Best and Worst Soccer/Football Stadiums

  • Thread starter JohnBM01
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JohnBM01

JohnBM01

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I've put this off for a while. Only that... here I am now to chat about what some of the world's most beautiful and ugliest soccer/football stadiums are. I'll turn over the discussion to you all. Any of my similar threads you may have seen in the Sports and Fitness forums is the same. It's simple- your favorite stadiums... and your least favorite once. That's even if they are also used for [gridiron] football, lacrosse, field hockey, or whatever. What are some of the lovliest soccer stadiums? I'm expecting more international results since this is the world's best recognized sport.



Here are some favorites I'd like to share. And don't be surprised if I don't seem to be as educated about soccer stadiums as I should be.

Wembley Stadium - London, England
I haven't seen a lot of games played at Wembley, but it is a lovely stadium.

Hermann Stadium - St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Hermann Stadium is a beautiful stadium where the Billikens of Saint Louis University play at. This religious university (a Jesuit university) sees their fans sport the blue and white as they see one of America's most storied NCAA soccer teams play their home games at. What's so lovely about this stadium? A big reason why is the beautiful view of downtown St. Louis in the background. I'm always a sucker for beautiful views of downtown, and St. Louis is a lovely city. They are the UCLA or Kentucky of NCAA Soccer with over nine national championships, the last of which in 1973.



I've named only a few, leaving it up to you to offer your favorites. Care to continue this thread with a reply?
 
A stadium is only as good as the fans make it, Wembley for all it's moderness is to me a lifeless lump of concrete. Old Trafford is one I have to list mainly for the fact it's my home teams and I have special memories ther, besides that there's nothing like singing along with 70,000 other United fans.
oldtrafford1.jpg

oldtrafford19.jpg

These pictures are quite old, the stadium is bigger now, it has a 3rd tier in several sections of the ground.
Sadly the reality is that the stadium is quite old and compared to newer stadiums isn't upto the same standards and the accoustics in particular let the actual arena down.

Atmosphere wise Liverpools stadium at Anfield has a brilliant atmosphere the arena holds the accoustics well, but it is dated.
anfield1.jpg


The best stadium I have ever actually been to is the Camp Nou, that place was brilliant
noucamp6.jpg
 
My best and worst from personal experience.
Worst: Barnet or Brighton. Been there, wore my shirt, couldnt see the game.

Best: Leicester City's Walkers Stadium.
 
Here's a stadium I looked up when I fooled around using Google Earth:

Stade Louis II
(More info: http://www.stadiumguide.com/louis2.htm )

I was trying to find as many motor racing circuits on Google Earth as I can. I found the Monte Carlo grand prix course and bookmarked it... until I came across something as lovely, if not more, than Monte Carlo- Stade Louis II. It's home to AC Monaco, but also plays host to IAAF events. It just looks fantastic from pictures I've seen. It's on the southwesternmost fringes of Monaco. It's a very lovely venue.
 
The title of your thread is "Best and Worst Soccer/Football Stadiums" but your topic starts with "world's most beautiful and ugliest soccer/football".

Depends what you are using the stadium for, if its purely for watching football with the emphasis on the watching then most grounds with a seating capacity of 30-50 thousand are usually quite good. A few examples are from English premier league, Blackburn, Villa, Arsenal, Liverpool etc. I think generally the bigger the ground (ie the space actually surrounding the playing pitch) the worst the experience becomes. The reason being and average punter will sit quite a distance from the pitch anyway, put in things like running tracks advertising areas etc, and before you know it the players look like indistinguishable specks on the pitch, examples of this are probably many national stadia Wembley, Munich Olympic stadium as well as a host of other super stadia. These may be considered the most beautiful stadia, but a bit of a downer when it comes to following on pitch action perhaps.

On the flip side of all this the most beautiful looking stadia sometimes trade this at the cost of impracticality, and these stadia are often far better for other less footie related things such as live concerts.
 

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