Manchester City And The Excitement of Buying Wembley Tickets

Wembley still holds a special place in the dreams of Manchester City fans of a certain age.

I have been lucky enough to go to Wembley Stadium, both old and new, to see Manchester City more times than I can easily remember.Granted, not as frequently as a Spurs fan but that is another story.

As a kid growing up, the prospect of seeing City at Wembley was fairly rare. The old Wembley Stadium was that crumbling iconic ground where England had won the World Cup and there was a certain glamour attached to the idea of travelling to watch football there. Those high steps up to the turnstiles and the grassy areas in between where fans congregated in the sunshine waiting for the ground to open.

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My early visits to Wembley included a League Cup Final and a crushing draw against Spurs in the FA Cup. Then there was a long period where Wembley almost became a distant dream. This was when I saw Stockport County as a guest at Wembley more often than I did City. But the return of my club with that famous play off victory was a joy to behold.

In the last 10 years our visits to Wembley have become so frequent, in part due to the inconvenient decision to allow the ground to hold FA Cup Semi Finals. Some City fans have even jokingly referred to Wembley on twitter as “Etihad South”.

Of course as a fan of a Northern club the lure of Wembley has always been bittersweet. The romance has always been tempered by the realisation of the cost of the visit. The Wembley tickets themselves have always been pricey. For the Carabao Cup Final this year the top price tickets without hospitality are £150 and a reasonable seat view is about £72. It is good that concessions for this game come in about half of that full price ticket.

In addition to the venue cost is the cost of programmes (£10 usually) and food and drink. The bag police at the entrance are keen to confiscate any packed lunches and last year about 10 stewards were scrambled when a City fan unveiled a banana.

Northern fans then also have to factor in the cost of the travel to the venue. That is always difficult as it seems as soon as teams are confirmed for a final all the journeys double in cost along key routes.

Sometimes the timing of the kick off means a hotel stay is also required but this year that is complicated by the fact the day after the final is a school day. So travelling home after the game is a must although like many City fans we will try and make a weekend of our jaunt to the Capital city.

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Nevertheless I am still brimming with excitement that today is the day I can sort my tickets for the event. Ignoring the cost, I will be ecstatic securing the tickets and love the day when they arrive in the post. There is always something deeply satisfying about those oversized tickets and all that they signify. After the game they will carefully go into a box where all my other prize tickets are kept for posterity.

I am lucky enough to be able to afford to go to the match and feel for those City fans who will be joining us and supporting us by watching on the television. I hope the spectacle of the game comes through and that you can share in the excitement of the game. You can certainly console yourselves you will have had a better view, less hassle and would have saved a fortune!

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