[Albion] 16th best Premier League stadium?

[chickens]

Nah, Bozza didn't start this one!

Oi! You know how I get.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

Amex is definitely better than 16th

Accessibility = 20th
Atmosphere = about 15th
Facilities / comfort = about 6th
Visual appeal = Maybe top, certainly high up

We're comfortably mid table in my opinion

 

[PeterT]

Ive not encountered a single stadium where safe standing has aided the atmosphere.

Wolves is one good example. It’s going in at St Andrew’s too and the fans I know there are very happy about it.

 

[Peacehaven Wild Kids]

I seriously don’t get why people put so much store in what one person thinks, yes he writes for The Athletic, so what? He doesn’t speak for everyone. It’s just his opinion. Nothing more.
I could write on a cookery website that excrement on toast is 4th in the list of delicious foodstuffs while Lobster Thermidor comes in 12th. Doesn’t make it true though

 

[jessiejames]

I use the racehill P&R. I dont have any issue with that, seems to work well. Yes Queuing system can put people off. I Generally wait after the game for about 45min then a slow walk up, normally the busses have taken the first lot back to the racehill and are on the way back. Dont kniw how that can be made better other than covering the queuing area up to keep u dry.

 

[Horses Arse]

Article in the Athletic today ranking Premier League stadiums, places us 16th. Fair?

We ranked every Premier League stadium so you could shout at us

We're sorry in advance, this is an almost impossible task... but welcome to The Athletic's Premier League stadium rankings

theathletic.com

For me, the stadium is fantastic, but transport is a massive ball ache, the trains are unreliable and underprovisioned, parking appears mainly 1901 only, and if travelling a distance (as I do on the rare occasions I can get there these days) I know that I’m in for a huge amount of “dead time” either waiting for trains or buses, or in traffic queues, then stood in queues at various bottlenecks with no shelter.

I don’t mind on the way in, and it depends on whether we win or not as to how much I mind on the way out, but while the Amex is a blessing, I do wonder if the transport links to its location are a limiting factor.

I’ve also stood for almost an hour in 29 degree heat with absolutely no shade available while queuing to get out via the buses before, and while I’ve been ok, I’ve seen a gent further forward in the queue begin to wobble a bit. (Thankfully the next set of buses arrived and people got him onto it)

To my mind, if they can’t move us out faster, some shelter does need to be provided to those queuing for trains/buses, for extreme heat as much as for shelter from the rain. Not everyone can afford the time to stop and drink after the match, some of us need to be on our way.

I hate criticising the Amex as it’s been the ultimate symbol of our rebirth and growth, but I don’t feel we’ve mastered moving people into the ground and then getting them out again as well as we could do, even now.

 

[Horses Arse]

Thought it was all quite reasonable about the amex, it is out of town and the stands behind the goals are a daft size. But it is what it is.

I did stop reading when I saw west hams ground ranked highly, Everton too. Madness

 

[HangletonGull]

Design brilliant
Atmosphere meh
Transport

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

One suggestion that was muted, would be moving the Mill Hill P&R busses to pick up and drop off at the entrance to Falmer school by the small railway bridge ….extending out that area to create a larger turning and parking area. this would mean they come off the turning down coldean lane and straight around underneath the underpass. Being relatively closer, and also you don’t have to battle the coaches, cars etc coming along the slip road off the a27 and village way.

ok it’s a longer walk for the fans, but maybe if the busses were more frequent as they wouldn’t have to wait so long ( or travel as far) it would alleviate the issue.

it sounded sensible but I suppose there will be people on here who know why that wasn’t suggested originally.

If it was mooted then muted it's no wonder none of us know anything about it.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Right ….erm, ok
Oh.. any one see Coronation Street the other night? That Steven was a sod weren’t he?

Interesting fact, there was an actor called Graham Fellows who appeared in a couple of episodes, and was last seen on his way to a date when the young lady failed to turn up.

 

[dazzer6666]

It's impossible.

I'm located at the back of the North directly behind the left-hand goal post, so moreorless in the middle blocks either side of the two groups that start chants. You basically have to pick and choose which chants to sing. The group to the left of me are obsessed with chanting ant-Palace songs, and that can get tiresome very quickly. It's also difficult to make out what the right-hand group are singing half the time.

As a group of fans, we're also rubbish at keeping chants going longer than two cycles, so there's no time to ascertain what's being chanted, to join in and keep the chant going before it finishes and a new one is started elsewhere.

The first two seasons at The Amex, I believe The Judge was slap bang in the middle of the middle blocks directly behind the goal, and he would coordinate us, but I think he was harassed by a few fans around him. Not sure why, but I think he moved elsewhere, perhaps with the NSK lot.

The North have more tourists now too, so you can't expect them to make noise, let alone know the words to half our songs.

Perhaps the WSU should take the mantle and not rely on the smallest stand in the stadium to make all the noise. The Amex is not The Goldstone, no matter how much you'd like it to be.

We all need to take responsibility for the lack of atmosphere, don't blame The North, we're hamstrung as it is.

Judge was with the NSK for a while, but doesn’t go to games atm as far as I’m aware and hasn’t for a few seasons. Def miss his leading of the masses.

 

[Weststander]

Trying to take the blue and white blinkers off.

The Amex is probably the best stadium I’ve visited in this league for leg room and sight lines except Tottenham. The atmosphere is comfortably mid table. One of the best on one off occasions (Sheff Weds, Chelsea, Athens) but often quiet, reactive and with either side of the north stand having a Willy waving contest instead of backing the team.

It’s let down by the catering and the awful travel, both of which are relegation fodder.

As a home stadium I’d rather have it than any of the now falling down Archibald Leitch stadia with their poor visibility and non existent leg room and concourses. Those stadia do have a lot of “soul” and history though so the ranking of them would be entirely subjective.

Someone had the guts to say it.

Transport is shite, I leave a few minutes early to shave an hour or far more to get home less than 4 miles away. I miss the rare Albion goal, not bothered.

Quiet Amex unless we’re winning. I put this down to either quiet southerners, or the relatively small NS. I’d have preferred an asymmetrical design of ends …. a 40 row home stand, away fans in a much smaller stand.

 

[Weststander]

Atmosphere - put safe standing in the North Stand or add another tier (it must be possible somehow). If the home end is the smallest stand for home fans in the ground, the atmosphere suffers.

It depends what you are looking for - I’d say it’s possibly the most comfortable ground I have been to (and I’ve been to well over 200) but comfort and an early dart for the train doesn’t = atmosphere. I think having a more sanitised ‘family’ and corporate atmosphere was built into the design of the stadium, which has pluses and minuses as a result.

It was. The whole thing was family orientated, make away supporters incredibly welcome.

 

[Munkfish]

For everyone who slags off the transport to and from the stadium I would be interested in knowing how many people who heavily moan about the Amex attend other premier league grounds in the country.

There’s plenty just as bad if not worse than the AMeX, The problem of many is they expect to be able to walk out of their seat straight onto a train without a queue.

I wish more clubs would allow fans to hang back for a pint to avoid the crowds.

Also after the experience in Marseille my patience for getting away from a football ground has extended 10 fold. Nothing will ever be that bad again.

 

[Weststander]

For everyone who slags off the transport to and from the stadium I would be interested in knowing how many people who heavily moan about the Amex attend other premier league grounds in the country.

There’s plenty just as bad if not worse than the AMeX, The problem of many is they expect to be able to walk out of their seat straight onto a train without a queue.

I wish more clubs would allow fans to hang back for a pint to avoid the crowds.

Also after the experience in Marseille my patience for getting away from a football ground has extended 10 fold. Nothing will ever be that bad again.

At some other grounds such as Anfield or Molyneux, you leave at final whistle and have an immediate feeling that you’re heading home whatever direction you take. Everyone off 360. The same as the Goldstone.

Whilst at 19+ visits to the Amex each season, if you stay until final whistle, involve vast and slow queues at pinch-points.

Most supporters aren’t into alcohol in a breeze block concourse from a plastic beaker, they just want to get home.

 

[BN41Albion]

Each stadium is ranked in four categories. The Amex ranks as follows:

Atmosphere: 19th. Only Bournemouth is considered worse.
Experience: 8th
Location, which also encompasses transport: 19th. Only Palace is considered worse.
Design: 12th

Atmosphere 19th ffs. Come on, we all know it could be better but it's certainly better than about half the other PL grounds

 

[Weststander]

Atmosphere 19th ffs. Come on, we all know it could be better but it's certainly better than about half the other PL grounds

After Bmuff, Fulham and Brentford aren’t cauldrons of noise and chants.

 

[Falmer Flutter ©]

At some other grounds such as Anfield or Molyneux, you leave at final whistle and have an immediate feeling that you’re heading home whatever direction you take. Everyone off 360. The same as the Goldstone.

Whilst 19+ visits to the Amex each season, if you stay til final whistle, involve vast and slow queues at pinch-points.

Most supporters aren’t into alcohol in a breeze block concourse from a plastic beaker, they just want to get home.

Anfield? People might be walking off in all directions but they're certainly not heading home anytime soon. You'll either be sitting in a traffic jam for an hour once you find your car or queuing for a bus back into town (or face a long walk). Everton is basically the same, Man City is a long walk, Man Utd is a tram, Villa is queuing for a train, Forest is a long walk, Burnley is a long walk, Luton is a longish walk, all the London clubs are awful to drive to or queuing for a tube or a long walk (Spurs). Look, the Amex isn't perfect but when the trains are working, which let's be honest is 90% of the time, then it's absolutely fine. I'd rank Newcastle, Wolves and Sheffield United as the only current Premier League grounds where you can leave the ground and be on a train home within 20 minutes.

 

[chickens]

At some other grounds such as Anfield or Molyneux, you leave at final whistle and have an immediate feeling that you’re heading home whatever direction you take. Everyone off 360. The same as the Goldstone.

Whilst 19+ visits to the Amex each season, if you stay until final whistle, involve vast and slow queues at pinch-points.

Most supporters aren’t into alcohol in a breeze block concourse from a plastic beaker, they just want to get home.

Exactly this. The Amex location fundamentally means that there’s three routes out. Train, bus or car, everyone is taking one of these three options (excepting a gaggle of hardy cyclists). Massive pinch points.

It’s that feeling that you haven’t left the stadium 50 minutes after the match ended because you’re still stood 100 yards away waiting for a bus.

I wasn’t a regular at the Goldstone, but when I went it didn’t matter where I was living, I set off and I was moving. That (to me) is the difference. We can’t clear these pinch points fast enough.

 

[Weststander]

Anfield? People might be walking off in all directions but they're certainly not heading home anytime soon. You'll either be sitting in a traffic jam for an hour once you find your car or queuing for a bus back into town (or face a long walk). Everton is basically the same, Man City is a long walk, Man Utd is a tram, Villa is queuing for a train, Forest is a long walk, Burnley is a long walk, Luton is a longish walk, all the London clubs are awful to drive to or queuing for a tube or a long walk (Spurs). Look, the Amex isn't perfect but when the trains are working, which let's be honest is 90% of the time, then it's absolutely fine. I'd rank Newcastle, Wolves and Sheffield United as the only current Premier League grounds where you can leave the ground and be on a train home within 20 minutes.

Anfield - I’ve been countless times. Parking in one of the businesses on Walton Breck Road, in recent years taking the 45 minute walk all downhill to Lime Street, seemingly along with huge numbers of others. Many NSC’ers have said they do the same.

I find that walk to/from Forest easy.

Agree about OT and the London clubs. If Arsenal are losing the place is one third empty on 85 minutes.