This year I have had the luxury of actually going to Wembley stadium on two occasions. The first was to witness the FA Cup semi-final between Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur and the other game was between England and Belgium recently.

My review is about my visit for the England vs Belgium game.

I never went to the old Wembley and this was my first trips to Wembley since it was rebuilt.

~~ What is Wembley Stadium? ~~

Wembley stadium is the national stadium of England and this is where they play all the home games and where cup finals in England are being played for.
The stadium was rebuilt and it took for what seemed forever and has since become very iconic due to the huge arch which was built above the stadium. It was finally finished and opened in 2007 and it cost over 750 million pounds in cost.

There is 90.000 capacity for a game of football and this venue is used for concerts and other sports as well over the past few years.

~~ Getting There and Parking? ~~

Getting to Wembley was so easy and it was a straight forward drive down the M1 motorway and as soon as you approach London you're told how to get to the stadium which has many routes.
The stadium is very big and is one of those arenas where you can spot the arch which is on top of the stadium and you can see easily where you have to go. The directions for the stadium are usually straight forward as well and it means a straight route down the motorway takes you there.

There is a tube station which stops a few minutes around the corner from Wembley stadium so this is another option and there is a local bus service as well which circulates around the area so this is again is an option for people to take. Prices would vary so this is for people to check.

The car parking is very confusing because the first game I went to see I ordered some parking outside a home of someone who lived across the road and this cost me £12 but the stadium parking which is around the back of the stadium costs around £27.50 and that is a huge price to pay.

I think in terms of parking people should look around to locate potential cheaper options I visited a few websites where local members of the public advertise their homes as locations for people to park and this is a much cheaper option.

~~ The Stadium and Eating ~~

The stadium was different for me in many ways. The eating resources were perhaps limited outside the stadium because the stadium is huge you need to walk around the outside to locate your seat and door you have to walk through.
As you walk around there is a few locations promoting food and in there burger vans but queues are very big and it can take a long time to get to the front. If you're running late for a match and need to get inside the stadium you basically find inside the prices vary.

There are plenty of places to eat from burgers and even some meal locations and drinks for beer and teas are everywhere. When it comes to fizzy drinks you have a few problems and the first is that you're not allowed to have lids on your bottles so you have to be careful you do not purchase an item you are likely to spill.

The stadium itself is huge from the outside it can appear smaller then it is but this is not the case. The stadium is clean and very open so people are not going to bump into one another at all. The stadium upon entry you were searched and the back pockets were emptied so they took security seriously.

Toilets were scattered everywhere and had a few ways to enter and they were very good at keeping them clean and tidy and staff are everywhere as well so the stadium in terms of help, places to eat and staff was exceptional.

~~ Atmosphere, Staff and Store ~~

The staff were so helpful on both occasions I was in the stadium. The staff were very polite they even joined in at times with some of the chants which the teams at the games were coming up with. They assisted people with how to get to their seats and when you see 90,000 seats they were very helpful.
Sometimes the staff serving food was slow and not the best but they did provide good food options but they had to take a long time to get it right which was perhaps a problem for most people.

In regards to the stores there is a few all over the stadium selling products for those teams. On the day of the England vs. Belgium game they had teddy bears and scarfs with banners and the prices were put up due to that reason. The England teddy bears were only £6 online yet the day of the game they were £10 which was a big increase.

I found the store limited in terms of what they had on sale. Banners and programmes were easy to obtain but if you wanted clothing they had limited amount of sizes and often it was just small and medium and that was also a problem as well.

The atmosphere though was loud but died out for each game. You expect the fans to chant throughout the game and at times the sound was loud but it seemed to get lost due to how big the stadium is. You have here a huge stadium which is huge in height but width and the sound drowns out whilst at a smaller stadium the noise remains inside the stadium.

If you want a good atmosphere at the start of a game it is loud and very pleasing but overall as the game goes on the sound diminishes and that is a huge shame.

~~ My Visit ~~

On the day of the game with England and Belgium I set out pretty late because I knew where I lived it would take around an hour to reach the stadium via the road which is how long it took. We arrived on time and found the car park with no problems at all.

The car park did look rather poor in terms of security because people could easily walk into the car park and actually look at the cars and decide which one they could take a chance on in terms of stealing so I was not happy we paid £20 on the day to see how poor the car parking truly was.
We saw no police at all on the day outside the stadium until after the game and even then it was limited so that was a problem as well because most stadiums I have visited I have found myself seeing plenty of police more for security and a huge game like this was to see no police around was worrying.

The stadium looked huge we walked up some steps and came across the statue of the great Bobby Moore and then it took for what seemed forever to walk around the stadium aiming to find the right door to walk through. When we did eventually find the correct door it took a while to be checked by security.

I had nothing on but my wallet and phone yet they wanted me to empty pockets yet other people with huge coats on and bags on their bags were checked in seconds so I found there security procedure poor.
When I did get into the stadium we went to our seats which were easy to find and we had some white flyers on the seats to use during the National Anthem which was there to show the colours of the football team which was very cool.

When the game was on we had some fans louder than others and it was a typical game but at half time it was a penalty shootout amongst 3 men who won a competition but other than that little else went on which was disappointing for those 15 minutes.

At the end of the game when we had to leave it was chaos and everyone was rushing around and it was a disaster zone with little co-ordination at all. People were running around and due to every fan walking around the stadium you had queues going down the steps and it was bad with no security to escort fans accordingly.

In the car park it took us 90 minutes to leave because the roads were blocked by police to let fans walk home or to the tube station so this was a huge disappointment again in regards to how they structured who did what. On the ride home it was fine and it was quick once we escaped.

I enjoyed our view which cost me £45 a ticket and it was a nice game to watch, atmosphere for some of the game was superb and the help was there at all times from the stewards it was how they managed people at the end of the match which astonished me because it was so badly organised.

~~ Final Thoughts ~~

I enjoyed the fact the stadium was so easy to access because it was well sign posted and very easy to reach. When it came to the car parking I was furious because anyone on the street could reach your car.
Other stadiums have car parks blocked by barriers and staff but this stadium seemed to not offer this it was as if you pay a fortune to park your car but people from anywhere can walk in the car park and that was a worry for us whilst at the game.

I think at the end of the game with little assistance offered by the police and security it meant utter chaos with pushing and shouting going on and to be honest this happened on both of my visits to the stadium and that is not good enough when you consider the cost of the ticket as well.

After the game we had to wait in the car park and no one moved for 90 minutes yet where we were parked there was two gates which could access main roads. These were shut so the fans could walk home which was fine but after 45 minutes we saw no more fans walking around so they continued to leave the gates locked and shut for a further 45 minutes.

I think there is a few problems with Wembley and for me the parking situation was the worse it has ever been and it could be sorted out with some presence of the local police or stewards directing people better.
I would say the food situation is good, toilets superb and the entire stadium very clean with good staff helping when needed.

~~ Venue Information ~~

Wembley Stadium
Wembley
London HA9 0WS

T: 0844 980 8001
W: www.wembleystadium.com

Postal Address:
Wembley Stadium
PO Box 1966
London SW1P 9EQ