December 26, or Boxing Day as it is commonly known in the UK, is the day known for shopping, and of course, football. I’m not talking about passing the pigskin around, I’m talking REAL European football. I was lucky enough to get tickets to see my favorite team, Tottenham Hotspur, play at White Hart Lane, in November, and I had been counting down the weeks ever since.
First of all, tickets are so much cheaper in the (English) Premier League than any NFL game. Our tickets only cost £44 pounds per ticket … and we got near front row seats. (We were row 5 in the bottom section … super close!) Granted, it was a “Category C” team in Norwich City, but the same tickets go for just £70 against Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, etc. That price might get you tickets to the nosebleed section at an NFL game.
Tottenham is located in North London. We had to take the underground and then get a bus from there to reach the stadium. When I got to the stadium, I was a little shocked. Usually at NFL stadiums, there are lots of big signs and they look really pretty. This one was basically just a white stadium. If it weren’t for the Spurs shop located in front of the stadium, I might not have known where I was!
Once we were inside the stadium, I was shocked again. The seats were very cheap-y and super tight. When the stadium was filled – and they filled every seat, I was squished between my mom and some other foreigner who had come to see the game, just like me. They are currently rebuilding the stadium to accompany 60,000 people (right now it’s about 35,000 people capacity) and there will be an NFL field underneath the football pitch where the Jaguars will play every year.
It’s definitely a different atmosphere during a Premier League match. I had seen Spurs play Liverpool in Baltimore three years ago, and I have seen Real Madrid, USA, and Spain games also in the United States, but you just can’t beat the home fans. Real fans that bleed blue and white since birth. I’m just a bandwagon-er who came to the club after I fell in love with Gareth Bale. Hey! At least I stuck around after he left for my other favorite football club!
One thing that is super different from American sports is the chanting. You hear it on TV sometimes, but you never really know what they are saying. To be honest, I couldn’t understand most of what they were saying even in the stadium! The Norwich fans sounded really loud even though they were restricted to one section in the stadium. At one point they chanted: “Is this a library?” because the Spurs fans were so quiet. Every time Norwich even got onto their side of the pitch, their fans started screaming.
But Spurs fans had the last laugh. After netting three goals, two from Harry Kane and one from Tom Carroll, the die-hard Spurs fans started chanting to Norwich: “Your sister if your mum!” directed at the country, backwoods lifestyle the Londoners perceive them to have. So it’s not just in the US that we make fun of the country folk!
This was definitely an experience of a lifetime. I hope to return to White Hart Lane one day, maybe after they complete their renovations. But the fun didn’t stop when the game ended. After browsing the shop and waiting for the bus traffic to clear up, we made our way over to the bus stop to get back to the station. The bus never came though. While we were waiting, my dad pointed out a Rolls Royce. “Oh my god! That’s Kyle Walker!” the star right back (defender) for Spurs. The players were starting to leave the stadium. I saw Kyle Walker, Harry Kane, Jan Vertonghen, Eric Dier, Son (the Korean fan-favorite), Daniel Levy (the owner), and I even got to take a selfie with Hugo Lloris, goalkeeper and captain for both Spurs and the France national team! What a night!
Come on you Spurs!
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