[Albion] Newcastle’s away changing room

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

The Newcastle United (a Premier League Club) away team changing room, ladies and gentlemen.

Now, admittedly, I wouldn’t want the Albion to make the away dressing room too luxurious either, but this looks like the sort of place you’d find in a concrete breeze block outhouse in the middle of a dingy park in Worthing. With showers where the water temperature is 70% sub-Arctic and 30% hotter than the sun, lighting levels reminiscent of a mushroom farm, a dent in the chipboard door where an angry player once punched it, a black plastic bin filled with orange segments and screwed up sock tape, and an unmistakable smell of damp and Deep Heat.

Hands up if you’ve personally played on pitches with nicer changing rooms than this?

Let's not forget the asbestos ceiling tiles and the two-bar heater (just next to the tin bath).

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I once played for a cricket club whose home ground "pavillion" was an ancient leaky portacabin with no showers and no toilets. It did have a tap so you could make tea, but nothing else.

it was a bit sweaty and smelly, and rather insanitary.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Flints? You don't know you're born. We had flints AND dog shit.

You have clearly never payed on a "ground" where they have only just herded away the sheep - the field (which actually it was) was completely smothered in sheep droppings. . The surface was very "greasy".

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

Do the Amex stadium tour - the contrast between the two changing rooms is quite something.

This.

The difference is quite normal.

Newcastle’s do look a bit crap, but so do a few others, the old Liverpool one used to be appalling

 

[Lindfield by the Pond]

So when neutral games are played at the Amex, eg Rugby World Cup, how do they decide which team gets our dressing room?
How does Wembley work for home internationals (dressing room favouring England) vs fa cup final (should be equivalent?)

 

[MTSeagulls]

Might get paid in a year or so - that’s typically how they treat suppliers. Inshallah. And yes I am speaking from personal experience.

Ha ha I worked for a flying school/helicopter maintenance company in the 80s on Shoreham Airport.
We had a Saudi customer who owed for previous maintenance on his helicopter but he needed an emergency repair.
I was the accountant and I had to drive an engineer all the way to Nottingham to the customers house, get him to give me a cheque for the previous amount owed, that I would then present for special clearance at a bank before the engineer could start the work.
Once we got there he actually refused to get the money and locked us in his house until the engineer agreed to do the work.
After a few hours he agreed a deal with the CEO of Southern Air and the repairs were done but it was a bit scary for a while.
He did give us tea and biscuits though.

 

[West Upper Seagull]

It doesn't look too dissimilar to Southwick FCs changing rooms at Old Barn Way which I used a few times. It's also much worse than the dressing rooms in the old (decommissioned 2008) Taipei Soccer Stadium which was one of the regular venues for the expat league I played in, as well as the venue for our annual tournament.

Zhongshan Soccer Stadium - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Obviously both grounds generated revenue by hiring the pitch and facilities

I used to play for Southwick back in the 90’s and that Newcastle dressing room looks no better than most County League dressing rooms ! In fact the Newcastle dressing room looks like a converted garage !

 

[scooter1]

Unless I’ve missed it, I’m surprised nobody has mentioned Wild Park changing rooms. Basically one large concrete shell where all teams changed together, with half a dozen showers at one end. It was always a bit nervy if you’d had a particularly fractious game

 

[Hiheidi]

This is the only picture I have of our away dressing room, it's not fancy but it's nowhere near as bad as Newcastle's.