Today, I went and saw Nottingham Forest play Bristol City at the City Ground. The pictures at the right are on top, the City Ground from the Trent Bridge, and the second, a couple seconds before Forest scored the first goal. Forest is currently number 1 in the league, with Bristol right behind at number 2, so it was a big game. Anyways, most everyone from Luther went, and as a whole, we got a somewhat late start down to the stadium. I was planning on being there an hour or so before kickoff, as is typical of myself and sporting events, but it turned out we got there right after kickoff. So right, that was not cool, but I'll get over it. And next time, I'll be there early. Anyways, here is a list of things that I found most striking about English professional football.
1- There is no scoreboard or game clock. There is only a clock that shows the actual time of day. No multimedia displays really, the closest thing was just a regular light up scroll board that showed messages from families and such. Very simple. No replays, no video introduction of the players or team, nothing like that.
2- When the game is going on, people sit and watch the game, intently. At a baseball game or whatever, there are always people going in and out of the stadium, going to get food, drinks, whatever. At the game this afternoon, there was no one in the aisles.
3- The different stands are seperate. Meaning, we had to go in a specific gate to get to our seats. At any other gate, we physically could not get to them. It's like having GA at the Metrodome being completely seperate from the Upper Club. Because of the history of hooliganism (more on that later), and a lot of unfortunate accidents, they are really strict about seperating fans, especially home and away.
4- There are barely any food stands or souvenir shops. In our stand, the upper deck had only one food stand which was severely understaffed and had only limited options. Nothing like the Metrodome or any modern stadium back in the US. In addition, you can't bring beer or alcohol into the stands. You can order a beer at halftime, but you have to drink it in the concourse, then go back to your seat.
5- Everything you've heard about the chanting and stuff, it's true. There is no music or anything piped in, because the fans are so vocal, in either chanting, singing, or voicing their pleasure or displeasure at their team's performance. As a general rule, the fan involvement wasn't as concentrated as it would be in baseball, say, when there is a batter up at a crucial moment, or a crucial pitch is about to be made. Certainly when goals are scored, people freak out a little more, but overall, it's a very steady atmosphere of chanting and such.
I'd like to see if these differences are more pronounced simply because Forest is not in the top league. If I ever make it to a Premiership game, in a modern stadium, I'll let you know. Forest ended up winning 1-0. They scored in the first 9 minutes or so, then it went back and forth for the whole game. We really had to rely on the defense, especially in the second half. This was the first soccer game I have actually ever seen in person, so it was fun. The rough plan is to go to a game maybe once a month or so. Tickets are fairly cheap, I have the required red Forest jersey, it'll be good. Although, I have to say, the City Ground generally makes the Metrodome look state of the art. It had cramped corridors, prison like turnstiles, and in general sort of looked like it may fall apart at any moment. But the outdoorsness of it was great. Makes me look forward to Opening Day 2010, with tickets to the brand new outdoor Twins ballpark in downtown Minneapolis... So yeah, it was a really good game.
Oh yeah, I was about 30 feet away from a real soccer brawl too.
We were leaving the stadium following the game, and we came out on this main street, where some commotion was going on. All these young guys dressed somewhat thuggishly kept running past us up ahead. It turns out, the Forest "firm" was beating the crap out of the Bristol "firm." So, they battled for a while on the street, as Brandon, Kevin, Ryan, and myself tried to get up close and take photographs. They slowly moved down the street, and pretty soon the Bristol group got backed up against a pastry shop with lawn furniture out on the sidewalk. Anyways, the two groups started hurling the chairs around at each other, along with bottles and pretty much anything they could find. Finally, the cops showed up, en force. They had two mounted officers, a couple police vans, some cars, and probably 20 officers, who proceeded to beat the crap out of the guys with billy clubs. The pastry shop front was all messed up, all the windows were broken, crap everywhere. It was crazy. Some old guys said it was the worst fight they've seen in a long time. So yeah, I saw the local team win an important game, and also survived a soccer brawl. It was a successful day.
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