Across the course of one magical night two weeks ago, Hampden bore witness to a miraculous overhead kick from Scott McTominay, Kieran Tierney’s tracer bullet and Kenny McLean’s outrageous chip from the half-way line.
The spiritual home of Scottish football was probably due to see a tap into an open goal. In a commercial sense, that’s now arrived.
Confirmation that the SFA has struck a deal for the old place to be known as ‘Barclays Hampden’ in a ‘multi-million-pound, long-term partnership’ clearly won’t quite be greeted with quite the same joy as those seismic moments we witnessed against Denmark.
But the arrangement, which also sees the financial services company become an official partner of both the men’s and women’s Scottish Cups and the Next Gen Girls’ Performance Programme, is unquestionably further good news for the game at large.
Given Euro 2024 was the main driver in the governing body’s turnover shooting up by £21.6m to £78.7m, it’s safe to assume that the victory for Steve Clarke’s side in the defining World Cup qualifier should help swell the coffers by another healthy eight-figure sum.
While that’s going to help bolster every part of the game from grassroots to facilities, you clearly can’t bank on such a windfall arriving every two years. Scotland, as we know, have an unfortunate habit of not qualifying for major tournaments.
Scotland’s national stadium will now officially be known as Barclays Hampden
As well as stadium naming rights, Barclays will sponsor the men’s and women’s Scottish Cups
Kenny McLean’s last-minute hit against Denmark will be the last action at plain old ‘Hampden’
Significant sponsorship deals, such as the one announced on Monday, aren’t directly dependent on the on-field success of the national team. And they don’t half help the ecosystem.
In a sport where tradition and history play such big parts, stadium naming rights can certainly be an emotive subject.
There will undoubtedly be some who believe the SFA haven’t so much as sold off Hampden’s name as sold the game’s soul. But they will surely be few.
Hampden remains in the title and Hampden it will simply always be for those alighting at this revered place on Glasgow’s South Side.
While not quite money for nothing, the commercial department has struck a deal which will benefit many facets of Scottish football in the long-term without giving up too much. It feels like a lot of gain for very little pain.
You wonder if one consequence of the announcement is that more clubs in this country will look to follow suit.
Of the 12 current Premiership sides, only three — St Mirren, Livingston and Kilmarnock – have sponsors in their official stadium name.
Livingston’s ground is now the Home of the Set Fare Arena, formerly the Tony Macaroni Arena
After many years when Dens Park always appeared beside a company’s name on official documents, Dundee dropped the arrangement this season. So far, the country’s biggest clubs — Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen, Hibs and Hearts — have resisted going down this road.
For most supporters who have grown weary of feeling like a walking pound sign, this situation is curious.
Replica strips are being churned out and hung in the shelves of club shops like never before. These are invariably emblazoned with sponsors’ logos. Yet, oddly, the names of many stadia seem to be sacrosanct.
Would the long-standing Ibrox season ticket holder really care if the official stadium name also carried a corporate brand? For the purpose of conversation, every other Saturday, they would still bound for Ibrox.
It remains a sensitive subject where one of the guiding principles is that less is always more.
While there’s a harsh financial reality to life in the lower leagues, you’d question the benefit in those clubs living hand-to mouth from changing their stadium name quite so frequently.
This century, for example, Dumbarton’s ground has seen as many names as managers (nine). Little wonder, it remains colloquially known as The Rock.
Throughout Europe, supporters at all levels seem less concerned with corporate naming rights when it involves a change of location.
Even if Rangers were to announce a stadium naming rights deal, fans would still call it Ibrox
Arsenal and Manchester City went the whole hog when respectively calling their new grounds The Emirates and The Etihad. These were new beginnings away from Highbury and Maine Road. It was felt that there was no need to cling onto the past.
It’s funny how you quickly get used to something. Many of those Gunners fans who had reservations about the tie-in with the Emirates back in 2006 are now concerned about what happens when the stadium naming rights deal expires in 2028.
Notably, neither Manchester United or Liverpool, England’s two most successful clubs, have gone down this road. The merits of renaming or partial renaming Old Trafford and Anfield is a debate which never quite goes away, but there appears to be no such plans in the pipeline.
Often, in this circumstance, money talks. When Spurs started planning for life away from White Hart Lane, it was assumed that the club’s new home would carry the name of a corporate powerhouse.
To this day, it remains The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Everything has its price. And so far, no one has met that which is demanded by the North London club to walk hand-in-hand in corporate bliss.
Even at the top financial tier of the European game, though, few clubs are quite so choosy.
As they settle back into life at the rebuilt Spotify Camp Nou, Barcelona are licking their lips at the prospect of £18m-per-season guaranteed revenue from stadium sponsorship as part of a wider £400m plus deal which includes kit deals. Nice work if you can get it.
For those below them in the food chain, it’s all a careful balancing act. A recent report by consultancy firm Kroll claimed that only 13 clubs in Europe could expect to make more than £9m per year through naming rights.
Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium has long since replaced Maine Road in the hearts of fans
While every penny clearly helps, there’s always a price to pay for inevitably alienating some supporters. It’s a contentious issue. And not every deal is necessarily a good one.
This rationale must also be applied to the prospective brand in question.
Many a Scottish club has had to hold its nose and ignore the stench emanating from a minor deal with a company with questionable ethics. Bluntly, the game is hardly overwhelmed with offers of interest from firms grounded in altruistic values.
The rebranding of Barclays Hampden clearly won’t please everyone, but it’s unlikely to see the critics standing on the front steps with their pitchforks in hand in the coming days.
No one should need reminding that that storied triumph against Denmark last month was achieved by many players who came through the ranks in this country despite the facilities they encountered at grassroots level — not because of them.
If we want future generations of players and supporters to share such stolen moments, significant investment must be made. And, really, what’s in a name?