Impressive but vastly overpriced. (Wembley Stadium (London))

Member Name: skybluearmyontou

Product:	Wembley Stadium (London)
Date:	05/10/09 (19 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great view, huge, archway is cool and good atmosphere.

Disadvantages: Why did it cost so much? Transport is slow and poor positioning of corporates.

Why did it cost so much money?

Don't get me wrong, Wembley is an amazing stadium but then the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff is also a fantastic stadium which cost some 500 million pounds less, was on time and has a retractable pitch and a closing roof. Ok, Wembley is around 20,000 larger in capacity and has the big arch (which looks good when lit) but is that enough to justify the extra £500m? No!

Wembley, thankfully, has several train stations, which when dealing with 90,000 people is a must. There are still many cases of fans leaving eas early as 70 minutes because they have found the wait for transport excessive and I believe that to be true. The last time I went was for an FA Trophy game with the stadium less than 25% full and yet the queues afterwards were fairly lengthly.

Then in side the stadium, they put the high end corporates right around the dugouts facing the TV screens. They are never in their seats when the game starts and kicks off again for the second half making it look empty. Poor positioning to say the least.

Inside the ground the food was very expensive, £4.50 for a pie if I recall correctly and one thing I did notice was the wind gusting around inside. Over the top of the turnstiles was a metal cage instead of a wall which made it quite blustery inside.

I do like the walls of memories that are inside the concourse and the atmosphere at Wembley can be superb but as I say, it's vastly overpriced in comparison to other stadiums.

Having been to the Old Wembley, I felt the walk down Wembley Way there was once of those once in a lifetime moments (even though it happened several times) but now I just don't get that feeling at all. Maybe it's because the stadium is new? The view and comfort of the new Wembley are obviously better and the facilities are a great improvement.

If it had cost £350m then I'd have been more positive but for that price....not overly special.

Shame my team won't be there much/ever :-(

Summary: Not bad. Maybe it will grow on me but for compared to the price of Cardiff, not that great!