madras Posted April 9, 2010 Share Posted April 9, 2010 I must say I kinda envy your Wembley tradition. We just play our cup finals in neutral venues, and the semis in home/away legs and it doesn't have that special feeling. But we have never had a "national stadium". Our FA trampled all over our Wembley tradition when they started holding Cup semi finals there. it totally devalues the mystique of Wembley if you get to go there for the semi final too. seconded brummie. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foluwashola Posted April 9, 2010 Share Posted April 9, 2010 I must say I kinda envy your Wembley tradition. We just play our cup finals in neutral venues, and the semis in home/away legs and it doesn't have that special feeling. But we have never had a "national stadium". Our FA trampled all over our Wembley tradition when they started holding Cup semi finals there. it totally devalues the mystique of Wembley if you get to go there for the semi final too. seconded brummie. Rather go to Wembley than shitty Villa Park Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brummie Posted April 9, 2010 Share Posted April 9, 2010 I must say I kinda envy your Wembley tradition. We just play our cup finals in neutral venues, and the semis in home/away legs and it doesn't have that special feeling. But we have never had a "national stadium". Our FA trampled all over our Wembley tradition when they started holding Cup semi finals there. it totally devalues the mystique of Wembley if you get to go there for the semi final too. seconded brummie. Rather go to Wembley than shitty Villa Park Hint: If you're going to fish, don't back your Vauxhall Nova up to the river bank, gigantic boot speaker exposed and blaring out cacky RnB bilge at top volume whilst you hammer away with a pneumatic drill. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted April 9, 2010 Share Posted April 9, 2010 I must say I kinda envy your Wembley tradition. We just play our cup finals in neutral venues, and the semis in home/away legs and it doesn't have that special feeling. But we have never had a "national stadium". Our FA trampled all over our Wembley tradition when they started holding Cup semi finals there. it totally devalues the mystique of Wembley if you get to go there for the semi final too. seconded brummie. Agreed. Problem now is they'd never pay for the new stadium without doing so. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
midds Posted April 9, 2010 Share Posted April 9, 2010 I must say I kinda envy your Wembley tradition. We just play our cup finals in neutral venues, and the semis in home/away legs and it doesn't have that special feeling. But we have never had a "national stadium". Our FA trampled all over our Wembley tradition when they started holding Cup semi finals there. it totally devalues the mystique of Wembley if you get to go there for the semi final too. seconded brummie. Rather go to Wembley than shitty Villa Park Hint: If you're going to fish, don't back your Vauxhall Nova up to the river bank, gigantic boot speaker exposed and blaring out cacky RnB bilge at top volume whilst you hammer away with a pneumatic drill. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foluwashola Posted April 9, 2010 Share Posted April 9, 2010 I must say I kinda envy your Wembley tradition. We just play our cup finals in neutral venues, and the semis in home/away legs and it doesn't have that special feeling. But we have never had a "national stadium". Our FA trampled all over our Wembley tradition when they started holding Cup semi finals there. it totally devalues the mystique of Wembley if you get to go there for the semi final too. seconded brummie. Rather go to Wembley than shitty Villa Park Hint: If you're going to fish, don't back your Vauxhall Nova up to the river bank, gigantic boot speaker exposed and blaring out cacky RnB bilge at top volume whilst you hammer away with a pneumatic drill. Taken onboard Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
madras Posted April 9, 2010 Share Posted April 9, 2010 I must say I kinda envy your Wembley tradition. We just play our cup finals in neutral venues, and the semis in home/away legs and it doesn't have that special feeling. But we have never had a "national stadium". Our FA trampled all over our Wembley tradition when they started holding Cup semi finals there. it totally devalues the mystique of Wembley if you get to go there for the semi final too. seconded brummie. Agreed. Problem now is they'd never pay for the new stadium without doing so. pretty sure they could have afforded a better, cheaper stadium if it didn't HAVE to be in london. massivly overpriced and in a crap part of the country. especially when the majority of folk would rather the majority of england games were played in the regions. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted April 9, 2010 Share Posted April 9, 2010 I must say I kinda envy your Wembley tradition. We just play our cup finals in neutral venues, and the semis in home/away legs and it doesn't have that special feeling. But we have never had a "national stadium". Our FA trampled all over our Wembley tradition when they started holding Cup semi finals there. it totally devalues the mystique of Wembley if you get to go there for the semi final too. seconded brummie. Agreed. Problem now is they'd never pay for the new stadium without doing so. pretty sure they could have afforded a better, cheaper stadium if it didn't HAVE to be in london. massivly overpriced and in a crap part of the country. especially when the majority of folk would rather the majority of england games were played in the regions. Agree with all that too. Should have been somewhere in the Midlands IMO. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brummie Posted April 9, 2010 Share Posted April 9, 2010 I must say I kinda envy your Wembley tradition. We just play our cup finals in neutral venues, and the semis in home/away legs and it doesn't have that special feeling. But we have never had a "national stadium". Our FA trampled all over our Wembley tradition when they started holding Cup semi finals there. it totally devalues the mystique of Wembley if you get to go there for the semi final too. seconded brummie. Agreed. Problem now is they'd never pay for the new stadium without doing so. pretty sure they could have afforded a better, cheaper stadium if it didn't HAVE to be in london. massivly overpriced and in a crap part of the country. especially when the majority of folk would rather the majority of england games were played in the regions. Dave is right, that's why we're playing semi finals there. As for the stadium, i was there in February for the CC final, and to be honest, it was underwhelming. When you're in the seat, it is very large scale, but it is the least atmospheric stadium I've ever been in. You think somewhere like the Emirates has its atmosphere killed by the corporate tier, Wembley is 10 times worse. Plus the concourses are horribly dark and dank - almost like they ran out of money at that point and just said "fuck it, pour a load of concrete down and stick some pictures of Geoff Hurst up". I do think the national stadium could only have been in London, though. Politically and financially, it had to be that way. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
madras Posted April 9, 2010 Share Posted April 9, 2010 I must say I kinda envy your Wembley tradition. We just play our cup finals in neutral venues, and the semis in home/away legs and it doesn't have that special feeling. But we have never had a "national stadium". Our FA trampled all over our Wembley tradition when they started holding Cup semi finals there. it totally devalues the mystique of Wembley if you get to go there for the semi final too. seconded brummie. Agreed. Problem now is they'd never pay for the new stadium without doing so. pretty sure they could have afforded a better, cheaper stadium if it didn't HAVE to be in london. massivly overpriced and in a crap part of the country. especially when the majority of folk would rather the majority of england games were played in the regions. Agree with all that too. Should have been somewhere in the Midlands IMO. yip, they could probably have afforded the transport links to go with it aswell. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brummie Posted April 9, 2010 Share Posted April 9, 2010 I must say I kinda envy your Wembley tradition. We just play our cup finals in neutral venues, and the semis in home/away legs and it doesn't have that special feeling. But we have never had a "national stadium". Our FA trampled all over our Wembley tradition when they started holding Cup semi finals there. it totally devalues the mystique of Wembley if you get to go there for the semi final too. seconded brummie. Agreed. Problem now is they'd never pay for the new stadium without doing so. pretty sure they could have afforded a better, cheaper stadium if it didn't HAVE to be in london. massivly overpriced and in a crap part of the country. especially when the majority of folk would rather the majority of england games were played in the regions. Agree with all that too. Should have been somewhere in the Midlands IMO. Disagree. The site they were talking about in the Midlands was near the NEC, purely because it is near the motorway, and has a decent sized airport and a train station on site. The issue with that is it's close enough to London to make it worth actually building it in London. There was never any real prospect of it leaving London. I don't have a problem with that. Personally, I don't think we really need a national stadium at all, but if we are going to have one, it can't be anywhere in the provinces - no provincial city has anything like the extra attractions London has. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brummie Posted April 9, 2010 Share Posted April 9, 2010 I must say I kinda envy your Wembley tradition. We just play our cup finals in neutral venues, and the semis in home/away legs and it doesn't have that special feeling. But we have never had a "national stadium". Our FA trampled all over our Wembley tradition when they started holding Cup semi finals there. it totally devalues the mystique of Wembley if you get to go there for the semi final too. seconded brummie. Agreed. Problem now is they'd never pay for the new stadium without doing so. pretty sure they could have afforded a better, cheaper stadium if it didn't HAVE to be in london. massivly overpriced and in a crap part of the country. especially when the majority of folk would rather the majority of england games were played in the regions. Agree with all that too. Should have been somewhere in the Midlands IMO. yip, they could probably have afforded the transport links to go with it aswell. The transport links are there at the site they were considering (see above). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Village Idiot Posted April 9, 2010 Share Posted April 9, 2010 The good thing about not having a national stadium, though, is that Spain plays their games throughout the whole country. So fans everywhere have a chance of eventually seeing them live They very rarely play in Barcelona, though, and haven't played in the Basque Country in decades. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brummie Posted April 9, 2010 Share Posted April 9, 2010 The good thing about not having a national stadium, though, is that Spain plays their games throughout the whole country. So fans everywhere have a chance of eventually seeing them live They very rarely play in Barcelona, though, and haven't played in the Basque Country in decades. Whilst Wembley was being redeveloped England played their games at various grounds up and down the country, and it was pretty successful. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
madras Posted April 9, 2010 Share Posted April 9, 2010 I must say I kinda envy your Wembley tradition. We just play our cup finals in neutral venues, and the semis in home/away legs and it doesn't have that special feeling. But we have never had a "national stadium". Our FA trampled all over our Wembley tradition when they started holding Cup semi finals there. it totally devalues the mystique of Wembley if you get to go there for the semi final too. seconded brummie. Agreed. Problem now is they'd never pay for the new stadium without doing so. pretty sure they could have afforded a better, cheaper stadium if it didn't HAVE to be in london. massivly overpriced and in a crap part of the country. especially when the majority of folk would rather the majority of england games were played in the regions. Agree with all that too. Should have been somewhere in the Midlands IMO. Disagree. The site they were talking about in the Midlands was near the NEC, purely because it is near the motorway, and has a decent sized airport and a train station on site. The issue with that is it's close enough to London to make it worth actually building it in London. There was never any real prospect of it leaving London. I don't have a problem with that. Personally, I don't think we really need a national stadium at all, but if we are going to have one, it can't be anywhere in the provinces - no provincial city has anything like the extra attractions London has. no provincial city has those attractions because........................... of that sort of thinking. anyway would you be put off going to an england game because you couldn't squeeze in an hour at the whitechapel art gallery beforehand ? most england supporters from outside the south east go and get out as sharp as possible. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brummie Posted April 9, 2010 Share Posted April 9, 2010 The good thing about not having a national stadium, though, is that Spain plays their games throughout the whole country. So fans everywhere have a chance of eventually seeing them live They very rarely play in Barcelona, though, and haven't played in the Basque Country in decades. I went to see us play at Athletic Bilbao in the UEFA cup 12 years ago, and it is without a doubt the best place I've ever seen us play football. Fantastic people, unbelievably welcoming, and we made a lot of friendships that day. That's a great place to play football. (Unlike Atletico Madrid, where we mostly got beaten up by riot police). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foluwashola Posted April 9, 2010 Share Posted April 9, 2010 The good thing about not having a national stadium, though, is that Spain plays their games throughout the whole country. So fans everywhere have a chance of eventually seeing them live They very rarely play in Barcelona, though, and haven't played in the Basque Country in decades. Whilst Wembley was being redeveloped England played their games at various grounds up and down the country, and it was pretty successful. Aye, we were lucky enough to see the mighty Albania come to town I believe. The city went into a state of hysteria. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stifler Posted April 9, 2010 Share Posted April 9, 2010 I don't even see why we need a national stadium. A lot of our stadiums are up to scratch at club level, atleast in the Premiership and few in the lower leagues are of a decent level. England could easily play in a number of stadiums across the country, and the FA Cup final (and the Play off finals). That could of encoraged clubs to build/rebuild real stadiums and get away from the flat pack stadiums aswell, giving clubs a real chace to host something special and creating a special stadium in the process. It would also mean that police, travel infastructure and such wouldn't of been streched when you have FA Cup semi's on each day in one weekend and the play off finals over 2-3 days, each of them could of been spread out across the country so that you don't have 40k fans of 4-6 teams all in one area over a weekend. I mean loads of teams are planning on building newer and bigger stadiums aswell as re-developeing existing ones, for example Spurs, Liverpool, Everton, this could of given them the push to get on with it. To me national stadiums are now for countries thatcan only afford to pay for one stadium that can handle the pressure of FIFA and whatever other organisation requirements, we can afford plenty of stadiums that fall into this catergory. Offering these events across the nation could give everyone a real chance to see these games for themselves without having to pay sky high prices to get to London, hotel prices to stay over, and the high prices they expect for food aswell. It could of been a real boost to local business's (and football clubs, which as it has been known a lot of clubs could do with the finacial gains this could of offerd) and each and every town and city that would of been able to of hosted these events, sadly though this all falls back into London's pocket. Then again, this could of been the stupidest idea and post I have ever came up with. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brummie Posted April 9, 2010 Share Posted April 9, 2010 I must say I kinda envy your Wembley tradition. We just play our cup finals in neutral venues, and the semis in home/away legs and it doesn't have that special feeling. But we have never had a "national stadium". Our FA trampled all over our Wembley tradition when they started holding Cup semi finals there. it totally devalues the mystique of Wembley if you get to go there for the semi final too. seconded brummie. Agreed. Problem now is they'd never pay for the new stadium without doing so. pretty sure they could have afforded a better, cheaper stadium if it didn't HAVE to be in london. massivly overpriced and in a crap part of the country. especially when the majority of folk would rather the majority of england games were played in the regions. Agree with all that too. Should have been somewhere in the Midlands IMO. Disagree. The site they were talking about in the Midlands was near the NEC, purely because it is near the motorway, and has a decent sized airport and a train station on site. The issue with that is it's close enough to London to make it worth actually building it in London. There was never any real prospect of it leaving London. I don't have a problem with that. Personally, I don't think we really need a national stadium at all, but if we are going to have one, it can't be anywhere in the provinces - no provincial city has anything like the extra attractions London has. no provincial city has those attractions because........................... of that sort of thinking. anyway would you be put off going to an england game because you couldn't squeeze in an hour at the whitechapel art gallery beforehand ? most england supporters from outside the south east go and get out as sharp as possible. No, no provincial city has the attractions London does purely because London is one of a handful of global mega cities, there's no way Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds etc can compete with that, and unfortunately, if you're going to have a national stadium, it is going to have to be near to "the action". I'm not saying it is right, I'm saying that that's the reason and there is a certain amount of logic behind it. For all the talk, there was never really any chance they were going to take it out of London. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Village Idiot Posted April 9, 2010 Share Posted April 9, 2010 The good thing about not having a national stadium, though, is that Spain plays their games throughout the whole country. So fans everywhere have a chance of eventually seeing them live They very rarely play in Barcelona, though, and haven't played in the Basque Country in decades. I went to see us play at Athletic Bilbao in the UEFA cup 12 years ago, and it is without a doubt the best place I've ever seen us play football. Fantastic people, unbelievably welcoming, and we made a lot of friendships that day. That's a great place to play football. (Unlike Atletico Madrid, where we mostly got beaten up by riot police). San Mamés is a great stadium, and the Bilbao crowd are some of the most welcoming and great fans you'll find in Spain. The reason Spain doesn't play there is because of the terrorist threat. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foluwashola Posted April 9, 2010 Share Posted April 9, 2010 Personally I'm quite pleased with the fact that we have a national stadium and although with semis being played taking some of the gloss of it is still something special to go to Wembley and I can't wait til we get the chance to go there. If people want to see England play so desperately they can get themselves to London, its hardly a difficult place to get to in these days. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brummie Posted April 9, 2010 Share Posted April 9, 2010 Personally I'm quite pleased with the fact that we have a national stadium and although with semis being played taking some of the gloss of it is still something special to go to Wembley and I can't wait til we get the chance to go there. If people want to see England play so desperately they can get themselves to London, its hardly a difficult place to get to in these days. I agree with that, but it is becoming less and less special, and one of the main reasons is the playing of FA Cup semi finals there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kingdawson Posted April 9, 2010 Share Posted April 9, 2010 I preferred old Wembley to the new Wembley anyway tbh. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
madras Posted April 9, 2010 Share Posted April 9, 2010 I preferred old Wembley to the new Wembley anyway tbh. even though it was a shithole when i went at least there was the history etc. now it's pointless. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mowen Posted April 9, 2010 Share Posted April 9, 2010 The good thing about not having a national stadium, though, is that Spain plays their games throughout the whole country. So fans everywhere have a chance of eventually seeing them live They very rarely play in Barcelona, though, and haven't played in the Basque Country in decades. Whilst Wembley was being redeveloped England played their games at various grounds up and down the country, and it was pretty successful. The vast majority were played at Old Trafford though weren't they? And doesn't this start a problem with giving a benefit to clubs that already have a good ground? I know a reason Kent can't compete financially in County Cricket at times is that they'll never get the £1m windfall from hosting a test match. Wembley is exactly like the Emirates imo. Beautifully made, very impressive but just...dead. Being on a vast expanse of concrete doesn't help (for either). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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