'Brum'-bley?? (Wembley (London))

Member Name: Bigballs

Product:	Wembley (London)
Date:	18/08/01 (79 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Accessibilty, Affects and helps a wider range of fans

Disadvantages: None

It’s not long now before we find out where the new national stadium is to be built since the sad demise of Wembley Stadium. Many people believe that the new national stadium should be built outside the capital – and I am one of them.

In my opinion, the ‘new’ Wembley should not be built at the current site in London, but somewhere in the middle of the country. I think it is scandalous that a national stadium is to be sited in the south of the country when an opportunity has arisen to site the stadium in a more accessible position to a larger proportion of the public.
Every team has its own set of supporters, but it can be argued that the teams with the more fanatical fans at the moment are in the North of the country – the likes of Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Leeds etc.
Surely it would be a hell of a lot more logical to place the stadium at one of the requested sites at Solihull (Birmingham) or even Coventry. Here, everybody in the North will have the same distance to travel as those from the South, and it will also give the Northerners more chance to see England games. In the past, an International friendly on a Wednesday night could mean that fans from the North have a travelling time of 6-8 hours to get to the ground before kick-off, then the same time afterwards, meaning not getting home until the early hours of the morning. When you compare this to fans based in London, they would normally leave their house about 1 hour before kick off, and be home for 11 the same evening afterwards.

I believe that if the new stadium was built at one of the Midlands sites, then it gives every fan more of a chance to see more games and also give them the same travelling distance and time. Obviously no matter where you put the stadium, there will always be fans that only have 20 minutes travelling time, but I think that no fan should have to travel for no longer than 3 hours to get to a game.

The other main r
eason for situating the stadium in or around Birmingham, is the fact that accessibility is easy. The M1, M6, M69, M40, M5, and M42 are all closely linked in and around this area, and there are also major rail links. It even has Birmingham airport up the road for any fans travelling from further afield.

Current plans also suggest that it has parking facilities for around 20,000 cars and 6,000 coaches - and everybody knows how much hassle it can be parking or leaving at a football ground.

Surely now that the chance has risen, now is the time to put the fans first and give them what they want.

Summary: