Fortunately I love soccer, or football as the English call it. Both of my sons play it and I have grown to love it. With the opportunity to go watch Manchester City and the Bolton Wanderers play I couldn’t pass it up. I bought a ticket for Seth my youngest son to join me but he wasn’t able to make the game. It was awesome and much different than the American professional experience. In the U.S. it is all about entertainment; food, half-time, giant video screens, instant replay, all the pageantry…. Not here. It is all about the game. I walked about 2 miles to the stadium as there isn’t much in the way of parking by the stadium. We turn the corner and there is a pub, the Busy Bee, and there are 1,000 Manchester City fans locking arms singing at the top of their voices. Of course between songs they were drinking a pint. I knew I was in for a treat.
The stadium was more like SMU or Baylor than UT or the Dallas Cowboys. It held about 40,000 people and the tickets were affordable compared to the U.S. It is important, except for the top four clubs – Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and Manchester City, for the common man to come to the games. I think the highest ticket prices were around $50. Many of these people going to the games don’t make that much but this is the most important event in their life. English football really doesn’t have any competition as university sports are not big so everyone is involved in pro sports.
There are no escalators. Yep, I had to walk up about 200 stairs and was totally exhausted when I got to my seat. You cannot drink beer in the stadium which is good. The fans were loud, unreasonable and fun. The Man City fans are crazy. They sing, yell and change the entire game. When they score they turn the back to the field, lock arms and all jump up and down. Visually it is pretty impressive.
Manchester City won the game 3-2 but it was a good game. Manchester City spent $200M this summer on players from around the world. Bolton spent $2M. It was David versus Goliath. If I am not mistaken, one of the wealthiest Sheik’s in the world own Man City and money is no object.
I went with a great guy I met, his son and a friend of his son and they allowed me to tag alone and just watch. It was a great afternoon and I hope I get to go again.