Welcome to a new short series of blogs in which I will describe my experience attending Premier League matches. Today, episode one, the first match I ever went to, the North London Derby.
The Premier League season started in August
If you are a Premier League football fan like I am, August is always an exciting month. The season starts. Wondering whether or not to read this blog? Ask yourself this question. Do you want to attend a game? If you live in the States, this blog is perfect for you.
Getting to a Premier League match may seem daunting
If you live in the US and want to attend a match, it can seem challenging, practically daunting. Particularly because you need to get across the pond and back. In this blog, I will share one approach. I believe it is possible to attend a PL match over a long weekend. I’ll go into more details in a second.
You can attend a PL on a long weekend from the East Coast
You heard me right. I believe it is not overly challenging to attend a Premier League game on a long weekend if you live on the East Coast of the United States. In the middle of the country, it’s going to be more challenging. If you’re on the West Coast, I doubt you can do it on a long weekend unless you’re an experienced traveler and can get over jet lag quickly.
Reality check — going to a game is not cheap
Before you get too excited and say, “Let’s do this.” Here is one reality check for you. Going to a Premier League game is not cheap for a US-based fan. Three major costs you will have to deal with: one, the flights to the UK. Two, hotels, once you get there. And three, tickets to the soccer game. Just like many professional sports in the US, tickets are not cheap. In this blog, I will not talk about how to reduce cost for these other than to say I would use points as much as possible for flights and hotels. I will give a few pointers when it comes to football tickets.
My wife and I went to the North London Derby
Let’s dive into the details from my first trip over to the UK to attend a Premier League match. First, we had to pick a team. I asked my wife to make the selection. I recommended a London team since getting to London is going to be easiest from the States. She picked Tottenham. Now, some of you are probably smiling because you know how this story ends. I won’t talk about Tottenham at this point other than to say two years ago, my wife and I went to Tottenham versus Arsenal, the North London Derby, a heated rivalry. You see below a few pictures of us wearing our swag, having a good time watching the game.
We attended the match during a long weekend
Below is a high-level summary of our trip. We went in January of 2023 over a long holiday weekend. The duration was three days. We took a couple’s trip. Our goal was to have fun and experience a Premier League match supporting Tottenham Hotspur. The sites we plan to see, London, South Kensington, that’s where we stayed, as well as Tottenham Hotspur’s football stadium, which I must say is world-class. You can also see that we stayed in London the entire time. No day trip since it was going to be a quick turn.
Our schedule was not overly packed
Our schedule was straightforward for the two days we were there. Day one, we arrived, checked into the hotel, and then strolled the Hyde Park area to include Buckingham Palace en route to a food tour. You heard that right. London is a food city. Most people don’t know that. I highly recommend taking a food tour if you get a chance. Here is a link to the Devour Food Tour we took. In this case, it was over by the Borough Market. Day two was all about exploring South Kensington, the neighborhood we were in, attending the football match, and then having a pub crawl in the local pubs to end our adventure.
Here are some best practices and lessons learned from our trip
Below, I am sharing some best practices and lessons learned from our trip. We enjoyed staying in South Kensington, ate like royalty during the food tour, and found it practical to stay near a tube station. The trip was too short, only two days, and the football tickets were expensive. I bought them through a reseller. As you would expect, the weather in London in January is dicey. I have to say that supporting Tottenham is tough. They were bad that year, and are doing better these days.
We had a blast attending a Premier League game
Bottom line, we had an awesome time in London. We will be back for another match. I’ll finish with one caveat, and that is, I would not take young kids to a Premier League match. One specific reason is that there is a lot of cussing and fussing among the fans. Unless you want to explain to your kids what a wanker is, don’t take them to a match. It is just part of the culture. Well, there you have it. If you’re thinking about going to a Premier League match, I highly encourage you to. And in this blog, I’ve described one approach, which is going over a long weekend to a match in London.
I am Doug Keating, and this is my letter to sons.