I’m writing a series of short blogs describing my experience of attending Premier League games. Today, episode two, Manchester City wins the Trophy. If you missed episode one, I recommend reading it. I talked about going to my first Premier League match, watching Tottenham Hotspur in London.
The Premier League season started in August
It is an exciting time of year for all European football fans. In August, the new Premier League season started. The question for you is, do you want to attend a game? If you do, this blog will be perfect for you because I will share another approach for attending a Premier League match as part of a bigger vacation.
Getting to a Premier League match may seem daunting
If you’re an American-based fan like me, attending a Premier League game can seem like a daunting challenge. The biggest part of the challenge, of course, is getting across the pond and back again.
You can attend a PL game as part of a European vacation
Another approach to seeing a Premier League match is to incorporate it into your European vacation. This is a good approach for people who have at least a week in Europe. Go to a match as part of it. The one caveat, a warning I will give, is that if you have children with you and they’re young, I’m not sure I would take them to a Premier League match. They will be exposed to English soccer culture, which can be a little bit rough and tumble, and the language is definitely going to be colorful.
Reality check — going to a game is not cheap
A quick reality check. Attending a Premier League game is not inexpensive for a US-based fan. You have to pay for the flight to get over and back, as well as your accommodations and tickets to the game, which are usually not cheap. The good news is that if you include it as part of your European vacation, you’re already flying over and need a place to stay. With this approach, I would recommend either attending the game on the first weekend you are there or making it your last stop on your trip before returning to the States.
My son and I watched Manchester City win the trophy
Last year, my younger son, Riley, and I went to watch Manchester City play the final game of the season and win the Premier League trophy. Below you see a picture of us at the game with Manchester City fans celebrating on the field after the victory. A few things about this trip: it was a gift to Riley for graduating from college. He’s a big soccer fan. It seemed like a no-brainer. And we got lucky in terms of timing. I bought the tickets well in advance. It just happened to be the game that mattered the most, and we were there to watch Manchester City celebrate another Premier League title.
We attended the match during a week-long European vacation
Here you see a summary of the trip. It was May of 2024. The trip was 9 days total. The participants included my son, Riley, and me. Our goal was to have fun celebrating his graduation, experiencing a Premier League match, and exploring some parts of Europe he had not been to before. As far as locations, we started in Manchester, then Barcelona, Spain, and finished in Lisbon, Portugal. You can see we stayed 2 days in Manchester, then flew down to Barcelona for three, and flew over to Lisbon for the final three days.
Our schedule in Manchester was somewhat tight
Here you see the schedule for the two days we spent in Manchester. It does take a while to get there. There are no direct flights from where I live in the States. So the first day we checked into the hotel and then took a tour, walking all over Manchester. Day two, Sunday, was all about going to the match, and then we executed a pub crawl. At my age, all that means is going to more than one pub. We enjoyed our two days in Manchester. Barcelona and Lisbon are definitely better cities than Manchester.
Here are some best practices from our trip
For anybody who has not attended a Premier League match, they are awesome. Let’s talk logistics. Flying, I believe, is the best way to get to Manchester from the States. We flew through London. Regarding our tickets, I bought a hospitality package which included a meal, some drinks, and our seats. It worked well. Our seats were much better than I expected. Good news, we were able to walk home from the game due to the location of our hotel, which was not too far away. There was a huge celebration after the game. It was kind of a mess getting out of the stadium, so I’m glad we could walk back to our hotel. Some more good news about Manchester. It is well-connected to Europe when it comes to flights. They have a good airport that offers budget airlines. We flew direct from Manchester to Barcelona for not a lot of money.
Of course, there were some lessons learned as well
In case you’ve never been to Manchester, it is not London. It’s a rough town. I would not mistake it for the majestic capital of the UK. We stayed two nights, which was just about right, although a little bit rushed since the first day included a fair amount of travel. Our tickets through the hospitality were a little bit pricey, although I felt they were worth it for what we got. On the downside, if you go to the Etihad Stadium, it is a beautiful facility. However, they do not serve English beer. They’ve got a Japanese beer sponsor. That’s all they served. I’d much prefer a cask ale. And finally, if you happen to be lucky enough to be in the stadium when the home team wins and is about to raise the trophy, you have to decide whether to run onto the pitch or not. In this case, they warned, saying, “Don’t do it.” Everybody did. Riley wanted to, and I said, “Nah, I just don’t want to see what a Manchester prison cell looks 1like.” I was wrong. In retrospect, I would definitely run onto the pitch if a trophy is involved.
We had a blast watching Manchester City raise the trophy
Wow, what an experience being in the stadium when Manchester City won the Premier League and raised the trophy. It is a Lifelong memory for sure. In this blog, I shared an approach that includes a Premier League match as part of your European vacation. You won’t regret it, and I can’t wait to get back to see my next game.
I am Doug Keating, and this is my letter to sons.