Paul has been to more than 100 games at 60+ English soccer stadiums and toured about a dozen of them, and Villa Park, home of Aston Villa Football Club, is definitely one of his favorites.

Players’ tunnel at Villa Park, home of Aston Villa FC

That’s even more true now that I’ve toured it. It’s big, it’s old, and it’s classy. I like their colors. I like their tour guides. I like the occasional stained glass. I like their tradition of having Americans play for them, including their current goalkeeper.

All in all, I basically can’t get enough of the place, even though when I toured there in December 2015 they were about as locked-in to getting relegated as a team could be. I think they had one win the whole first half of the season! I guess that just means tickets will be easier to come by next year, even if the crowds will be smaller and the opponents less interesting.

I have been to a game there, by the way — a good one against Tottenham in 2016, in which Harry Kane got the winner and I got a cracking video of it, with the Spurs fans going wild. Read that post here. (Update: Aston Villa was later relegated but are back in the Premier League as of 2019.)

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Here’s a video from the tour, walking out into the rain-soaked stadium. The lights on the pitch are basically grow lights, by the way. Impressive, but they sure mess with a camera’s settings!

Anyway, here are some images from a tour of lovely Villa Park:

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