Englishman called John Hampden and it is this terrace that gave the ground its name. When the Cathcart District Railway announced plans to build a new line where the ground’s Western Terrace stood, the powers that be decided to relocate to a different ground – also named Hampden Park – just 150 yards from the original site.
This second Hampden Park opened in 1884 and, much like its predecessor, hosted numerous Scottish Cup Finals and Scotland international matches. It lost some of the bigger games to the newly developed Celtic Park, however, including the 1894 match between Scotland and England. Because of this Queens Park wanted more land to develop Hampden Park in order to stop it becoming the third most important stadium in Glasgow behind Celtic Park and Ibrox, but the request was refused by the club’s landlord. They obtained some new ground elsewhere and built the third Hampden Park there instead, with the new stadium opening in 1903.
When it opened the third Hampden Park was the biggest stadium in the world, remaining so for 47 years until the Maracanã was built in Brazil in 1950. Indeed, Glasgow as a city had the three largest stadiums in world football when the ground opened in 1903. The stadium established a new world attendance record in 1912 when 127,307 spectators turned up to watch the Tartan Army take on the Three Lions.
Between 1981 and 1999 numerous redevelopments of the ground took place, funded by numerous different organisations and fraught with problems and issues, including an investigation by a fraud squad. The new look Hampden Park had a reduced capacity of 51,866 but it is a safer and more modern stadium than before, as you’d expect. In 2014 the ground was converted, temporarily, into an athletics stadium in order to host the Commonwealth Games. As a football stadium it now boasts a UEFA Category Four status.
Future Developments
The Scottish Football Association took ownership of Hampden Park in 2020, and a huge redevelopment plan was tabled in 2023. It would transform Hampden Park into a thoroughly modern 65,000 seater more than suitable for Champions League matches and the like. As of yet no work has started though.