Last first class amateur club to turn professional

Henry Irving

https://www.queensparkfc.co.uk/historic-vote-for-change-at-queens-park-football-club/

The last remnant of the amateur v professional battle that nearly split football, in the way rugger did with League and Union, gone.

Leaving Hampden Park too.

There was a similar hugely controversial, in local terms, decision made in 1920 in SE London. Hard to realise at this distance how significant the distinction was in the minds of many but it certainly was a crucial turning point in our history.

Brendan_O_Connell

They'll be moving to Lesser Hampden (which is next door to Hampden Park) for their home games.  I actually played there last year (five a side though).  It's a very tidy little set up.

Rothko

Lesser Hampden had a lot of money spent on it for the Commonwealth Games, so will suit them better 

seth plum

My colleagues father played for Queens Park but moved to London because he worked in banking and he then played for Dagenham and Redbridge. He was also a Scottish amateur international, and back in the day played against Alex Ferguson in Scotland.
Incidentally my colleague was one of the very best co workers ever.

Dennis_inthelastmin

The right decision in terms of ensuring the continued viability of the club as a league club, but such a shame in terms of the end of an era / tradition.

The financial clout of some Scottish non league clubs is impressive - eg Kelty Hearts, Edinburgh City, East Stirling have spent money in the summer - and even some Junior sides like Auchinleck Talbot can pay good wages and attract a good level of player. With promotion and relegation in and out of SPFL league 2 now existing via play offs, plus rumours that the play offs could be abolished with straight relegation introduced and possibly two sides going down in the future in 15/20 years time the composition of  SPFL leagues 2 and 1 is likely to be very different to how it is now with long established league sides being replaced.

Cove Rangers are currently in the process of "doing a Gretna" and with their financial clout could well go all the way to the Scottish Premier League - the fact they don't currently have support and a ground capacity of only 2,000 in what is a new stadium doesn't matter - they can attract the best players as they can pay the best wages. Aberdeen are moving to a new stadium and the aim is for Cove to groundshare which would give them a Premier League compliant stadium to play in.

So for Queens Park, this decision was probably the only one they could make as standards and principles cant compete with the changing demographic of lower league Scottish football.