CELTIC PARK UPGRADE: AN OVERDUE FINAL PIECE IN THE PUZZLE MAY FINALLY COME TO PASS
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- 9 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Celtic Park, in its current form will soon be 30 years old. However, in that time, one part that has remained largely untouched is the South Stand.
If recent reports are to be believed then this is about to change.
The hospitality areas, executive seating and other “behind the scenes” areas of the South Stand have seen incremental improvements over the years.
However, the experience for the average fan remains mostly unaltered from the first time I set foot in that part of the stadium way back in 1992.
Prominent Journalist Cites Multiple Sources for Celtic Park Upgrade
There aren’t many journalists left sadly whose coverage of Scottish football I have much respect for.
However, one of that ever-diminishing breed of actual, proper journalists still taking an interest in our game is Phil Mac Giolla Bhain.
As the author of “Downfall: How Rangers FC Self-Destructed” (a book guaranteed to brighten any Celtic fan’s day), Phil’s sources when it comes to covering both sides of Glasgow’s footballing divide have proven to be correct over a number of years.
His latest blog, which I encourage you all to go and read (after you’ve read a few more of ours of course!) hints that Celtic may soon announce plans to upgrade the South Stand at Celtic Park.
If you read my piece on Greg Taylor’s supposed new contract yesterday, you’ll recall that I talked about the importance of multiple, independent sources, when trying to verify if a story is true or not.
Though he doesn’t name his sources, Phil does state that multiple accounts of this story have come to him in recent weeks, from different, trusted sources.
This suggests to me that it is probably likely to happen.
One of the big obstacles to expanding the South Stand is the fact that it would necessitate displacing a number of fans for a period of time.
However, if the upgrade was handled incrementally, then the number of impacted fans should be kept to a minimum.
There’s the often-misunderstood idea that Celtic Park’s South Stand has some kind of listed building status, that makes an upgrade difficult.
This is incorrect. The stand itself was only built in 1971, with the current “front door” for want of a better phrase to describe the prism shaped frontage of the stadium, wasn’t added until the mid-1980s.
Ibrox, on the other hand is a partially listed building. Its main stand’s red-brick façade dates back to 1929. Though the political views of their fans date back a lot further than that!
A Stadium upgrade would also pave the way for Celtic Park to eventually attain the coveted 5-star rating from UEFA.
This would allow us to host European Finals, and other showpiece games such as European Championship matches at Celtic Park.
Anyway, expect further announcements on this in due course.
File it under “rumors” for the time being, but as I said, the sources in this case are, in my opinion, more trustworthy than most journalists who cover Celtic.
Watch this space.