Scotland may consider a solo bid to host Euro 2012, rather than mounting a joint bid with the FAI according to SFA chief executive David Taylor. The FAI announced on Sunday that it was planning to approach the Scots despite the failed bid for Euro 2008... http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/scotland/3886369.stm I personally hope we don't bid for it. It’s an expensive waste of time and money, as Uefa probably know who will host the tournament already! But if we do, lets ditch the Irish!
I think we should go it alone. The Irish are just a disaster. Anyway, they only want to put Lansdowne Road in, with us providing the other 7 stadia. They can get tae fcuk! I'd rather build a new stadium in Aberdeen or Dundee than get involved with that incompetant lot.
It would be awesome to see this happen. There are 4 stadiums that can be used alredy (Celtic Park, Ibrox, Hampden, and Muarryfield) and Scotland could expand a few staiduims if they wanted too. I think Aberdeen, Dundee and I cant think of other two. But yeah, Ireland fvcked Scotland out of the last one.
I don't know the ins and outs, but I don't think the Scots should make a bid to host Euro 2012, with or without the Irish. For starters, there'd be an almighty fuss over which of the three Glasgow stadiums wouldn't be used (I believe the tournament rules dictate that no more than two stadia can be used in each host city). At the moment it would be Ibrox and Hampden (both UEFA 5* stadia), and, if things remained the same, I could see the Celtic fans going into paranoic overdrive on that if the Piggery was omitted! Secondly, what's the point of having numerous 30,000 stadia if they're not going to be filled during the domestic league campaign? I mean, even the 10,000 all-seater SPL qualifying criteria is laughable. It could be argued that hosting a major tournament such as this could boost tourism in the country for years to come. I think the Scottish Tourist Board do enough to promote the country so I don't feel there's any significant weight to this argument. Waste of time and money, methinks (the only positive would be that Scotland wouldn't actually have to qualify... ).
Of course, if the GAA allowed "foreign" sports to be played at Croke Park, that would relieve the burden on the Scots a little, but that's another story...
Even as an Irish supporter, I can't see a joint bid being any good. Not if Ireland are only going to refurb Lansdowne. Its a lovely idea, question is, can Scotland provide 7 25k-plus venues at a price that makes holding the events worthwhile. Here is my count from 3000+ miles away. Notes taken from :http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/park/yfh45/scots/grounds.htm Paradise: 60k Good to go Murrayfield: 60k Good to go House of Blues: 50k Good to go. Pittodre: 22k Needs help at the Merkland Stand end, (additon in '93) Tynecastle: 18k Questionable (additions in the '90's) Rugby Park (Killie?) 18k Questionable (additions in the '90's) Easter Road: 17k Questionable Am I missing any rugby venues that could be used? Portugal sank a mint into Euro 2004. I have yet to see anyone break it down economically, but I can't see how it could ever have been a money-maker. That said the suits in the SPL must be having the guard changed on their drool buckets hourly at the prospect of geting stadia such as the Averio (below) built? I mean Aviero seats 30,000 and little SC Beira-Mar routinely draws about 12,000 at best. Could you see Killie or Livingston playing in such a palace? Will the taxpayers stand for it? Personally, my favorite of the small stadiums in Portugal was the Algrave in the South, which is also a 30,000 seater.
Exactly, it's crap like that which means the Irish should be allowed nowhere near our bid, if it were to go ahead. I think, if the rest of the bid was good enough, UEFA would allow the use of the 3 Glasgow stadia, seeing as they are all very large and all (even CP is 4* I think) highly rated. Aberdeen's new stadium would have to be included, also the Dundee clubs would proabaly agree to share a large stadium. One would be buuilt in Edinburgh too, either just for Hearts or for both. I also think it would be possible to build one in Inverness. The thing is, all 30,000 seats do not have to be permanent, the Belgians had a lot of temporary seating. I think a lot of these stadiums were around 20,000 and had 10,000 added. If we were to build a number of stadiums from scratch, I'm sure adding, maybe up to, 15,000 seats would not be a problem. If we're going to do it though, it has to be decided soon, we have to ditch the Irish and put everything into it from the off.
There are no other sporting stadia, I don't think. Maybe the Commonwealth Stadium could be refurbished but that might be more trouble than it's worth. Portuagal spent a lot of money, possibly more than we would have to spend and Scotland (Britain even, as I'm sure the UK govt would provide a lot of cash) is a lot wealtheir than Portugal. We may end up losing money but holding a tournament is worth that, it would be amazing!
C-Man, you forgot Hampden, which the SFA would insist upon hosting the final despite it being crap in comparison to Ibrox (the Mechano/Lego hybrid dump that is Parkhead lags well behind). And I'm honestly not making up that "one city-two stadia" thing... Don't know how happy the SRFU (or whatever those egg-chasing pansies are called) would be with Murrayfield being used. Also, is it not the case that Tynecastle's pitch dimensions aren't up to UEFA standard (I think that's why they need to move out of there, and the SRFU haven't been too receptive to them. I'm sure it's nothing a wad of cash couldn't fix though, and an international tournament such as this would definitely bring that)? That would appear to rule Tynecastle out. In my eyes, there's no point splashing the cash on refurbishments/new stadia if the things are only going to be used to their full potential once in a blue moon. By the bye, were FAI not thinking of building a new 45,000 all-seater stadium in Dublin? What ever became of that?
Hampden in UEFA's favourite Scottish stadium, not Ibrox. the Champions League final was held there a couple of years ago remember, and apparently everyone was impressed with it. We have 4 which are well up to and above minimum standard. That will work in our favour as very few smaller countries will be able to provide more than a couple of stadia like the Glasgow 3 and Murrayfield. Tynecastle is not an option. The pitch is too small and there is no room for enlargement. As I said, temporary seating can eliminate the problem of white elephants sitting unused for years after the tournament.
Remember Gordon, if a national association wants one of it's stadia to host a European club competition final, it must make the proposal. UEFA does not cherry-pick the stadium. After the money spent on Hampden (which all seemed to go on the VIP and press enclosures), the SFA were hardly going to nominate Ibrox to be used instead. That it has not hosted a major European final, in fact, is an absolute disgrace, but that's neither here nor there I suppose... I'm just a miserable git, and though having a tournament such as this on our doorstep would be fantastic, I just don't see it as being economically viable or worthwhile.
Same discussion going on the TAMB .. Here is one on the negative side for you "I just read on the BBC website that Portugal invested a whopping 600 million Euros in the tournament (400 million quid). This basically built 10 brand new stadiums and significantly improved transport links. Sounds a lot, but is more than balanced by the fact that they recouped an estimated 900 million Euros in revenue. This isn't including the huge boost to tourism from the millions who went there, loved it and will return, or the hundreds of millions watching on TV who said 'hey, Portugal looks great, Let's go there next holiday'. In short, the advantages severely outweigh the disadvantages. Unfortunately, I can never see this Labour government making the same investment in Scotland. Backed of course by the Daily Record, who used lies and false figures to try to persuade a generally 'can't be a rsed' Scottish public that somehow hosting the tournament would be bad for Scotland It's a damn shame that we don't have someone with the balls to make a courageous decision, but as usual in Scotland, cynicism and short-sightedness win the day everytime... " ---Rossy
£400m - The Scottish Executive should have invested in the European Championships instead of building the new parliament building!
Well said! We always look at the bad side! How anyone can say it would be a bad thing is crazy! Look at the champion’s league final. I was in Glasgow that and the place was buzzing! The atmosphere was great. Can you imagine that for 3 weeks! We should be pulling out all the stops to try and get it. It would also give us a goal to aim for with the football team!
I think it would be great to have an Euro in Scotaland! here in Portugal we had a fantastic time when the Euro was played, we built new stadiums, new roads, we improved hospitals etc etc Wasn´t only a football tournment, was something to remember for a long time The only major problem to Scotland that i can remember is having thousands of English going to Sotland
I think as part of the "ancillary infrastructure" funding bit, a GBP100M refurb of Hadrian's Wall is in order. Minefields, guard dogs, machine gun towers... Contract it out the the Israelis and you'd probably pick up a few thousand extra hectares.
LOL!! We can take back Berwick and hoof out all those English Berwick Rangers fans, they are a really annoying bunch.
Wasn't Hadrian's Wall built to keep you lot out? Sounds good to me Although I expect we'd soon let you back in after we realised we had a massive shortage of dirty drunken tramps hanging around our street corners.
Yes it was, only cos you lot weren't good enough to keep the Romans out of your own country. England will never have a shortage of dirty drunken tramps.
Muarryfiled would be ok. The SRU said it was ok for Euro 2008, so I can not think of a reason it would not be ok this time around also.
Correct. Murrayfield is fantastic stadium when it's full. And, unlike Ireland, our different sports associations, are actually reasonable and not full of archaic old bastards.
Interesting to see the man that was put in charge of reviving curling in Scotland has now been put in charge of reviving Scottish Football. He has a £31m budget as well.
Well we needed some roads to be built..... and erm, viaducts and stuff. True. At least now they'll have their chance and we won't have to listen to them moaning about the 'bloody Scots coming down here, taking our jobs....'