Wow, so I’m not the only one, fantastic! I used to be absolutely obsessed with Simon Inglis- ‘the football grounds of Britain and ‘the football grounds of Europe’, utter stadium porn. To this day I can rattle off capacities, attendances going back years and all that, as certain posters reading this will testify while cringing
Germany has some great grounds and it’s like we’ve swapped places with them, in the 80s & 90s everyone there was jealous of what they called ‘English style’ stadiums- ie dilapidated but loud as hell & close to the pitch, while they had huge bowls with athletic tracks. Since then they’ve gone down the route of having the grounds designed for atmosphere and we’ve gone down the corporate/ less atmosphere route.
whisper it but it’s one of the reasons I never really disliked Villa as much as others- the ‘old’ Villa Park was a fantastic ground- tradition, grandeur, bloody loud and every stand unique.