Ranking Wembley Stadium

[chrisw1]

Of course, all these stadiums are nothing compared to............

Very nice, but imagine that with English weather.

Wembley looks pretty good, the Arch is a nice touch and compared to Wembley, Twickenham & Cardiff look pretty souless from the outside.

The views at Wembley all seem excellent to me.

But in terms of inside experience, Cardiff is fantastic.  Views are great and it retains an excellent atmosphere.  It's so good, I did wonder why the FA spent £800m building Wembley when they could have just copied the blueprints for the Millenium which costs less than £200m, and put a few bells and whistles on it for aesthetics.

W Ham is awful, as you expect with a converted athletics track.  So glad we haven't got something like that.

Paris Stad de France is a pretty beautiful stadium although there's a fair distance between the pitch and front seats in places.  They have a proper fan park areas where you can have a decent drink at a decent price outside the ground, unlike Wembley.

[pauliewalnuts]

I don't have a problem with Wembley.

It is big, you get a good view from every seat. It isn't really that hard to get to either (there's a mainline train station to take you directly back to the Midlands, and a motorway not too far up the A40).

If i had a criticism it is that it is incredibly bland from the outside. Mind you, so is the new Spurs stadium. It looks amazing inside but from the outside it has all the dramatic charm of a branch of Carphone Warehouse.

[pauliewalnuts]

But in terms of inside experience, Cardiff is fantastic.  Views are great and it retains an excellent atmosphere.  It's so good, I did wonder why the FA spent £800m building Wembley when they could have just copied the blueprints for the Millenium which costs less than £200m, and put a few bells and whistles on it for aesthetics

Because it's way, way more expensive to build something that big in London than anywhere else in the country.

[Bad English]

Twickenham is a horrible stadium.  A concrete monstrosity that is difficult to get to, impossible to get out of, and with half time service that makes the Villa Park offering look like a Formula 1 pitstop.  The new Spurs stadium looks amazing, the seats and everything are great, but still getting served quickly is beyond them.  Wembley is OK, but it feels a bit soulless, and obviously everything about it is an utter rip off.  It's pretty easy to get to though, and we were back in Central London within about 20 minutes of the final whistle being blown.

I was shocked at how hard it was to get 4 pints of lager at half-time. In Club fucking Wembley! The self-service machines in the Lioness Bar were mostly fucked, the staff kept rebooting the OS on the screens but nobody had the frigging password to log in and activate the beer app. Shambles! Pity because it was fun pumping your own £6.50 pint of piss before kick-off. Still, we got four pints from the Budweiser stand right at the end of HT and Risso's mate distracted the door geezer while we all slipped through and enjoyed a cold pint while in our seats watching the second half.

It is easy to get out of though: we were straight on the Tube asking loads of Citeh fans why they weren't watching the presentation of the trophy.

[pauliewalnuts]

Twickenham is a horrible stadium.  A concrete monstrosity that is difficult to get to, impossible to get out of, and with half time service that makes the Villa Park offering look like a Formula 1 pitstop.  The new Spurs stadium looks amazing, the seats and everything are great, but still getting served quickly is beyond them.  Wembley is OK, but it feels a bit soulless, and obviously everything about it is an utter rip off.  It's pretty easy to get to though, and we were back in Central London within about 20 minutes of the final whistle being blown.

I was shocked at how hard it was to get 4 pints of lager at half-time. In Club fucking Wembley! The self-service machines in the Lioness Bar were mostly fucked, the staff kept rebooting the OS on the screens but nobody had the frigging password to log in and activate the beer app. Shambles! Pity because it was fun pumping your own £6.50 pint of piss before kick-off. Still, we got four pints from the Budweiser stand right at the end of HT and Risso's mate distracted the door geezer while we all slipped through and enjoyed a cold pint while in our seats watching the second half.

It is easy to get out of though: we were straight on the Tube asking loads of Citeh fans why they weren't watching the presentation of the trophy.

After the final whistle, it was walk-up and get served straight away in that Three Lions bar. Got served food straight away before kick off, too.

Mind you, there were shed loads of empty seats where we were (City end, to the left of the scoreboard) so the place wasn't being put under much load.

[rougegorge]

If you're judging it against league grounds, then it would pass muster reasonably well. The views from the seats are very good.

However, for a national stadium, it would be struggling to avoid relegation.

Considering it's a 'new' build, albeit on an old site, the surrounding concrete jungle is awful. There is no scenic or grand approach that would befit such a place.

The access into the stadium is chaotic, unless you get inside about an hour beforehand.

The lower tier concourse is a bit better than the upper tier, where it's a horrid melee before the game and at half-time, whilst the lack of facilities, toilets, basins, driers etc is awful. I know it's not helped by the greater than average consumption of drink, but nonetheless it is shocking.

The tube at Wembley Park is ok but the railway station is not.....and all that is without mentioning the exorbitant prices and the food quality inside.

[john e]

regardless of how good or bad Wembley stadium’s is

I’d still like to return there as often as possible in the future

[algy]

The Millennium Stadium in Cardiff is my favourite 'new' stadium by far, and for me the model football grounds should try to follow. The new Wembley's ok. Better than the old one, but that's faint praise. Hampden Park's okay. It's a bit bland, as mentioned before, but it's functional and doesn't offend me. I'd rate them as Millennium Stadium, then a big gap, New Wembley, Hampden, Old Wembley. Outside of those, I quite like Arsenal's new ground. I went to the Elizabeth Stadium for the Olympics - good athletics stadium. Not sure how it holds up as a football ground.

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

Every time I’ve been to new Wembley it’s been pretty painless. There was a bit of a queue to get in on Sunday despite it being well before ko. Didn’t use any of the facilities. I’ve sat high up and low down and always had a great view.

[john e]

I found the old Wembley a lot easier to get to than the new Wembley

[Pat McMahon]

Millennium stadium tops Wembley for me - closer to the pitch and better atmosphere with fewer corporate seats. Of club grounds, once inside I was very impressed by Spurs new stadium this season, and if you went in the away a
End and then far, far right there was a bar that was surprisingly quiet whilst the main bar was 4-5 deep. I was served and the server pulled a pint so I could video that bottom up pouring system they have. Which she promptly threw away!!??

Twickenham and Stade de France are soulless for me. I much prefer the Parc des Princes to both. West Ham’s council ground should have remained an athletics stadium I would guess, though I haven’t been to a footie game there.

[SoccerHQ]

I actually like the approach to Wembley or even passing it on the train from Euston/Marylebone. O.k it's not the Twin towers but the arch still makes the place stand out. The area is also a lot better than it used to be with all the apartments and shops around it now.

Inside to me it's just a bigger Emirates. Big and good sightlines but just a bit bland. I agree about the middle coporate tier but that's pretty much a must for all the modern stadiums now.

Shame we never played a cup final in Cardiff as that certainly to me is the ideal venue right in the heart of the city.

[SoccerHQ]

If you're judging it against league grounds, then it would pass muster reasonably well. The views from the seats are very good.

However, for a national stadium, it would be struggling to avoid relegation.

Considering it's a 'new' build, albeit on an old site, the surrounding concrete jungle is awful. There is no scenic or grand approach that would befit such a place.

The access into the stadium is chaotic, unless you get inside about an hour beforehand.

The lower tier concourse is a bit better than the upper tier, where it's a horrid melee before the game and at half-time, whilst the lack of facilities, toilets, basins, driers etc is awful. I know it's not helped by the greater than average consumption of drink, but nonetheless it is shocking.

The tube at Wembley Park is ok but the railway station is not.....and all that is without mentioning the exorbitant prices and the food quality inside.

Which national stadiums are you comparing it to out of interest? It's got better sightlines than Rome, Berlin or Hampden. Stade De France also got a running track behind the goal. Some of those aren't in great areas either.

[rougegorge]

If you're judging it against league grounds, then it would pass muster reasonably well. The views from the seats are very good.

However, for a national stadium, it would be struggling to avoid relegation.

Considering it's a 'new' build, albeit on an old site, the surrounding concrete jungle is awful. There is no scenic or grand approach that would befit such a place.

The access into the stadium is chaotic, unless you get inside about an hour beforehand.

The lower tier concourse is a bit better than the upper tier, where it's a horrid melee before the game and at half-time, whilst the lack of facilities, toilets, basins, driers etc is awful. I know it's not helped by the greater than average consumption of drink, but nonetheless it is shocking.

The tube at Wembley Park is ok but the railway station is not.....and all that is without mentioning the exorbitant prices and the food quality inside.

Which national stadiums are you comparing it to out of interest? It's got better sightlines than Rome, Berlin or Hampden. Stade De France also got a running track behind the goal. Some of those aren't in great areas either.

Yes, no dispute about the view as I said it is very good. For the millions they (over)spent though, they could have done a much better job with facilities inside.

I understand about the surrounding area as well, but again they could have made it look so much better. I think revamped stadiums like the Luzhniki in Moscow and the Olympiastadion in Berlin are examples of better planning.

[ChicagoLion]

Of course, all these stadiums are nothing compared to............

Much prefer Wrigley.