I’ll say it straight away – I’m no fan of the Kassam Stadium. A visit to the wonderful Glee Club in Oxford gave me the chance to spend an afternoon wandering around their footballing home and I left reasonably unimpressed.
I spent about half an hour walking around what appears from the outside to be a really soulless arena. Sure, inside they’ve put up signs celebrating their trophy wins. And with supporters inside the whole thing changes. But there’s only three virtually identical stands, with just a wooden fence behind one goal.
Oh, there’s also a Vue cinema opposite the stadium, which is basically just on an out of town retail park. As a fan of old school architecture and history, this didn’t appeal to me. An unsavoury looking away fans’ ticket office coupled with weird graffiti were the only “dirty” bits of this ground, which also informed visitors that a section of the car park was to be used for motorcycle training during the week. Everything about the Kassam seems to scream new, soulless, odd.
Perhaps because the stadium is also sold as a conference centre, rather than just somewhere with conference facilities, it got my goat a little bit. Don’t give bits of your home weird businessy names such as “The Quadrangle”.
Anyway, three impressive big stands and a fence, which is where I’m sitting with regards to the Kassam Stadium.
Football Grounds I Can Be Bothered To Visit 