Vicarage Road (Vicarage Road (Watford FC))

Member Name: roversjenny

Product:	Vicarage Road (Watford FC)
Date:	12/05/09 (35 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Traditional ground - Modern facilities

Disadvantages: The East Stand

I visited Vicarage Road back in 2008 to watch Watford take on Doncaster Rovers, and I wasn't that impressed with the stadium.

Getting there
Despite having comprehensive directions from the AA website, we struggled to find the ground once in Watford, it is in an area where a lot of the streets are one way and therefore one wrong turn meant you ended up going round in circles. The ground isn't well signposted, and you cannot see it from afar as it is in quite a residential area. I guess once you have been more than once the journey gets easier.

Parking
When I went to Watford, I was on crutches, which meant that I needed to be parked closed to the ground as I was struggling to walk. I called in advance to try and get a disabled space booked (we also had a blue badge holder in the car) however, as I tend to find with football clubs, I couldn't get through and when I could, I was just transferred to an answerphone and no one ever got back to me. Needless to say, when we got there, there was nowhere to park close to the ground and we ended up parking about a mile away, at a place that cost £5 and was an uphill walk to the ground, not fun! The traffic getting away from the carpark was awful.

Prices
Tickets for a Cat B game are around £23 for adults which is about the norm for the Championship and then £13 for concessions, along with £10 for under 16s, however, if you are unfortunate enough to watch a Cat A game, the tickets can be as expensive as £35!

The ground itself
The ground is an old style football ground with 4 separate stands are empty corners. The Vicarage Road stand and Rookery Stand are behind the goals and look pretty similar, they are large single tiered stands. The entrances to the Vicarage Road stand are towards the back of the stand, in the Rookery, there are 2 sets which are in the middle and then towards the front. The away fans share the Vicarage Road stand with the home fans, however there is the usual netting seperating the two sets of supporters.

The Rous Stand looks to be the newest of the 4 and runs down the length of the pitch, it is a 2 tiered stand which also houses exectutive boxes. The stand has a rather unusual roof and I always think that it would look less out of place at a cricket ground than it does at a football ground.

The East Stand is currently closed, due to health and safety fears. It is the oldest stand in the ground, it is part covered and part open to the elements, but still all seated. The stand is dated, and looks a mess, there are plans to rebuild the stand.

The overall capacity is 19,900 all of which are seats.

Food
The food at Vicarage Road is pretty standard, pies, burgers, hot dogs, pizza pods and the average price is about £3.

Facilities
The facilities at the ground are quite modern, the toilets are clean and have plenty of paper, and hand wash, and the concourses are spacious enough to mingle in pre match and at half time.

Overall impressions
Aside from the East Stand, the ground is quite impressive, it has a traditional feel to it and generates quite a good atmosphere despite the corners being quite open. The redevelopment will bring the ground on leaps and bounds.

Summary: Room for improvement