Until recently I would have never thought that I would have visited a London stadium

But then I did two in a few days!I started with a tour of the Wembley stadium and then went to the Stamford Bridge (the Chelsea FC stadium) and, while I initially thought about writing a post for each, I decided to follow the suggestion of a friend and colleague about a post “comparison” between the two.
Meanwhile, let’s start with all the useful and essential information to organise the two visits (after I will tell you my opinion and which of the two tours I liked the most).
Let’s start from the Wembley stadium.
– How to get there: the easiest way is to get to the Wembley Park underground station, served by the Jubilee line and the Metropolitan line. The Chiltern Railways, (a railway line), stops at Wembley station.
– Ticket cost: on the official website it costs 19£.
– Entrance and meeting point: I bought the ticket online (at £ 19.30), and the confirmation showed me the Bobby Moore entrance as “meeting point” (I also saw people who still had to buy the admission ticket). Here you will be given the ticket/pass with the time indicated for the tour, you will pass the security checks, and you will be directed to the meeting point (where you will also need to take an audio guide that will only be used in some moments of the tour.
– The visit: guided tour of about 75 minutes. On the official website are marked tours departing every hour, from 10:00 to 16:00.
All useful information, details and reservations refer you to the stadium official website. Located in the homonymous suburb of London, today’s structure has replaced the old stadium, which was demolished in 2013, and today the area is in full evolution (in the area just adjacent to the stadium there are many construction sites and buildings under construction). During the visit, the guide also explained to us something about the structure: the arch that stands out from above the composition is higher than the London Eye, and the roof can be closed only partially (that is, the southern part can be moved up to cover at least all the sessions for the public).
As for the Stamford Bridge, however, the essential information for a visit are:
– How to get there: the nearest underground station is Fulham Broadway, along with the district line.
– Ticket cost: I also bought this ticket online, paying about 22 euros (21.75 euros, to be precise).
– Entrance: it is located along Fulham Road, and there are security checks at the main gate. From there you have to “go around” to the stadium to get to the ticket office where you can pick up the ticket (and from which guided tours depart).
– Visit: the tour lasts about 60 minutes, plus the visit to the museum (take into account another 30/40 minutes at least). You can check the section about the tours of the official website, for all the information.
The tour brings visitors closer to the field than Wembley, the pitch is sloping to let the water runoff in the event of rain. The seasonal ticket that fans can buy remains “property of the club” (therefore, the first bullshit that a subscriber does, the club can always withdraw the subscription). Although I am not a big football fan, I found both visits interesting. In both cases, compared to the Italian stadiums, the aspect that attracted my attention the most is the proximity of the terraces to the field and the absence of separation between the two parts.
Both tours included a visit to the locker rooms (for the home team and the one for guests), the press room and the exit on the sideline through the tunnel used by the players. You can not take pictures with the trophies with your camera: if you want to do it, they will do it to you (but you will have to pay it to bring it home). But, at the end of the fair, if I had to recommend one of the two visits, it would undoubtedly be the Stamford bridge tour, and for several reasons:
– The guide that accompanied us was more in hand, and I had a “better” feeling regarding the relationship that the guide created with the group;
– When, at the beginning of the tour, we arrived on the stands I immediately thought “wow”!
– The fact of getting closer to the field, in my opinion, allows you to get more into the spirit of a tour of a stadium.
– The museum allowed me to discover something more about the stadium, the teams and the history of this place (which I would never have thought to visit).