I’d been to Yankee stadium, he’d been to the Crucible. I’d taken in a match at the old Wembley stadium but he’d been to the Azteca stadium in Mexico.

As is usual in things like this (or maybe it’s just me), I drew up a list so we could keep score..

Every sport had it’s place and against each one, we came up with what we thought were the major venues.

It had to be famous for sport, obviously, but why we thought it was famous was pretty open. For example, Dallas Cowboys used to play at Texas Stadium and this was featured in a flyover in the opening scenes of the TV show Dallas. The most famous American Football stadium in the world? Perhaps not, but for us it was iconic and was on the list.

Every sport we cared about was featured. And we care a LOT about sport.

Points

Each ground you visited got you a point, but just visiting grounds may get a bit boring and might make you look like a bit of an anorak so we spiced things up a bit by giving an extra point if you saw a match whilst you were there.

We designated a few special events too, as they’re, well, special. The Super Bowl gets you 10 points, the FA Cup final likewise. The World Championship Snooker Final nets you 15 and the mens final at Wimbledon gives you a cool 25.

If you’d been to an Olympics opening ceremony venue you got a point but see the opening ceremony take place in the stadium and you got an extra 10! Infact, each event at the Olympics gets you a point so when London got the Olympics for 2012, my eyes lit up for a potential points bonanza!

Football was naturally at the top of the list but we didn’t want to put too much emphasis on it so we limited ourselves to a couple of UK venues and a few others from around the world. Wembley was in as was Hampden Park and the Maracana, but Old Trafford and La Bombanero didn’t make the cut.

The List: Football

I’ll write a post about each sport, detailing why each venue made it and why some didnt, but to start off, here’s the football ones that were deemed important enough to feature on the list:

• Wembley Stadium – London
• Hampden Park – Glasgow
• The Camp Nou – Barcelona
• Azteca Stadium – Mexico City
• Maracanã – Rio de Janeiro
• The Bernabéu – Madrid
• San Siro – Milan
• Hidegkuti Nandor Stadium – Budapest (it’s the stadium where the final game in Escape to Victory was played)

I’d love to say that this list is open to suggestion and could change, but it won’t. That’s not because I’m stubborn and am not willing to listen to reason, but down to the fact that the list has been laminated. If you think my list is naff please post a comment as to what you think should be on there!

Once I’ve gone through each sport, I’ll post the whole list maybe in PDF format so you can print it off and keep score with your mates. I’ll be posting mine as I go along as well – I’ve got 5 from football, how do you fare?

Related posts:

1. Sporting Stadia – Part I: Football
2. Cricket grounds and legendary tour guides