Hampden Park in Glasgow is the only venue in Scotland to host events of the 2012 London Olympics. Football (soccer) will be the main attraction in northern Britain as world-class matches are played over several days of competition. Hampden Park is one of five venues to host Olympic matches before the opening ceremony.
Name: Hampden Park
Location: Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
Capacity: 52,000
Home teams: Queen's Park Football Club and Scottish national team
Olympic dates: July 25 (two women's group matches), July 26 (two men's group matches), July 28 (two women's group matches), Aug. 1 (men's group match), Aug. 3 (women's knockout stage)
Events hosted: European Cup, Rugby World Cup, UEFA Champions League finals
Future events: 2014 World Cup qualifiers
Nearest National Rail station: Mount Florida
Nearest body of water: River Clyde
Seat colors: Red, white and blue with designs such as the Scottish flag and the word "Hampden" in white letters
Stadium owner: Queens Park
Nearest major highway: M74
Largest attendance in history: 149,415 (England v. Scotland international match 1937)
First match: Celtic v. Queen's Park, Oct. 31, 1903
Capacity in 1937: 183,724 with completion of north stands
First concert: Rolling Stones in 1990
Other notable facts: A renovated stadium opened in 1994 on the grounds of the historic stadium with new improvements, according to BBC Sports. … New south and west stands were added in 1999. … First stadium built on 12 acres of farm land at Mount Florida. … Original stadium took three years to built. … Hampden Park is home to the Scottish Football Museum, an attraction with more than 2,500 artifacts on display. … Hampden hosts the Scottish Cup, the oldest national trophy awarded for football. … The first Olympic match held at Hampden Park will be between women's titans the United States and France, two sides that met in last year's Women's World Cup in Germany. … The first international football match in the world was held in Glasgow in 1872. … At 183,724, Hampden Park was the largest football stadium in the world in terms of capacity. … The stadium remained the largest in the world until Brazil's Maracana in Rio de Janeiro was completed in 1950 when 220,000 people jammed into the stadium to see the World Cup final. … Hampden Park is one of three large football stadiums in Glasgow, Ibrox Stadium and Celtic Park being the others.
William Browning has been a fan of the Summer Olympics since the games of 1984 in Los Angeles. Browning played soccer for 10 years growing up until his senior year of high school.
