THE LANDLORD IS QUEEN'S PARK

Today the news was that Scotland's international team may have to re-think its "home" as the Scottish FA may not be able to pay the "rent" for their home venue of Hampden Park in Mount Florida, Glasgow. The lease for the stadium ends in 2020 when the FA may have to reconsider the annual rent they have to pay for "hiring" the ground from amateur club Queen's Park.

The Scottish amateur league club has played at Hampden Park, named after Englishman, John Hampden, who fought the Scots in the Civil War, since 1873. It hosted the first SFA Cup Final in 1874 and the first Hampden staged the first Scotland v England international in 1878 which 15,000 saw. 

With the news that a railway development was going to run through the ground, the Queen's Park club moved to a new Hampden Park in October 1884 at Cathkin Park, which later became the home to Third Lanark FC. Scotland entertained England first there in March that year. Third Lanark went out of business in 1967 and Cathkin Park is now a public park.

The third Hampden was built at Mount Florida for Queen's Park in 1899 with the famous grandstand designer, Archibald Leitch, making his characteristic mark on the stadium, along with modern developments in terraces and crowd control, as a result of the Ibrox fire disaster in 1902.

It has been used for internationals since 1903, when it was regarded as the biggest in the world, surpassed by the Maracana in 1950. The England match was first held there in 1906.

Outside the main stadium is Lesser Hampden, a facility used for training and less important matches since the 1920s.

All Scottish clubs' rateable values have been reassessed by Holyrood, with some businesses experiencing rises of 300%. The Hampden Park rateable value will rise to £1.25 million from April 1st, a price the SFA may not be able to afford. The assessment is calculated based on capacity, attendances and businesses run inside the stadium. Not all clubs have been assessed equally. So the answer is to take international matches and the like out into the "sticks".

The Euro 2020 group games and a last 16 tie may be the swansong for the famous venue.

I have written about Hampden before:
http://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/three-hampdens.html

This is taken from the Hampden Park website and this is a pictorial history of the stadium:
http://www.hampdenpark.co.uk/the-hampden-experience/history-timeline.html
and this is the history:http://www.hampdenpark.co.uk/the-hampden-experience/hampden-history.html