Tuesday evening, I’m going to take my place on the terraces at the Harrogate Town Wetherby Road stadium for their match against Tranmere Rovers and, after a life to try, complete my set of each of the 92 grouts of the current league in the English game.
I am a stadium. I love land like people, their character and their quirks and their beauty and their architecture.
I ranked my favorites from 1 to 92.
The best and the rest will come later, but there is a handle, I would never rest my feet again.
92. The den, Millwall
I am prohibited from the den right now, in a professional capacity anyway. I could still go to a personal title but, in balance, I think I prefer not.
The Daily Mail was informed that our journalists are not welcome to the club because we were tearing to report on the horrible challenge by Millwall Liam Roberts on Jean-Philippe Mateta de Crystal Palace during the FA Cup tie in Selhurst Park a few weeks ago.
I am forbidden for the den for the moment, in a professional capacity anyway
Let’s be honest on this subject: there are worse places to ban … Being prohibited from the den is the equivalent of football to be banished from your local slaughterhouse
Inside the ground, which is modern and neat and relatively without character, the level of hatred to visit supporters feels unusual visceral
Let’s be honest on this subject: there are worse places to ban. The ban on the den is the equivalent of football to be banished from your local slaughterhouse.
You don’t need to be a racist, misogynist and homophobic guy with anger problems and a penchant for tragedy to feel at home at the den. But it helps.
And, yes, I know Millwall is trying to rename himself a “ family club ” now and the strange Tarquin and Tabitha are moving away from the lines of the county of Blackheath and Clapham to keep it real, but that aggravates the experience of the den.
The last time I went as a supporter was 15 years ago to watch the county of Stockport to play there and the promenade of the South Bermondsey station at the turnstiles outside was a revelation.
Not that there have been problems: even in Millwall, football has evolved since the 1970s. But it always seemed deeply dystopian: for their own security, fans on the outside are walking on the ground through a long cage in metal mesh which seems to have no end.
It was like embarking on a visit to Jurassic: You know that if the fences fail, the dinosaurs will run you.
Inside the soil, which is modern and neat and relatively without character, the level of hatred to visit supporters is unusually visceral. It’s strong. I will give it. It’s primitive.
It is not rebuilt, which can also be a good thing, and this generates a feeling of unity. If medievalism is your thing, you enjoy. Otherwise, give it a lack.
91. Stadium MK, MK Dons
I know it’s a sweet target, but I really don’t care about a lot of stadium MK.
Or for MK is it doing, even if they invite supporters to rethink their club crest and rethink their names.
The club was born under a bad sign when it was left from Wimbledon and moved to Milton Keynes in 2003 and it has never been able to shake the stigma since.
The stadium corresponds to the club. It is a place without soul, faceless and dark. More than that, there is something rather prohibited on this subject.
His capacity of 30,000 is too large for the club he hosts and, apart from the joys of the local KFC and McDonald’s, there is not much to recommend his immediate environment.
Its black seats also give it a sinister air. This is the kind of stadium that only his mother could love. And he has no mother. Unless you wanted to do 92, give it a lack.
I know it’s a sweet target, but I really don’t care about stadium mk, MK Dons house
Its capacity of 30,000 is too large for the club which it hosts and, apart from the joys of the local KFC and McDonald’s, there is not much to recommend in its immediate surroundings
Its black seats also give it a sinister air … It is a place without soul and dark and rather prohibited
90. Kassam Stadium, Oxford United
I am ashamed to say, given that it is my local club, but the best experience I had at the Kassam stadium was to get my punch there during the pandemic.
When they moved, around the turning point of the century, abandoning the chaotic charm of the Manoir terrain in Headington and exchanging it for an isolated plateau outside the city, they only finished three sides, abandoning the fourth due to the rise in costs.
A particularly bitter wind blows out of the parking lot behind one of the goals and, from the main stand – in fact, all the stands – there is a magnificent and uninterrupted view of the Frankie and Benny in the Mini Retail Park which prove the ground.
The empty end kills a large part of the atmosphere, although Oxford fans are congratulated for the noise they generate, because they have endured a generation of stuck here.
Firoz Kassam still has the stadium but not the club. This kind of separation always issues problems.
Oxford hopes to move to a new stadium north of the city in a few years. It can’t come early enough.
When Oxford moved, abandoning the chaotic charm of the Manoir terrain in Headington and exchanging it for an isolated tray outside the city, they only finished three sides
A particularly bitter wind blows outside the parking lot behind one of the goals
Oxford fans must be congratulated for the noise they generate, as they have endured a generation of stuck here
89. London Stadium, West Ham United
I don’t even like calling it the London Stadium. It is the Olympic stadium, but it is suitable for the change of brand of the club of David Sullivan-Karren Brady to give it the name of the capital.
It was an excellent Athletics arena and housing a whole series of gold memories in London 2012, but it is a dog dinner from a football field.
It is also a monument to many which does not go with the first flight of the English game: an abandonment of identity and tradition as collateral damage in the continuation of profits by the owners.
Walking towards him, unfortunately, is a bit like walking in a desert and its strange configuration inside harms the atmosphere even if the fans are up there with the best in the country.
The old stadium at Upton Park was intimate and noisy and intimidating. The London stadium has nothing to do with that.
The owners spent a lot of time congratulating themselves on the agreement they have concluded to move to the new field: it is the archetypes of football owners who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
London stadium walking, unfortunately, looks a bit like walking in a desert
Its strange configuration inside harms the atmosphere even if the fans are up there with the best in the country
The owners spent a lot of time congratulating themselves on the agreement they have concluded to move in the new field
88. Hillsborough, Sheffield Wednesday
I used to consider Hillsborough as one of the cathedrals of the English game, but since the disaster that cost the life of 97 fans of Liverpool in 1989, it is difficult to overcome your association with so much death and despair and sorrow and betrayal of supporters.
I used to think of Hillsborough as one of the cathedrals of the English game, but it is difficult to overcome your association with so much death and despair and sorrow and betrayal of supporters
Her end of the lepping path (illustrated in the foreground here), has such a cursed heritage that part of me thinks that she should have been demolished and that the club should have moved elsewhere
I recognize the faults of my argument on the demolition of the stadium, or part of it, so maybe it’s just enough to say that I will never feel the same about the stadium that I did once
I know, obviously, that it would punish the Fans of Wednesday who do not deserve to be punished for something that had nothing to do with them, but Hillsborough, and its end of Lane in particular, has a inheritance as cursed as part of me thinks that it should have been demolished and that the club should have moved elsewhere.
Even in the past two years, fans of Newcastle United and Leeds United have reported serious safety problems in Lane End lepping.
I recognize the faults of my argument on the demolition of the stadium, or part of it, and the emotions it causes on all sides, so maybe it’s just enough to say that I will never feel the same about the stadium as I did once.
Visit it now looks like an intrusion.
