Euro 2016 (Scotland)

[Croi Sasanach]

Hello all,

I was reading about a potential bid from Scotland for Euro 2016, Also a joint bid with Ireland or Wales has been considered.

What do you think? Do you think there is enough decent sized stadia in Scotland (most seem to be based in Glasgow) to host the event? enough big cities?

[ANDY-J3]

They tried a joint bid before with Ireland to host a Euro championship but it fell through due to a lack of commitment on the part of the Irish. I don't see a Scottish bid as being realistic- there are maybe six or seven stadia in the country that are up to the required standard and that's including Murrayfield- assuming the RFU would consent to it being used- and I don't see how it would be possible to play a full European championship with such limited resources.

[LongHairedBeardedKiltie]

Originally Posted by Croi Sasanach

Hello all,

I was reading about a potential bid from Scotland for Euro 2016, Also a joint bid with Ireland or Wales has been considered.

What do you think? Do you think there is enough decent sized stadia in Scotland (most seem to be based in Glasgow) to host the event? enough big cities?

Hi Croi
OK these are the facts as I see it, they may be correct, they may be wrong (They also have a pro SNP bias also)

In the 2008 bid, we came second to an inflated bid from Austria and Switzerland that had it not been from the incompetence of the Scottish/Eire bid then we would have secured it. Our bid was thus:

We would have stadia in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen and Dublin. (UEFA hosting crieria is 8 x 30k and above stadia in at least 4 different cities, 3 of these stadia must be 40k and in 3 different cities and at least 1 must have 50k seats) This would be achieved by the following:

Using the following exsisting Stadia
Celtic Park, Glasgow - 60,000
Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow - 52,000
Hampden Park, Glasgow - 52,000
Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh - 67,500
Croke Park, Dublin - 83,000
Redeveloped Landsdowne Road, Dublin 60,000

and building stadiums in Dundee (Shared Dundee - Dundee United Stadium) Aberdeen and redeveloping Easter Road to 30,000

We had issues with a Labour government hosting a first minister who didnt have a scooby what he was doing (Henry McLeish) who got replaced later in the bid with a first minister who was apathetic towards the bid (Jack McConnell) and his Irish counterpart that couldn't secure the use of Croke Park from the GAA (Bertie Ahern) One week he could, then he couldn't, it went see saw like that for a while.

So with an apathetic bid we (not surprisingly) didnt get it. I hope that with a government that wants to promote Scottish-ness we would put forward a bid we can be proud of.

[LongHairedBeardedKiltie]

Originally Posted by ANDY-J3

They tried a joint bid before with Ireland to host a Euro championship but it fell through due to a lack of commitment on the part of the Irish. I don't see a Scottish bid as being realistic- there are maybe six or seven stadia in the country that are up to the required standard and that's including Murrayfield- assuming the RFU would consent to it being used- and I don't see how it would be possible to play a full European championship with such limited resources.

The SRU are potless Andy, they will take rent money from anyone, they even let Hearts play their big games there!

[Croi Sasanach]

Not sure if you can have so many stadia in one city though, Glasgow i mean ?

What about Scotland and north-north England? St James Park and the Stadium of Light are less than 2hrs from Edinburgh?

[LongHairedBeardedKiltie]

Originally Posted by Croi Sasanach

Not sure if you can have so many stadia in one city though, Glasgow i mean ?

What about Scotland and north-north England? St James Park and the Stadium of Light are less than 2hrs from Edinburgh?

Dont think there is anything to prohibit it, perhaps whether there is enough Hotels in that city, but in 1996, Birmingham had a campsite.