Hampden to close for Commonwealth Games preparation

Artist's impression of the stadium
during the 2014 Commonwealth
Games

Hampden Park, home of Scottish football is to close for one year in the run-up and immediate aftermath of the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

The announcement last week came as the city of Glasgow gears up for the event, which is seeing parts of the city regenerated for the return of the Commonwealth Games to Scotland.

The stadium's host club, Queens Park FC, will have to relocate their home fixtures from November 2013 until November 2014, allowing for the stadium to be renovated.

The stadium is the perfect venue for athletics, with its oval shape and track around the grass pitch.

But the track is not wide enough for an eight lane track and long jump/pole vault runs, so a temporary surface will be installed, raised at a level approximately two feet above the current track.

This will remove the front two rows of seats around the stadium, so capacity will be reduced slightly, but this is the only way that the ground can be adapted to hold a full athletics programme.

Queens Park will play their home games in the meantime at Airdrie United's Excelsior Stadium.

Qualifying fixtures for the 2014 World Cup will be completed by the time that the ground is to be closed, while there may be the need for any home qualifiers at the start of the France Euro 2016 tournament to be moved to other grounds, with Celtic Park or Ibrox being the most likely venues to be chosen.