| Arachnophilia |
| Scotland takes Hampden over this weekend, but is Hampden the right home for Queen's? |
| This weekend may be 'International weekend' and Scotland, not Queen's Park, are playing at Hampden, but that doesn't mean we in the lower leagues get a week off from the discussions of football. Something that has been foremost on the minds of some fans has been Hampden Park itself, and whether it is the best home that The Spiders could have. That is what I will give my thoughts on today. The argument for leaving Hampden goes like this: we are not doing well at home - performances are poor and results are just as bad. However, we play better away from home - wouldn't it be nice if every game was an away game? Well, some people think that if Queen's were to play our home games at Lesser Hampden then it would be more like an away game, we would play much better and all our problems with playing at home would be solved. However I do not feel that this argument is valid at all. Admittedly at home we are often not the same as away from home, but this has not always been the case. In our Championship winning season in 99-00 we had great games both at home and away, and the in season 01-02 it should be noted that our home points tally was actually greater than the away. Admittedly our overall record that season was not very good, but facts are facts. As for playing at Lesser Hampden - those who think that this would solve all our problems clearly haven't thought things through properly. In my opinion a move away from Hampden would make more problems that it would solve. For a start what is the biggest ( perhaps for some, the only ) attraction for players coming to play for Queen's? The chance to play at and use the facilities of Hampden Park. If we hadn't had the attraction of Hampden Park, then the chances are that we would not have been able to sign many of the players that we have at present, or for that matter players who helped us get our Championship win in 2000. Another very simple reason against using Lesser Hampden for first team games is that it is simply not up to a suitable standard. The pitch would never stand up to all the use from the first team, the Strollers and of course training. Also the facilities at Hampden for the supporters are great ( except for the catering, but that is another story ), and while the away grounds may be good fun and everything you can't deny that it is good to be in a 'real' stadium ( not like that place they call the 'Borough Briggs Stadium', but again that's another story....). I think it is probable that a move away from Hampden Park would put some of our fans off going to the home games. Moreover I think that perhaps fewer away fans would make the effort to go - they would no longer have the incentive of getting to go to Hampden Park. Of course, another big advantage of Hampden is that it allows the club to offer deals which make use of the stadium's hospitality facilities. I don't know how much these deals get taken up, and obviously I don't know how much money the club actually make from this, but I am sure it is significant enough for the club not to want to lose this income - in fact any drop in income will I am sure be felt, whether it be from a drop in crowd numbers, or from the loss of the hospitality packages. Finally, Hampden Park is our home, and has been for 100 years. It is part of our history and is one of the things that makes the club special, along with our amatuer status. I don't want to see the club moving out of Hampden - for a start Hampden still has happy memories for me, as I am sure it does for most other fans and of course the players. We are outraged when people like Jim Traynor and Berti Vogts are quoted as saying we should get out of Hampden. We say "why should we leave? We own Hampden, we should be able to play there", yet moving out of our own accord seems to be another matter entirely. Hampden is Scotland's National Stadium - where would Scottish football have been without Queen's Park? To conclude, Hampden Park is a ground we should be proud to own and proud to play at - we shouldn't be slagging it off. So the atmosphere is poor at Hampden is it? Then it's up to us to make more noise. Have you not seen how the players seem to respond to more enthusiasm for the crowd at Hampden? We should stay at Hampden Park - it is our home, and has been for so long that to walk out on it now would be to abandon part of our history to fools like the SFA. Keep Hampden, keep supporting the team at Hampden, keep our promotion hopes alive - home form is vital to that. Allez les hoops! Yours, the ever-optimistic Basil |