Let’s Geek Out Over Football Stadiums in England!

Paul Gerald · Profile
Let’s Geek Out Over Football Stadiums in England!

It should go without saying that we at Groundhopper Guides love us some English football stadiums, even the crappy ones, and especially the classic ones.

So if you’re anything like us and you want to get a look at all the football stadiums in England, even virtually, then here are some links and YouTube channels to get you started.

We are interested in what the stadiums look like, of course. But we also like to know a little about their history, future plans, and behind-the-scenes stuff. And we like to dream about where we’re going to sit when we go to a game (always with a good view of the away fans).

Where Are All the Football Stadiums in England?

Let’s start with a map of football grounds in England, which you can find here on our website. Over on our “Meet the Clubs of English Soccer” page, we have a map showing all the clubs in the top six tiers of the English football pyramid. Click that little box in the upper-left corner to hide and show all the different leagues. Each location is for the actual club, which always includes photos of the stadium.

Visiting Football Stadiums in England — and Elsewhere

Related to the location of English football stadiums is tracking which ones you’ve been to — a wonderful hobby known as groundhopping and centered online around #groundhopping, which we wrote a whole blog post about.

For that, we like to use FootballGroundMap.com, where our founder, Groundhopper Paul, is registered as Yankee-Groundhopper. And that website isn’t just for English football stadiums; it’s for football stadiums all over the world.

english football stadiums fratton park portsmouth fc

The iconic Tudor facade on the South Stand at Fratton Park, home of Portsmouth FC.

When it comes to actually planning to visit a football stadium in England, if we haven’t been there we like to use FootballGroundGuide.com, which has all the Premier League and Football League stadiums with the history of each stadium, a description of each stand, photos, reviews from groundhoppers, directions by car and train, and suggestions for pubs that are friendly to away fans. They also have sections for stadiums all over the world and regularly post news about new places being built, renovated, or expanded.

Speaking of the histories of stadiums, we wish more clubs would do what Chelsea FC did here as part of their stadium tour. It’s a video history of Stamford Bridge’s evolution from terraced hillside to one of our favorite football stadiums in London.

Touring Football Stadiums in England

Touring English football stadiums is a great way to get to know a stadium, a club, a fanbase — i.e., the guides and the other people on the tour — and get a behind-the-scenes look at the media areas, locker rooms, fancy hospitality areas, etc. On the Groundhopper Guides YouTube channel, we have a whole playlist about touring stadiums in England.

Some of our favorite tours are of Everton’s Goodison Park, Fulham’s Craven Cottage, and of course mighty Anfield at Liverpool FC, where we shot this (standard on all tours) walk through the player tunnel to pitch-side:

Virtual Visits to the Football Stadiums of England — and the World

If nothing else, one of the best reasons to have internet access is to see and “visit” places we can’t otherwise get to. For this reason, some of our YouTube subscriptions are focused entirely on stadiums. Let us show you around a bit.

TFC Stadiums is kind of the mothership of this genre, with more than two dozen playlists focused on stadiums in all sports and all parts of the world. One such playlist, for the 2023-24 season, has 25 videos, including this one showing all of the 2023-24 Premier League stadiums:

Top Ten FTW apparently stopped posting a few years back, but in their Football Stadiums playlist they have some fun selections like Top 10 Eco-Friendly Football Stadiums Around the World and The 10 Biggest Stands in British Football Stadiums.

Football Talk, for some reason, has two channels, each of which put up a stadium video every day. (Who has the time for this stuff?!) They cover everything from construction of the new Santiago Bernabeu at Real Madrid to vegan, eco-friendly Forest Green Rovers of League Two, with their rooftop solar panels. Groundhopper Paul once went to a game there; the samosas were excellent!

Historic, Lost and Rebuilt English Football Stadiums

First on this list, here’s our guide to our favorite historic English football stadiums:

TFC Stadiums has a playlist of Old Stadiums and another called Stadiums Then and Now, which features videos like this one on Premier League stadiums. It shows you, among other things, that Burnley’s Turf Moor hasn’t really changed all that much!

ValeTarci also has a playlist called Old Stadiums with 13 videos, including one on Abandoned Stadiums in England and another saying goodbye to the old Baseball Ground at Derby County. Yes, they used to play baseball there; the place even had a “Catcher’s Corner!”

And Finally, Stadiums of the Future!

Bondibot seems to have a singular purpose on their YouTube channel: future stadiums, like these plans for English football stadiums:

Written By Paul Gerald
Paul Gerald, Owner and Founder of Groundhopper Soccer Guides · Profile
Paul started Groundhopper Soccer Guides as EnglishSoccerGuide.com in 2014. He has been to more than 250 games around the UK and Europe, and he currently lives in Madrid.

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