[Albion] Wembley a Disappointment

[BNthree]

Poor signage if you came from the the Wembley Central Station

We too came from this direction and ended up wandering around for a while trying to find the way up to the gates. I assumed it was to try and make you go through the shops and food places. Generally it was a good experience and Wembley was exactly as I thought it would be so was surprised it was so hard to actually get to the gates!

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

So let me start by saying I am VERY proud of our team, we played with spirit and skill and heart that makes me feel like we are getting back to our better selves.

I wanted to see if anyone else felt their Wembley experience was below parr? My 7-year-old loved every minute, this was my first trip to Wembley to see the Albion but it felt flat. Poor sinage if you came from the the Wembley Central Station, grubby feeling, dark and badly organised concourse with food that was sooooo over priced and you had to battle through past several blocks to find anything other than a hot dog. I did only pay for the cheaper seats but the fact that so much of the ground was half empty (not our fans we were top, top draw) and the middle tier was unsued meant that the atmosphere was not as good as it shoudl've been considering the amazing effort from the Albion fans. Some of this as well was playing a team of sulking "rolls royce" players a thier complacent fan base (not all but some) and WTF was the idea of playing Wonderwall afterwards?

I wanted to love it, our team made every effort to make it the best they could for us but I am left feeling like, for the first time probably, football has lost something over the last 15/20 years. Sad to say even though my little boy loved it despite the result. Some may call me miserable but I wanted to see if anyone else felt the same?

I agree with your atmosphere comments. And the large empty seated areas either side of the tunnel didn’t help either.

The concourses I used were fine. And the food will be overpriced.

 

[The Lemming Stomper]

I'm no expert, so probably wrong, but I thought the concourse where we were in the gods was way too narrow for the volume of people...

At half-time, there was a pretty tight squeeze of people which obviously wasn't everyone from the block...If there was a panic or a rush I would have been worried about getting squashed...

I was at a Pittsburgh Steelers match a few years back and a huge lightning storm emptied the stadium into the concourses and it was bloody frightening getting swept along with a crush of people...I managed to nip into a door where there was an office and avoided the squeeze...

No doubt it's all ok at Wembley but seemed a bit cramped to me.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

It was no more or no less disappointing than the Spurs game last season. The mystique ain't what it was

I agree.
I loved the twin towers, the arch is just a poor replacement.


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[brightn'ove]

It seems like the experience differs considerably depending on where you sat. In the lower tier there were tonnes of food stalls and options, the queues weren’t too bad either. For that first 20 minutes of the 2nd half it was absolutely deafeningly loud and the ground actually felt like it was bouncing. I had a great time, didn’t have any problems getting there or getting away and plenty of shops nearby if you don’t fancy overpriced food (we got some packet sandwiches from the Tesco right next to our end of Wembley).

I have sat in the upper tier for England and it’s a poor experience at best up there.

 

[Simster]

It was what I expected of a modern, massive stadium that was built relatively recently.

Most if not all of my complaints come down to the atmosphere at one end of the ground and the corporate middle tier barely being in use. The FA really need to have a good look at this situation, a gate of 71,000 between a moderately well supported provincial club who haven't been in decades, and a top 6 club ought to be totally unacceptable. I don't blame city fans for their empty seats - ticket prices are simply too high for a game relatively low in their priorities, especially when you have to factor in travel at a late, television friendly kick off time. If you are going to let TV call the tune, then compensate fans with lower prices and get them in the stadium. As for the swathes of empty corporate seats, this is an absurd situation. Why have the FA not put in stipulations for the consequences of not using these seats? It is a terrible terrible look having the middle band of the whole stadium empty. Indeed, it was 20 times worse than the pockets of seats in the City end.

 

[Brovion]

First time to the "new" Wembley. I thought it was really disappointing. A lot more is going on outside the stadium theses days which is positive but the stadium itself felt tired and badly thought out.

Ditto. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but whatever it was - I was disappointed. Still enjoyed the day though, but definitely there was no 'wow' factor to the stadium itself. I think the Millennium Stadium (or whatever it's called now) in Cardiff is better and that's older. I'd heard about the infamous Wembley 'Ring of Indifference', but it really doesn't add to the atmosphere.

 

[darkwolf666]

I thought the atmosphere was flat. Empty seats in the City end and throughout the middle tier made it rather dull really. I dont think that semis at Wembley are a good idea and I would like to see them at more compact neutral stadiums. A few toilets down Wembley way would be useful.

This, why do designers of football stadia not think that fans might want to use the facilities, before they get in the ground?

 

[APACHE]

That middle tier of seats at Wembley looks terrible. The 2 ends should just be banks of fans, but of course it's all about the money. If the Amex was double in size it would IMO be better, so not that impressed and Wembley already looks dated.

 

[essbee1]

The men's toilet arrangements inside the ground are very odd. In one block there are toilets with just a small number of cubicles; 30 metres
away are toilets with huge numbers of urinals. But nobody/nothing is there to points this out. So, long queues for the former (and real congestion on the concourse) and empty
in the latter simply due to poor design/signage/etc.

I need to point out that I am not obsessed by toilets.

 

[Hastings gull]

We too came from this direction and ended up wandering around for a while trying to find the way up to the gates. I assumed it was to try and make you go through the shops and food places. Generally it was a good experience and Wembley was exactly as I thought it would be so was surprised it was so hard to actually get to the gates!

Yes, it was generally good. Strangely, as others have mentioned it, I too thought the signage outside was slightly confusing, but I would not say for one moment that this is a major issue.

 

[Captain Sensible]

My daughter Absolutely loved it. But I also found it underwhelming. The mystic of seeing your team play at Wembley has largely disappeared for me. The view was great and the stadium Bowl is superb but maybe we are spoilt at the Amex. I found the acoustics quite bad, the seats hard, the service for food worse than Sodexo. With regard to noise and acoustics, from the upper tiers it was quite difficult to make out what was being sung (unless you were directly behind the goal a mate tells me). I found it a bit grey and dark, the weather didn’t help I suppose, I just found the place a bit...meh. Wembley itself is not the nicest area. Then again it never was, I had forgotten that. There’s a few things around the stadium these days but it still needs better access, better outside stalls and bars, a bit more around it to make it special.

 

[Milano]

The biggest mistake being made with Wembley is all the new buildings going up. You can no longer see the whole stadium when walking down Wembley Way, which is a shame.

When they built the new stadium I thought they put a time limit on the semi’s being played there?

 

[Palacefinder General]

As a neutral venue they arguably shouldn't have played Wonderwall (or FBS had we won). At the Ethihad fair enough, but the national stadium? Just seems a bit tacky and unnecessary.

 

[clapham_gull]

Ha ha.

For those looking back misty eyed to a glorious age that never was, here is the uncomfortable truth.

The old Wembley stadium was a very large but sh#t stadium in a sh#t area of London with rubbish transport links.

The new Wembley stadium is a very large but sh#t stadium in a sh#t area of London with rubbish transport links.



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[FloatLeft]

I think what makes it look tired is the fact that the red seats are fading to an awful pink colour and this was really obvious because a fair number of seats were empty.

I’ve been to Wembley for an England v Scotland game and I’d say the atmosphere was absolutely fantastic with all the build up, national anthems and no empty seats.

Not complaining though. I loved Saturday’s game. UTA!

 

[MattBackHome]

Yeah it's very big. very expensive and very corporate. I don't like it.

 

[Wozza]

My 7-year-old loved every minute, this was my first trip to Wembley to see the Albion but it felt flat. Poor sinage if you came from the the Wembley Central Station...

Wembley Central? That was your first mistake. Your second was expecting anything other than rip-off food prices in the stadium.

Wonderwall was very annoying though, yes.

 

[banjo]

No cushioned seats. How uncouth.

 

[Gazwag]

While wonderwall was annoying (having watched the recording you can hear us over it which was great) the pre-match music annoyed me more, they played an Oasis track which the City fans could just be heard singing along to so I thought they would then play a FBS song, I even thought for a second they were playing SBTS (I thought the PA was awful, I couldn't make out much of what was said) but no they played the Will Grigg song.