Peter Lawwell’s promises for the Celtic hotel and museum

A clip has resurfaced on X/Twitter of Peter Lawwell discussing his exciting plans to develop the area around Celtic Park.

In 2018 the Celtic CEO revealed plans for a hotel, museum and superstore on land already owned by the club.

During the 2018/19 season Celtic lost out to AEK Athens in a Champions League qualifier, failed to sign John McGinn and lost Brendan Rodgers to Leicester City.

As reward the CEO was paid £3.5m during 2018/19.

Typical of Lawwell’s promises nothing has come to fruition. The Celtic Park footprint has barely changed in over a decade.

TIME STANDS STILL UNDER LAWWELL- EXCEPT EXECUTIVE PAY LEVELS

Hot water is barely available outside of hospitality areas.

The male toilets in the South Stand aren’t even basic urinals. They are a trough in the ground running downhill.

There are two female cubicle toilets in the South Stand, any fan in need is directed towards the Jock Stein Stand.

Last week Celtic published AI pictures of changes to the Number 7 restaurant. Last summer the South Stand executive boxes were refurbished.

Elsewhere nothing has changed. Maintenance appears to be an after thought. Year on year Celtic Park is falling into a state of disrepair while millions of pounds is paid to HMRC in Corporation Tax.

In season 24/25 Celtic paid £11.4m in Corporation Tax, for season 25/26 a figure between £6-8m in expected to be paid.

In April 2017 Lawwell discussed his grand plans with his friends at the Daily Record:

We put a masterplan to GCC around eight years ago which included a hotel, a museum, some residential flats and movement of our superstore and ticket office.

We’d love to make coming to Celtic Park a real event day, like it is at other big European clubs.

Unfortunately, there’s a reticence to support football and support us here.

There’s a lot of negativity. When you hear the government talk about football it’s always about strict liability or offensive behaviour. There is never any positivity.

We, as a club, put so much into the economy and therefore you need support, you need partnership. There has been no sense of partnership from anybody. It has always been negative.

I’d like to see the value of Celtic, the value of football in Scotland, being recognised in terms of the social, cultural and economic benefits it gives the country.

All that was missing was mention of the hover pitch and retractable roof. It seems that CEO’s loved seeing themselves in the pages of the ailing Glasgow publisher.

Celtic never advanced their hotel/museum/superstore plan off the drawing board.

The Celtic Ticket Office remains nothing more than a glorified wooden hut.

While Ticket Exchange schemes are commonplace elsewhere Celtic have opted against that development. Paper tickets are still in use.

CELTIC- STANDING STILL AS OTHERS EVOLVE AND DEVELOP

Lawwell took a short break in 2021 when he stepped down as CEO.

In July 2021 Mark Lawwell was appointed as Head of Recruitment, in November Daddy was announced as Chairman, officially taking up the post on 1 January 2022.

After calling the 2025 AGM to an end after less than an hour, a few weeks later Chairman Lawwell announced that he was stepping down.

Brian Wilson has been Interim Celtic Chairman since 1 January 2026.

Current CEO Michael Nicholson hasn’t said a word in public since 17 December 2025.

Ultimately, the plans expired without a single brick laid. To put £18m into perspective, look what the board blew on this window. Between fees for Barkas & Ajeti, plus loan costs for Duffy & Laxalt, we burned the price of a hotel on an absolute disaster. pic.twitter.com/iLABUJR8cP

— ?????? ????????? ? (@CelticEssential) July 9, 2026