To not want to live next to a football stadium?

[Nataliaa]

We’ve found a house that in all ways is perfect for us. In terms of price, close to work, size, minimal work needed - we could happily live with the interior, as it is- so no rush to put our stamp on it. No renovations needed. However, it is very close to a football stadium. My DH is saying if I let that one negative sway my decision, we would be turning down our dream family home and as we have been house hunting for 6 months and have not come close to finding any house that ticks so many of our wants, we would regret not going for this one.
My DH says that whilst there may be some disruption on match days, it’s not going to be every single weekend, and therefore minimal.
Am I really being picky, or would this be an issue for others?? Would you happily live near a football stadium?

It's hellish trying to get through my local area when there's a match day. It's a premiership club and it's about five minutes from my mates house. I always think I can't even try and go there or past there at those times. But it's still a very popular area. So it can't put people off that badly.

It would be a no from me, I lived close to a stadium once when I was in my 20s and the traffic and noise was awful. You could try asking what it's like on something like Nextdoor app where you'll be able to get info specific to the street you're thinking of moving to.

Millwall's reputation isn't outdated. There's a reason they've got more than 80 banning orders in force, 3rd highest number of all 92 clubs, yet their attendances are less than 20k. I suspect they'd lead the banning order table by absolute miles if it was calculated by percentages of gate.

Na I was a 5 min walk from a stadium. Even if you have your own parking, the traffic and noise was a pain in the arse.

Its better than living 5 minutes from a school, thats twice a day 5 x a week. The football will surely only be 2 a month during the football season and easier to plan stuff around that

Was going to suggest this. If there are any friendlies or cup games, could you go and see what it's like?

I used to live within walking distance of my teams ground. Whilst the atmosphere was good, being part of a 30,000 crowd walking to/from the stadium still made me feel on edge. There might not be trouble but there will be litter and weeing!

I was going to say I encountered some Millwall fans at London Bridge station a few years back, and while I’m used to football fans, they stood out, and not in a good way.

I have no idea about when the football season is on or when that team will next play but is it feasible to be near the house on the day of the next match so see what happens?

Sorry, just seen someone already brought this up - and it’s not football season anymore.

I live in South Bermondesy (although not near the stadium) and Millwall is a huge part of the local identity, you definitely know when it’s match day.

How well do you know the area in general?

I love it here but it’s not for everyone. There’s a strong working class local community, many of whom grew up around here (unusual now in London obvs) and it has a bit of an ‘other era’ feel to it (good and bad)

There are reasons that house prices are lower and the diversity of neighbouring areas hasn’t quite reached Bermondesy, and that’s before you take into account living so close to the stadium.

If you are willing to embrace it (and persevere) there is a real cockney culture that I thought had died out in London before I moved here.

If you haven’t already, definitely speak to your neighbours, go to the millwall pubs and spend a couple of hours there (not on a match day) get a feel for the area and millwall will come up in conversation pretty quickly.

let me know if you wanna chat more.

A family member has a house that backs onto a premiership football team’s ground (you can see one of the goals from the house!) and they’ve never had any problems. You can’t park on any of the local roads when the match is on but luckily they have space for 2-3 cars on their drive.

DB used to live near Highbury, Arsenal’s old stadium pre the Emirates. If Arsenal were playing at home he always knew when they’d scored.

DH used to live near an international rugby stadium. Struggled to get out of his house on match days, other than that not a problem!

Having had experience of relatives’ and a rental near stadiums, you’ll have endless parking/noise. Wouldn’t go near it.

My sister lives opposite Tottenham Stadium - it's actually really quiet apart from match days. She's actually so close that she gets free tickets for all the concerts taking place!

It depends on the club.
My sister lives beside the biggest GAA pitch in Dublin, it can be noisy for cup finals, lots of people traffic but it isn't everyday and quiet by 7pm.
Plus she can enjoy the rare huge concerts held, from her back garden
Once you've off-street parking, it's fine.

@Mama2many73 I’m several miles away, south of the river and we could hear the celebrations after the Coventry match and can always hear the concerts.

I grew up in the 70s & 80s next to the now demolished Roker Park so that definitely colours my opinion but I’d never consider living so close to a football ground. I vividly remember how bad the Millwall fans were (over turning cars, setting things on fire, running riot). A brick was thrown through a neighbour’s window and landed in their baby’s cot. Now it would be due to the parking / traffic, litter, drunken behaviour etc.

I love very near a Premier league ground. You need to get used to planning outings around match traffic but I've never had any bother.

Many places close to stadiums have very restricted parking for residents only.

Yes but many people ignore parking restrictions!

Find out if they hold gigs when the football season has finished. I currently live about 6 miles upriver from Bristol City's ground at Ashton Gate and when Take That played there we could hear the noise.

My parents have live quite close to a football ground for years (they've been in the Championship a while but also the Premier league) a Northern town team.

You really only notice the slight increase in traffic occasionally, there's never any increase in parking as there's so many residents cars parked there already it would be fruitless to try and park for the football!

You do hear the roar of the crowd but it's quite cool imho.

Although I do sympathise - such a shame that the almost constant football season has finished for 2 months!
Only you can decide if you want to take the risk. Why not have a really serious chat with the vendors.

I used to live very close to a London Premiership ground - I didn't have a car but you did have to just have an eye on the fixtures as trying to get down the tube at certain times on a match day was not fun. They uppped the parking restrictions anyway on match days. Occasionally there would be other events (bands I think). And obviously you could hear the cheering when things were going well. But I liked it, it was nice to see people passionate about something, wasn't really an issue at all.

There's a simple answer to this. Go to the house on match day and see for yourself what it's like.

It isn’t that simple given they won’t play again until August and the house may sell in the intervening three months.

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