Celtic Park is one of the best stadiums in the world, but there are some unique details about the stadium that may have passed you by.
Legends of the game like Aleksandr Hleb have hailed the atmosphere of the ground before and for good reason too.
Thousands of people dream of coming to the ground, but there are some quirks that even some of the biggest Celtic supporters may not know about.
So, with that, here are three unique details about Parkhead to keep an eye out for when you next visit.
What is one stadium that comes close to Celtic Park in terms of atmosphere?
Or can none compare?
How Celtic Park got the Paradise nickname
Celtic fans often switch between the names Parkhead and Paradise when referring to the name of the stadium, but it’s the latter that earned its title thanks to a graveyard.
Before moving into the place we know as home, the old stadium was located next to a cemetery. When the relocation took place in 1892, one journalist claimed that it was like “leaving the graveyard to enter paradise.”
From then on, the term Paradise was used to describe Celtic’s home ground.
Celtic had the first press box
Every stadium has a dedicated area for the media to cover games for their respective outlets.
That wasn’t a common theme back in the day, but the Hoops were the trailblazers in that department.
The Hoops built the first press box in 1894, located in the main stand as a way to give reporters their own space to cover the game however they needed to.
The North Stand is designed to intimidate opponents
When architects redesigned the north stand in the 1990s, they decided to give it its own feel by giving it a curved look.
This was designed in a way so that the noise created by fans could be trapped inside the stadium so that it could intimidate the opposition and galvanise the Bhoys.
The way I would improve the atmosphere at Celtic Park is…
The roof of the stand is angled facing downwards so that the noise travels up and deflects off the top and back onto the pitch.
No wonder the likes of Samuel Eto’o loved playing at Parkhead.
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