Birmingham City, Aston Villa, West Bromwich Albion and Wolves bid for tourist titles

Aug 29 2010 by Paul Suart, Sunday Mercury

BIRMINGHAM City, Aston Villa, West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers could be named top tourist attractions in a new VisitEngland scheme.

Premiership grounds are being surveyed to assess the match day experience of fans, with everything from parking to stewarding and toilets coming under the microscope.

The Sunday Mercury spoke to supporters from our four main sides to see if their clubs score in eight key areas.

If they get top marks, the stadiums could win Visitor Attraction Quality Assurance titles boosting their chances of playing host to games if the 2018 World Cup comes to England.

JONATHAN FEAR, 41, from Redditch, is editor of the Vital Villa fanzine and has been a supporter since he was eight years old.

1. Pre-arrival telephone and email enquiries, website content and ticket purchasing: The official website is excellent and the video content and quotes are great. Ticket information is clear and presentation has also been improved recently. Ticket purchasing is also much better than it used to be.

2. Arrival signage, approach to stadium, parking, stadium appearance: Villa Park is an historic ground, what could be better? The signage is now all matching thanks to Randy Lerner, a small but important detail. They have also improved the external and internal parts of the ground no end since the takeover. Parking will always be difficult with most stadia, as they were built in the inner city areas and so obviously the areas are built up.

3. Pre-match experience stadium layout, stewarding, entertainment, programme content: Its all about the game for me. Ive always found the stewards great and the programme is award-winning, Rob Bishop and the gang do a great job on it. Not too much pre-match entertainment but then, this is football.

4. Match experience quality of seating, information, stewarding, atmosphere, half-time entertainment: The quality of the match is always so much better when we are winning! The seats are good, I love where I sit on the front row right by the dugout. The atmosphere depends on the games. Half-time entertainment? Not that much goes on, but I like it when they have the kids running around or taking penalties.

5. Catering appearance, food quality, service, food range, cleanliness: The catering has improved massively over the years. The healthy options added this year are a welcome change. I guess queues are an issue but it is so difficult when you get so many customers at one time. The area always seems clean enough.

6. Toilets layout and numbers, maintenance, fixtures and fittings, ventilation, cleanliness: All fine, they are as clean as you would expect with so many people passing through in such a small space of time. Im really not going to start rating toilets!

7. Post-match ease of exit, signage, crowd control: Also fine, never had a problem. You expect you will have to shuffle out with a big crowd. Yet there is enough space at Villa Park compared with other clubs and naturally you are going to have to wait for a train, bus or be in a traffic queue if you have driven.

8. Club shop layout, range of merchandise, presentation, cleanliness: The main shop at the club is a decent size. The quality of the merchandise is OK, although some of the ladies ranges are a bit embarrassing to be honest. I think that is an area we can and should improve on.