With a sports complex as grubby as Garscube, it’s no wonder nobody supports our teams

Located over three miles from the main campus of Glasgow Uni are a couple of muddy fields and two astro turfs, better known as Garscube Sports Complex. It’s more than just a training ground, it’s where the university’s football, rugby and hockey teams (to name a few) compete on a local and national level.

Despite being quite the trophy collectors however, crowd size for these teams is a major issue. You could win the most prestigious award in the world as a team and still have a crowd about the size of one of your seminars. And you can put this down to the abysmal facilities for spectators there.

If you do manage to trek your way up Maryhill Road in one way or another, you’re greeted with a wonderful patch of mud to stand on and maybe a tree to cover you from the nasty storms. I’d recommend wearing those Wellington boots festering away in the bottom of your cupboard because I’m afraid the chances of your fresh white Nikes being dirt-free after 90 minutes or so are zero. A small stand (something rivals St Andrew’s Sport Center possesses), a few chairs or even a tree stump would be better than the current situation right now.

There’s that tree

While the standard of the pitch is fairly decent, there’s a reason Peffermill playing fields (home to Edinburgh Uni) hosts training for international rugby teams like South Africa and New Zealand while we don’t. Probably down to the mud thing I mentioned.

Even if you’re not put off by these simply fab facilities, you have to deal with getting up there. The modern student simply doesn’t have the required exact change of £3.60 to get the bus. Nor can they be bothered to do a round trip of six miles by foot, especially when it includes at least one quaint yet steep hill to clamber up. If you’re a fresher, you’ll have access to the buses which run up to Wolfson Halls. But these only run on weekdays (when they’re usually crammed to the brim too), which is pretty useless as most teams play games on the weekend.

With no other alternative offered by the uni, and many of us being too broke for the bus, too lazy to walk or completely put off by the prospect of their designer gear getting dampened by Glaswegian weather, we all simply give up and switch on Netflix, denying our sports teams the supportive crowds they deserve. It’s a real shame.