Sports Venue Review: Hampden Park

This will be the first of many reviews I’ll be posting about sports venues that I’ve stepped inside of here in the U.S. and abroad. If you’ve followed me anywhere on social media or previous sites I’ve written on, then you know that going to sporting events and/or tours is quite possibly my favorite thing to do when traveling. And I’ve been to many.

The first review in this series that I’m going to do is at a place I’ve already mentioned in a previous entry on this site. Glasgow’s Hampden Park was the first sports venue I stepped inside of outside of the U.S. when my good friends Craig and Danielle took me there back in 2017. Danielle had asked me what things I’d like to see in Glasgow and I told her I was into history and sports. Without hesitation, she recommended a Hampden Park tour.

The venue is nearly 116 years old, and for many years was the largest international football stadium in terms of attendance in the world.

Quick facts:

Website: Hampden: Scotland’s National Stadium

Opening date: October 31, 1903

First event: Queen’s Park defeated Celtic 1-0 in football.

Largest crowd: 149,415 on April 17, 1937(Scotland defeated England 3-1 in an International Football Match)

Current home tenants: Queen’s Park Rangers F.C. and Scottish National Football Team

Visit type: Stadium Tour and Museum

Upon arrival, I took some pics of outside Hampden Park before going in, and I also had Danielle take one of me before the tour.

We opted to go on tour with a guide and to the Scottish Football Hall of Fame Museum. So we started out on a guided tour.

The tour lasted a little over an hour and the guide named Joseph took us to the most accessible areas. He told us that the previous tour was a group from Hong Kong, so that clearly shows they come from all over to see this place. We went to press boxes as well as on the field during the tour.

During the tour, we all got to test out our kicking skills. That is a fun thing for kids to try as they let you kick the footballs into a net or goal. Kicking is not my strong suit, but it’s a nice interactive thing they have for you to do.

Then we went to the Cup presentation area where some of the greatest and crowning moments in Scottish sports history has taken place.

We finished the tour by going on the field and that’s when it started to rain. The guide took a pic of us(shown above) as the rain was coming down. You can clearly see rain drops in the pic of us.

Joseph was a very knowledgeable tour guide, and he even brought up the story of Hibernian F.C. breaking a 114-year Scottish Cup drought by winning it there at Hampden Park in 2016. This was after I told him that the Chicago Cubs broke a 108-year drought by winning the World Series in the same year when another employee mentioned the team when talking about that city. I told him the Cubs were my team, and he was aware of them winning the World Series. What are the odds that I would hear of a team having a longer drought than the Cubs in winning a title? And that both would break the drought in the same year? We all discussed sports at that point and he brought up being a huge Rangers F.C. fan. He along with Danielle and Craig then dropped some big knowledge about the Rangers. As we continued talking, I told him about me going to other cities while I was in Europe and I mentioned Lisbon was one place I was going to. He said he was just there recently, so he wrote down some places he liked in Lisbon that he recommended. Major props to Joseph for being quite possibly the best tour guide I’ve ever had. That alone should make you want to go here.

After the tour was done, we walked around to check out the Hall of Fame exhibit that displays the greatest moments in Scottish football history along with legendary players. They also have the famous Hill there that stands out very well for visitors.

My thoughts on Hampden Park

If you’re a sports fan and you’re visiting Scotland, this is a must. You won’t find any sporting venue in Scotland that is more historic and ground-breaking than this one is. It was the largest stadium in attendance for many years, and it’s still one of the oldest active sporting venues around. There’s a reason the Scottish National team plays there, and it has been the previous site to EUFA Finals matches as well. Whether you’re attending a game or going on tour of the stadium and Hall of Fame Museum, there’s really no wrong time of the year to go. In the summer months is when you’ll most likely have to attend by stadium tour, unless a special event such as a concert is going on.

You’re allowed to score a goal, go to the cup presentation area, and listen to the “Hampden Roar”. The tour guide will take photos of you by the end of the visit and by request.

They have a café inside the place with meals, snacks, and drinks for if you get hungry or thirsty.

If you’re a big sports fan and visit Glasgow, this would be the place you would want to go to. Hampden Park will always have a very strong and historical significance to the people of Glasgow.