If England were to host the World Cup...

Crockerinho

...Which 12 English grounds(no Millenium Stadium, Hampden Park etc...,but you can include Wembley) would you use?

You must only use 1 ground per city/town

Crockerinho

My 12 (spread around the country) would be:

Wembley (London)
Old Trafford (Manchester)
Anfield (Liverpool)
Villa Park (Birmingham)
St James Park (Newcastle)
Stadium Of Light (Sunderland)
St Marys Stadium (Southampton)
Walkers Stadium (Leicster)
Elland Road (Leeds)
Portman Road (Ipswich)
Pride Park (Derby)
Reebok Stadium (Bolton)

Tyler Durden

Well, firstly, in direct response to the question, if I had to restrain my answer in that way, then my 12 choices would be -

Wembley (London)
Old Trafford (Manchester)
Anfield (Liverpool)
Villa Park (Birmingham)
St James Park (Newcastle)
St Marys (Southampton)
Walkers (Leicester)
Elland Road (Leeds)
Pride Park (Derby)
Hillsbrough (Sheff Wed)
Ricoh Arena (Coventry)
Madejski (Reading)

But in truth my choice would be absolutely nothing like that.

For starters, I completely would not have one stadium for use per city since this is just some anti London propoganda from my learned fellow poster.

For example, over 7million people live in London. The next closest big city population after London is a mere 970,000 (Birmingham). So it's a complete and utter jip to say we get one stadium for 7million of us whereas pitiful little villages like Ipswich, Reading, Derby or Southampton get a whole place just for the 10 and a half people that live there.

In truth, there should be (at the very least) two, maybe even three, ground for London.

Certainly the Emirates would have to be selected and maybe one other as well. Seriously, the Emirates would miss out but Portman Road would get chosen!!

The biggest cities per population in England are (in descending order) London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Sheffield, Bristol, Manchester, Leicester, Coventry, Hull, Bradford, Stoke, Wolverhampton, Nottingham, Plymouth, Southampton, Reading and Derby.

Now, logic suggests that places like Bristol (unless they built a much better and bigger stadium) wouldn't be chosen because they don't have the facilities.

Therefore my, far more realistic 12 would be -

Wembley
The Emirates (Ashurton Grove...whatever)
Twickenham (Approval would have to be sought)
Old Trafford
St James Park
Villa Park
Anfield (or new Liverpool stadium)
Elland Road
Hillsborough (would need, and would get a little modernising)
Eastlands/Sport City...whatever they call it
Walkers Stadium
St Marys Stadium

The Phantom

I like the idea of using Twickenham as a venue for football. But it should be only used if a World Cup or European Championship came around.

My choices would be:

Wembley
Twickenham
Villa Park - unless they build a bigger stadium in Brimingham for the torunament.
Old Trafford
St James' Park
Anfield
Reebok Stadium
Majeski Stadium or Eastlands
Walkers Stadium
The Emirates Stadium
St Marys Stadium
Stadium of Light

God

Super Moderator

Im just going to do some of the list not fully.
01. Wembly
02. Emirates
03. Old Trafford
04. Anfield
05. St. James Park
06. Villa Park

The rest depending on pitch quality etc nearing the event.

Mikk

WC's Sexy Beast

Interesting thread.

If i were looking at grounds to include, i'd try and stick to the grounds that have held England matches within the past few years and also grounds that have fairly good transport links which will probably be a deciding factor if it ever happened.

Also, The FA are probably going to pick a couple of smaller grounds because there is no point in playing Ecuador vs Iran at Wembley as they just wouldn't fill it or thats some of my thinking.

1) Wembley
2) Stadium Of Light {Voted Best Away Ground by Away Fans }
3) Pride Park
4) Molineux Stadium
5) Walkers Stadium
6) Old Trafford
7) Anfield {Or the new ground if built}
8) Reebok
9) Portman Road
10) St. Marys
11) St. James Park
12) The Madjeski


Backup Locations:

Upton Park
Villa Park
The Emirates Stadium
The Riverside
Eastlands/City Of Manchester


Obviously my list isn't instantly appealing but it at least incorporates nearly all of england instead of just the midlands & london.

Tyler Durden

Yes.

It certainly was very popular with Prem fans last season (and quite possibly next season too). Any ground you get a guarantee of three points at is going to be popular!!

Mikk

WC's Sexy Beast

Exactly and our northern charm is excellent too, much better than the barcodes down the road.

Crockerinho

You would pick Molineux ahead of Villa Park?

The Phantom

My friend said it was a nice stadium, but a b!tch to get to by train from Cardiff to Sunderland.