Scotstoun Stadium
Rugby
URC
Glasgow
Score:
44.5
/ 60
Overview
I’ll admit that, at first glance, Scotstoun is uninspiring. Its humble stature and location, set amidst a larger sports complex run by Glasgow Council on the western fringe of the city, will never rival more imposing and picturesque stadiums. The stands, two of which are temporary, hold only 7,500 people and cannot match the volume and fervour of the three most famous grounds in Scottish football, which also call Glasgow home. Unless you’re visiting at the very beginning or the very end of the season you are likely to be frozen, glad that the proximity of other spectators allows you to huddle like penguins against the bitter wind. But with its dedicated core of fans, endlessly screaming to deaf-eared referees that everything the opposition does is offside; its eclectic mixture of culinary options, whose only unifying factor is that they will all swiftly give you heart disease; and the fact that it is home to one of the URC’s most dynamic sides make it well worth braving the dreich.
Score Summaries
Atmosphere & Experience: 7.5
Pick the right match day – a play-off game, or a clash with one of the major Irish or South African sides – and you are likely to be treated to a tense clash where the home team will be spurred on by the crowd’s deep, drawn-out chants of ‘Glaaaaaasgow’. The season ticket holders in the north stand, all of whom apparently hold doctorates in officiating, will hurl the gamut of not entirely friendly advice to outright threats at hapless referees and touch judges. Pick the wrong game, an 80+ point beatdown of Zebre or a 49-0 steamrolling of the Dragons, and, although you’ll be treated to some sustained attacking rugby and Glasgow’s impressive ability to deliver a full 80-minute performance, you risk finding yourself in a stadium with a two-thirds capacity crowd and one third of its peak atmosphere. Keep an eye on mascot Clyde the Cow whose (potentially amphetamine-fuelled) dancing is a sight to behold.
Seats: 8
Scotstoun offers good seats at affordable prices, with many of the costs around the halfway line topping out at around £45 for major match days. Both the main stand and the North Stand are covered, which you’ll be thankful for when the weather kicks in. If you choose the North Stand, beware that the first couple of rows can still be exposed to the elements given the wind’s tendency to make the rain fall near horizontally. Seats in the temporary stands are cheaper and the East Stand (situated at the sports centre end of the ground) is known to be the rowdiest. Most of the seats in these stands are covered, although those at the extreme ends of all rows on both sides are not. The awnings which cover the majority of seats are held up with poles which are a minor obstruction to your view of the pitch.
Catering: 8
The availability of macaroni pie alone would be enough to justify this score. Those (fools) who don’t want to eat the greatest thing ever to come out of Scotland can tuck in to pizza, gyros, churros, burgers, and salt and chilli chicken, amongst others. There’s a good range of Scottish beers on tap at all bars, but get in line ASAP, particularly at half-time, because the bar system is extremely inefficient and you may find yourself missing the opening exchanges of the second half if you’re not in line immediately after the whistle.
Facilities: 5
You’re likely to have to queue and what’s waiting for you at the end is going to cold and a bit grim. Don’t look at the layers and layers of dust built up in the extractor fans, you could probably get a passable geological record of Scotland from their accumulated striations.
Getting There: 8
You’ll get access to free bus travel to and from the game with your ticket and the ground is a short walk from stops for numerous bus routes that will get you back into town. It’s also a roughly ten-minute walk from Scotstounhill station, where semi-regular trains will take you into the city and further west.
Getting Away: 8
Small crowd sizes and frequency of buses into town should keep waiting times relatively brief. And it’s free. The train is cheap and the journey into Glasgow Central from Scotstounhill takes less than 15 minutes.