Every year, as part of the NFL’s International Series, there’s a good old fashioned American Football game at London’s Wembley stadium. I missed last year’s game (between the Giants and the Dolphins), but I was able to make it this year to see the Saints and the Chargers play.
I’d never been to Wembley Stadium before, so I was excited at the chance. It’s a fairly new stadium… according to Wikipedia, it’s the second largest in Europe (seats 90,000 fans) and it’s the most expensive sports arena ever built.
Here’s the view right off of the tube station. I was really impressed by this. The station empties onto a giant stairway that leads to a road directly to the stadium. The view was great.
I went with my coworker JJ. He’s French Canadian, but still a Football fan (he spent quite a bit of time regaling me on stories of the CFL). We went to the game expecting the crowd to be mostly American expats, but I have to admit, nearly everyone I heard speak had a British accent. It made me a bit proud… apparently there’s quite an NFL following in London!
I had considered wearing my Seahawks jersey, but since the Hawks weren’t playing, I decided against it. This turned out to be a mistake, however. As JJ put it, ‘This isn’t a Saints/Chargers game, this is an NFL Event!’ I’d never seen so many diverse jerseys! I’m sure I saw a couple jerseys from every team there. I think the Saints fans were the most prolific, followed by the Chargers, and then probably followed by Packers fans (boo!). I loved all the diversity.
We had a couple £4 beers and a terrible (but filling) burger outside. We were originally going to meet some other coworkers who were going to the game, but they ended up bailing (excessive drinking from the night before). After our beers, JJ and I made our way inside.
Wembley stadium is massive. Its capacity is 90,000 fans, which is roughly twice that of my hometown’s Safeco field. Apparently this game was sold out, but someone over the loudspeaker said that there were “only” 83,000 people there.
Here are the players warming up, and then the New Orleans Saintsations(cheerleaders) before the game:
For whatever reason, the stadium was done up as if it were a Saints home game. There were Saints insignia everywhere, the Saints wore their home uniforms, and there were even little black flags underneath all the seats. Here are JJ and I posing with our flags:
As there is only one NFL game in London per season, they really went out of their way to make it an entertaining match. The pre-game show featured a little number by the Cheerleaders, then some armed forces (not sure which country or division) marched out holding giant American and British flags. Then, they did this bit with a couple giant blimps while Stereophonic came on the field and played a couple songs.
Another bit of evidence as to the demographic of the crowd. Some semi-famous singer (who’s name I can’t recall) came out and sang the US National Anthem. There was your usual applause towards the end. Then another semi-famous singer (unknown to me) came out to sing God Save The Queen, and it felt like the whole stadium sung along! JJ and I were floored! Apparently there were more British in the crowd than we originally expected!
The game itself was quite good. The Saints dominated the Chargers, but the Chargers almost came back in the end. Sadly, JJ and I left with about 8 minutes on the clock, so we missed a couple good plays towards the end. We didn’t want to be in the middle of 83,000 people catching the tube home!
The only other notable event was when I went to the toilet during the first half. I’m reasonably certain I saw Wendell Pierce (who plays Bunk Moreland on The Wire) taking a piss.
Overall, quite an ejoyable evening.
