HEARTS have beaten out their SPFL rivals to be honoured with the title of best stadium food, whilst cross-city rivals Hibs are reportedly among the worst.
These findings come from a study by footy ticket website SeatPick, which collated food-related Google reviews for a slew of famous Scottish stadiums – including nine of the 12 current SPFL teams – before ranking them based on how many were positive.
Researchers collected reviews for each stadium and utilised AI to determine which reviews were based on scran, and whether the sentiment was positive, negative or neutral.
The end result revealed that Hearts’ Tynecastle Park topped the rankings with a whopping 77.8% of food-related reviews being positive. From the 360 reviews analysed, 54 mentioned foods and 42 of those were positive.
The Jambos sit over 10% higher than second-placed Forfar Athletic’s Station Park, which boasts a rating of 66.7% positive food reviews.
Despite plying their trade three levels below in Scottish League Two, Forfar saw 20 positive reviews out of 30 food mentions.
This means the Sky Blues, whose stadium holds just 6,777 people, beat out Scotland’s current most successful football club, Celtic, by 2%.
The Hoops’ 60,411-capacity Celtic Park holds a ranking of 64.9% of all food reviews being positive, with 24 good reviews out of 37 mentions.
Old Firm rivals Rangers trail down in 11th place, with Ibrox Stadium seeing a 48.9% ranking.
Meanwhile, Easter Road – home to Hearts’ bitter rivals Hibs – appears to leave a lot to be desired in the food department as it sits way down in 18th, just three spots from the bottom, with a positive review score of 28.6%.
Right below Hibs in 19th place is Hampden Park, the home of the national team, which had just 21.5% positive food reviews.
Hamilton Academical, who were relegated to Scottish League One last season, are the unlucky last place out of all the stadiums in the study.
The Accies’ New Douglas Park – which holds 6,018 people – has a positive review score of just 17.2%. Of the 29 food mentions in 221 total reviews, only five were positive.
Away from football, Murrayfield Stadium, home of Scotland’s national rugby team, was ranked 10th with 56.1% positive reviews, whilst Glasgow Warriors’ Scotstoun Stadium was two places higher with 56.8%.
Gilad Zilberman, CEO of SeatPick, commented on the findings: “It’s clear from this list, some of these more prestigious venues have their expectations from visitors when it comes to amenities, and food is one of these.
“Hampden Park, Scotland’s national stadium, not only has one of the lowest percentages of positive reviews, but also the second highest number of reviews mentioning food, indicating those who have food want to let their concerns be known.
“This finding, paired with the fact that smaller stadiums like Station Park rank much higher, is an indicator that you don’t always need the size and prowess to serve good food on matchdays.”
