I went to the Ingerlund game yesterday. Good game but you can tell when the crowd are getting bored. They start the Mexican wave thing.
Anyway, I thought I'd give my observations on the new Wembley: -
View - Fantastic
Comfort - Good
Price - Reasonable at £30.00.
Ease of getting to seats - Diabolical. Bloody escalator was broken so had to do my Sherpa Tansing impression and climb the stairs. Not good with an arthritic knee. Found out too late that there was also a lift available.
Transport there - As bad as it always was. Worse in fact. Why do they schedule engineering works on day's like that?
Food - Should be locked up for extortion. £8.00 for a small portion of fish and chips and £5.50 for a burger. Passed on both. You're not allowed to take your own in.
Toilets - Excellent if it wasn't for drunken scumbags p*ssing on the floor.
The Iconic Arch - What a waste of money. The Twin Towers were so much better. It's not even original and was copied from Oscar Niemeyer's 1941 design for a stadium in Rio de Janeiro.
Overall opinion - £75 million; where was that spent? It certainly wasn't spent on making it easier to get out of the place.
I went to a motor race in Las Vegas recently where there were 142,000 spectators. The vast majority either went by car or coach. We got back to our hotel within 90 minutes of the chequered flag and our hotel was at the opposite end of the Strip. The traffic flow was handled superbly and was so well organised. It took us more than 90 minutes just to get to the Underground yesterday. What hope for the 2012 Olympics?
Cheers for that 'report' on the new Wembley. I'm going to the Ukraine match on wednesday and I'm sitting all the way up in the top tear near the back. Any idea what the view will be like from up there? And as for the food, yeah rip off. I'll make sure i'll eat before I go!
Don't be too hard on the arch. It actually hold up the roof.
I have been to Wembley and was really impressed - but what puts me off going there is the thought of getting home afterwards. Hard to believe that after spending all that money on the ground - you still have to queue for hours. Would still go to watch Chelsea there but for anything else - I'll watch it on t.v.
I've sat at the very top and although you are very high you can see very well. I've been to about 4 matches at the new Wembley and I agree with the comments about getting home - unfortunately you need to leave 10 mins before the end to avoid the hour queue to get into the station.
If you're looking for a drink near the ground walk up Wembley way and round to the left (opposite the ground) are a chinese and indian(?) restaurant - upstairs in the chinese is a bar that never seems to be that busy.
was at the slovak game - fell asleeep 1st half and left at half time - the fiendlies mean nothing to me and i got drunk at the fans party at a pub nearby - at the ukraine game on weds and i will actually care what happens but wembley is full of c***s who are happy using their clappers and doing mexican waves(ie they shouldnt be allowed near a football ground)
ill be at the world cup next year and doing holland and ukraine this year -i hate the home games as the staduim is full of idiots where it's there only games of the year - i prefer away games where th real England fan turn up
Cheers for the advice, Graham. I had already thought about the crowds after the game as I'd been to a few games at the old Wembley and it was always a nightmare trying to get home. Like Chelwing says, it's just bloody ridiculous that there is so much trouble getting home after all that money thrown at the new ground. Only one small tube station for the national stadium???!!! Bunch of doughnuts! I just hope that the game aint a tight one near the end because I never leave a game early unless the outcome is a forgone conclusion.
Not been to the new one - with the old the trick was to avoid the obvious. So forget Wembley Park and Wembley Stadium stations and head for Wembley Central or even North Wembley. I'm waiting for Welling to get into the trophy final before going.
wembley central is ages away from the stadium - why we never go there amd the whole area stinks of curry - the trick is to go to the pub after the game for an hour and you miss the crowds
We walked to that pub after the game but it was packed so it looks like many people have the same idea now. I think it was called Alan's or Alain's. I looked at the menu in the Chinese but it didn't look up to much so we joined the crowd in Olympic Way and suffered it. Once your on the statio though the Tubes run pretty quickly.
I don't think I'll go again unless Welling get there.
I've been a few times to the new Wembley - sat very high up and at the back. Ok but players look tiny!
You can't have a drink unless it is a friendly (FIFA regs) - my advice is eat and drink around the Marylebone area and get a later overground train in time for kick off - this misses most of the crowds and avoids the rip off Wembley prices.
Coming back by train you're shafted. You have to queue for ages to get on a platform but ok in this weather I suppose - just take a book, paper etc.
It is impressive shame the prices, transport aren't.
I went to a motor race in Las Vegas recently where there were 142,000 spectators. The vast majority either went by car or coach. We got back to our hotel within 90 minutes of the chequered flag and our hotel was at the opposite end of the Strip. The traffic flow was handled superbly and was so well organised. It took us more than 90 minutes just to get to the Underground yesterday. What hope for the 2012 Olympics?
That is just the Yanks for you. I failed to get out of Knebworth in 85 until 5 in the morning due to it having rained during the day. Went to see Tom Petty outdoors in Indianapolis and despite a storm that terminated the gig due to lightning strikes and with rivers running through the site we were all out in 90 minutes. Its called Highway Patrolmen strategically placed in North Sea style sou'westers rather than running for cover.
For future reference, it ain't just Wembley that suffers this. The Ulleval in Oslo and Schalke's Veltins Arena have serious crush points getting on the tram\metro, even though the actual transport service is quite good. Can't comment about Lyon after a match, save to say it was so bad going in we walked the several miles back to the hotel.
All coaches and cabs were allowed along a special route through Nellis Airforce Base which avoided the main routes. They certainly know what they're doing when it comes to organisation. Pity they couldn't have organised their bloody banks a bit better.
I thouroughly enjoyed last night's match at Wembley. What a fantastic stadium. You just can't help but be in awe as soon as you see it from the tube station. Inside looks incredible, even from my seat which was in the very back row of the top tier behind the goal. Not only that, but if I looked out of the window behind my seat I could see right across London. If a stadium deserves to host a world cup final it's this one. I even enjoyed the pre match build up where the fans where encouraged to clap and chant to football themed music. Not bad for a thirty quid ticket, cheaper than a lot of premier league grounds i've been to. The facilities are top notch, except for the food. Paid for £6.80 for the dryest burger and chips i've ever had, and we couldn't buy a beer because of FIFA regulations. Me and my mate left just after Terry scored (the free kick was teaken as we were leaving!) because we'd already agreed to leave 5 mins early to beat the rush. But about 10,000 people had the same idea, and seeing all those people running down Wembley Way like a scene from 28 Days Later was quite comical! I'd definately go again.
yeah wasnt a bad game and a great ending - poor performance but we got the 3 points
was up top by goal crouch and shev scored at - i prefer it up the top because none of those stupid clappers!!
was a good game - we left at final whistle and were going to go to the pub to let the crowds go but the ever-helpful police wouldnt let us go up a side road on wembley way so we had to q and ended up just getting on a tube
and to be fair to london underground they had the tubes running well and it took 20-25 mins to get from the far end of wembley way to the station which is the best ive experienced there
J - you must have been right near me because thats the same ares I was sat in! My biggest disappointment was my bet not coming off. I had Crouch first scorer, 2 nil to England. Thanks for nothing, Shevchenko!!
