Hampden Park

From Free net encyclopedia

This article is about the Scottish football ground; for the area in Eastbourne, see Hampden Park, East Sussex

Hampden Park in Glasgow, Scotland is home to Queen's Park F.C. and the Scottish national football team. 'Hampden' is one of the homes of football and celebrated its centenary on October 31, 2003. The stadium also houses the offices of the Scottish Football Association.

1 Previous Hampden Parks
2 Building Hampden Park
3 A new Hampden
4 The Hampden Roar
5 Events at Hampden Park
6 Hampden Park innovations and world firsts
7 External links

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Previous Hampden Parks

Queen's Park F.C. have played at a venue called Hampden Park since 1873. The first and second Hampden Parks were nearby. When Queen's Park moved to the third (and current) Hampden Park, the old ground was renamed to Cathkin Park and sold to Third Lanark F.C. The third Hampden is the most famous of the grounds used, and is known throughout the world.

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Building Hampden Park

Whilst Queen's Park F.C. had used previous playing fields, it was in 1903 that the club decided to purchase land in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow's south side. The largest and most technically advanced stadium in the world was built. Hampden Park was inaugurated on 31 October 1903 with Queen's Park recording a 1-0 win over Celtic F.C.

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A new Hampden

Image:Hampden(g).jpg Image:Hampden park outside.jpg Image:HampdenPark 12.jpg Hampden Park was the largest stadium in the world until 1950, when the Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro was completed. After the release of the Taylor Report in the wake of the Hillsborough disaster, among other football tragedies, Hampden Park was converted to an all-seater. The need to improve safety as well as protect crowds from the Scottish weather led to its most recent renovation in the late 1990s; and the stadium was re-opened on the May 14 1999.Hampden Park is also referred to as Scotlands 'answer to Wembley'. The current capacity is about 52,500.

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The Hampden Roar

The crowd who came to see football matches at Hampden were renowned for creating the Hampden Roar. The noise created was said to terrify opposing teams who came to play there. In recent times the roar has said to be more muted, with the capacity of the stadium being reduced from its heyday.

The Hampden Roar is also used, colloquially, as a rhyming slang phrase. People (mainly in Glasgow and the West Coast of Scotland) may ask "what's the Hampden Roar?" or "what's the Hampden?" meaning, "what's the score?" The phrase can also be used outwith footballing contexts.

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Events at Hampden Park

The Scottish Cup is played at Hampden annually in May. The prize: lifting the world's oldest national trophy - the Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup, made in 1873. Queen's Park were the first winners, beating Clydesdale 2-0 in the 1874 final.

Hampden Park also hosted the famous 1960 European Cup final between Real Madrid and Eintracht Frankfurt, where over 130,000 people watched Real Madrid win 7-3. The 1975/76 final of was also held at Hampden, when FC Bayern Munich defeated AS Saint-Etienne. Real Madrid were again victorious when Hampden Park hosted the final of the UEFA Champions League (the updated version of the European Cup) in 2002, defeating Bayer Leverkusen. Hampden Park will also host the UEFA Cup final in 2007.

Rugby union has also been played at the ground since its renovation, including a group game in the 1999 World Cup between defending champions South Africa and Uruguay.

In American football, the now-defunct Scottish Claymores of NFL Europe played at the stadium between 1998 and 2004. The league's championship game, the World Bowl, was held there in 2003. In that game, the Frankfurt Galaxy beat Rhein Fire.

The stadium has also hosted an array of concerts, and in 2000 was the venue for a boxing card headlined by former world champion Mike Tyson.

Hampden is also a venue that has been put forward to host events at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, should Glasgow's bid be successful.

Among the British and European capacity records Hampden holds are:

1937 - Attendance 149,547 : Scotland v England (British Home Championship) - highest in Europe
1937 - Attendance 146,433 : Celtic v Aberdeen (Scottish Cup Final) - highest for a club match in Europe
1970 - Attendance 136,505 : Celtic v Leeds United (European Cup Semi-Final) - highest for a UEFA competition match

One event which is mistakenly thought to have occurred at Hampden Park is the world's first football international. This actually happened at the West of Scotland Cricket Club's Hamilton Crescent ground in the Partick area of Glasgow.

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