Express & Star

Sadly, Wembley is a real dump

Having returned from my forth visit to Wembley, (three with the Albion, and the England v Moldova match), I feel qualified to pass an opinion on our national football stadium. It's a dump.

Published
Wembley Stadium

No not the bit you see on your television screen, the arena, that is fit for purpose, though the crowd could be closer to the field of play. It's the infrastructure that lets it down. Arriving through the tatty industrial estates in impossible traffic, to a dirt covered patch they call the pink car park. The coach driver says it cost £90 to park here. You wonder what impression overseas visitors must get of what should be the pride of English football?

Trying to get a wheelchair over this bumpy dirt patch to solid ground, is shall we say, difficult. Heading up an uneven street trying to find any dropped gutters, you arrive at what is currently the Spurs away end of the stadium, to be greeted by huge flights of steps up to the main entrance area.

Finding a member of staff you enquire "how do I get up there?" The guy seems unsure, but sends you to the right, you later find out you should have gone left.

Inside the stadium you find the toilets are already looking bad and smelly, and it's still an hour and a half before kick-off. Never mind get a drink and something to eat, but then you find that tatty it might be but cheep it ain't. They keep the worst bit for last, getting away from this place is a nightmare travelling slowly over a prearranged route for about half hour you see the Wembley arch ahead and realise the route out, has brought you, almost back to where you started.

Surely a more central stadium, like say the site at St Georges Burton, would have been a better choice to site a national football stadium we could be proud of? It would be interesting to know, if other reader's share my opinion. Wembley is a dump.

Alan J Hunt

West Bromwich