THE WORLD’S first international football stadium could become flats or a car park unless action is taken, according to campaigners.
Hampden Park was the “blueprint” for football grounds after its construction in 1873 – but it’s now a struggling bowling club.
It was the home of Queens Park from 1873-1883 and hosted Scottish Cup finals and Scotland international games.
If it closes, the grounds will be free for redevelopment or commercial use and football enthusiasts are trying to prevent it, claiming the site should be “celebrated and protected”.
If there are no buyers for the site it will be returned to Land Property Glasgow, who handle land for Glasgow City Council‘s local authority.
David Coutts, a trustee at the bowling club, told BBC Scotland: “There’s a social history there, and a working class history there. It’s from this site and this green that the biggest sport in the world developed.”
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A dig took place on the site in 2021 where remains of the original football stadium, where Scotland thrashed England 5-1 in 1882, were found.
Lindsay Hamilton, who runs a tour company, takes customers around the three Hampden Park sites. She claims football venues use the original template for Hampden Park to this day.
She said: “This ground is the blueprint for every football stadium that was built. Queen’s Park built grandstands, toilets, and turnstiles for it and it was the first purpose-built international football stadium in the world.
“It was the first place where season tickets were first used, or members books as they called it then.
“How we experience football today was all built at first on that site – it’s of huge significance to football.”
Queens Park moved to another stadium near Crosshill in 1884, taking the Hampden name with them. The site has been used by the bowling club since 1905.
But the club is “on its last legs” according to Coutts, after a decline in memberships leaves only around 50 members left.
The club leases the site on a monthly basis but has failed to secure a longer, commercial lease with City Property.
That, combined with the lack of funding, could mean a block of flats or a car park could appear in its place in the near future.
Members of the club are hoping the local community may be interested in taking over the site and transforming it into a community hub for events and film screenings.
An extraordinary general meeting is being held with Hampden Bowling Club soon, in the hopes of getting local people involved.
Hamilton believes preserving the site is the most important thing.
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She added: “A lot of early football landmarks in other cities have become supermarket car parks or things like that, but here you can still step on it – it’s tangible.
“It doesn’t look like a pitch now, but the foundations of the original stadium are there. If this was in London or Rio de Janeiro or Buenos Aires it would have its own museum there.”
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