Glasgow Warriors deserve more than Scotstoun - Rob Robertson

Fast forward to the summer and it was Kyle Steyn who skippered the present day team to the United Rugby Championship after a famous play-off final victory over the Bulls in Pretoria.

The success may keep on coming but what is concerning is that not much has changed for Glasgow fans off the pitch at home over these nine years. Their team may keep on winning but they deserve more backing from the SRU and more investment in the stadium at Scotstoun to make the fan experience better.

Up until now there have been unfilled promises from the governing body over the Warriors home ground that doubles as an athletics centre as well as a rugby stadium and is owned by Glasgow Life, the culture and sporting arm of Glasgow City Council.

It was back in August, 2018  that the Scottish Rugby Union first announced they were looking to permanently increase the capacity of Scotstoun from 8,000 to 12,000 off the back of the increasing success of Glasgow Warriors.

Six years on and nothing of the sort has happened. Indeed the two-time league champions will have a home capacity of around 7,300 when they start their new season. That’s less than Edinburgh and less than it was back in 2018. Not exactly building on the feel good factor following the Warriors latest title success.

Even against a background of cuts at the SRU -35 people are set to leave the governing body over the next few months to try and rectify a £10m deficit- that is a sad state of affairs for a club that did the country proud by lifting the URC title.

It strikes me amid all the big future plans for Scottish Rugby even the thought of increasing the permanent capacity of Scotstoun, let alone finding the club a home of their own which should not be dismissed out of hand, has slipped off the radar.

If it isn’t even being talked about now off the back of the recent success by the Warriors it likely it never will be which is sad. Glasgow Warriors managing director Al Kellock has done a terrific job on the business side with Franco Smith working wonders as head coach yet the sound of silence continues to come from Murrayfield regarding any possible permanent upgrades at Scotstoun or the start of a search for a new home. The SRU will argue they have and can again put up temporary stands for big games to increase the capacity at Scotstoun when needed but where is the ambition in that? Temporary stands come and go and are not a Iasting commitment.

To be fair Glasgow Warriors are willing tenants of Glasgow Life and it is believed they have extended their lease agreement but clearly they would much prefer their own ground or at the least improvements to the one they are in. 

Read more:

• John Jeffrey and the murky world of rugby politics

• Birkmyre RFC looking to adapt to new league after promotion

Any Glasgow fan will tell you - and lots have told me through the years- the match day experience at Scotstoun leaves a lot to be desired. There is hardly any parking on site and wardens are on the prowl round Scotstoun on match days. Local residents have to remember to put parking permits on their cars to make sure they aren’t fined. There aren’t as many toilets as fans would want in the stadium complex and sometimes there are leaks -there was a long-standing one in the north stand roof - that bothered supporters.

The building that Glasgow Warriors wants to use as a clubhouse for fans in the stadium complex has been out of commission for a long time which is a frustration to supporters although the new-look fans zone where independent food and drink retailers set up has been a success.

With the future of the Commonwealth Games still undecided but with Glasgow the only city seemingly willing to host a scaled-down version Scotstoun could be used as a venue for some track and field events. On the plus side that could lead to stadium improvements and no more leaky roofs while on the negative side, Glasgow Warriors may have to find a temporary home venue when the work is carried out.

Meanwhile, Edinburgh Rugby has their own £5.7m custom-built stadium, The Hive, thanks to the SRU that they built for them in the grounds of Murrayfield. It holds 7,800, a bit more than Scotstoun, with both having a hybrid playing surface. Glasgow has a very good gymnasium on site at Scotstoun but Edinburgh can use the bigger one and the rest of the state-of-the-art facilities at Murrayfield.

The very least Glasgow deserves off the back of their URC win is some sort of statement of intent from the SRU to the fans that their stadium will be improved and capacity permanently increased. They can’t continue to be treated like second class citizens compared to Edinburgh.

It was the SRU’s then-chief operating officer Dominic McKay, who went on to have a short stint as the Celtic chief executive, who first put forward the plan to increase the capacity at Scotstoun after he officially heard the governing body had won the rights to stage the 2019 PRO14 final at Celtic Park.

It was an indication of how buoyant rugby was in the west of Scotland at the time that the SRU decided to throw their hat in the ring in the first place to get the showpiece event. They could have nominated Murrayfield - whatever stadium hosted the final needed to have a big capacity-  and staged the event in the east but instead decided to take it to Glasgow. At the time Glasgow Warriors were on a high with Dave Rennie, whose star was still in the ascendancy before his disastrous spell with Australia, in charge.

It was a calculated risk as they didn’t know who would be running out at Celtic Park at the end of the season. Turned out the finalists could not have been any better if those at Murrayfield had picked them themselves. Glasgow Warriors made it to play Leinster from Dublin. A record crowd of 47,128 turned up in the pouring rain in the east end of Glasgow to watch the Warriors narrowly lose 18-15 to the team from the Irish capital.

It is not known how far the SRU got in negotiations with Glasgow Life and Glasgow City Council at the time to permanently increase the capacity of Scotstoun but turn up there next season to cheer on the league champions and the fans will still find themselves in a stadium that their club don’t own with a permanent capacity a bit less than it was when they played in their league winning season of 2018/2019.

Not exactly forward-thinking especially when you realise that expanding the Scotstoun capacity is now a viable option for Glasgow Warriors. Pre-Covid they were selling out every week then from 2021/2022 to last season they weren’t selling out enough fixtures to create the need to expand. 

But in their successful URC league-winning campaign they sold out eight of their 12 home games and the demand is now there for a bigger Scotstoun with more permanent seats and better facilities. It’s up to the SRU to take notice of that and work with Glasgow Life and Glasgow City Council to create a much-improved stadium for Warriors fans. They deserve it.