Our first ever visit to Milton Keynes Dons shiny new stadium is on Saturday at 3pm.

For the first four years after their move to Milton Keynes, the Dons played at the National Hockey stadium, but they moved into their own £45m 22,000 capacity all-seater stadium at the start of last season. The stadium is at Denbigh North, just off the A5, south of Central Milton Keynes and just north of Bletchley. A retail park was built as part of the same scheme, complete with an ASDA and an IKEA, so we can expect some traffic congestion as the locals drive there to complete their Christmas shopping.

A route to the stadium is signposted from Junction 14 of the M1, obviously heading towards Milton Keynes once you leave the motorway. You go straight over the first roundabout and at the next (where there is a Total Garage on the corner) and turn left onto the V11 Tongwell Street. Then cross one roundabout and turn right at the next onto the H8 Standing Way (A421). Continue alone the Standing Way, going across a number of roundabouts. On reaching the Bleak Hall Roundabout turn left into the V6 Grafton Street. At the next roundabout, turn right and the stadium entrance is further down on the left.

There are 2,000 car parking spaces at the stadium, which costs £5 per vehicle. Otherwise you can park in the Denbigh West industrial estate. After passing the stadium entrance on your left, turn right at the next roundabout, called Granby roundabout, and then take the next turn left, and immediately left again onto the industrial estate called Denbigh West. Pedestrian crossings towards ASDA will allow you to walk back towards the ground.

By public transport it’s far more difficult to get to games now the Dons have moved to their new stadium. Whereas their former home at the Hockey stadium was only a short distance from Milton Keynes Central railway station, the new stadium is four miles to the south of the city centre. The nearest station is Bletchley, and even that is about two miles away. The station is served by London Midland trains from London Euston and is one stop down the line from the main Milton Keynes Central station. At least we can be thankful that the long running saga of the West Coast main line upgrade has at last been completed, so weekend trains to Milton Keynes should no longer be disrupted by engineering work.

If you’re walking from Bletchley station, you should turn left immediately you come out of the station building and continue down the steps. At the bottom of the steps turn left go under the railway bridge. At the roundabout by the Park pub turn left onto Saxon Street. Keep straight along this road and you will eventually reach the stadium. From Milton Keynes Central station you can catch the number 7 bus (every 20 minutes) or the 7E (hourly), which both stop next to the stadium.  

As with all stadia located some way from their city centre, there is a dearth of decent pubs nearby. The nearest pub to the stadium is the ‘Beacon’, which is around a 10 minute walk away, in the nearby Mount Farm area, but by all accounts it’s rather plain and characterless. There aren’t many other options nearby, but a mile south of the stadium is Fenny Stratford, which has a good choice of traditional pubs along Watling Street, the old A5. Fenny Stratford also has a fish and chip shop, if you don’t fancy getting your scoff inside the stadium. Another establishment you could try is the ‘Enigma Tavern’ on Saxon Street, which you will pass if you’re walking to the stadium from Bletchley station. There are two Wetherspoons in the city centre, and if you arrive at Milton Keynes Central station you’ll find them by going straight ahead from the main station exit, continuing into Midsummer Boulevard.

The facilities within the stadium itself are excellent, with good views, plenty of legroom and good acoustics, which should make for an excellent atmosphere. And they have wonderful toilets, with luxuries such as soap and hot running water, so we can but hope that nearby Peterborough United have taken note. Another quirk (thanks to the local authority) is that flags are not allowed into the stadium unless you can produce their fire certificate!

There is a wide selection of food available on the concourse, of the standard we usually expect from football clubs, and although they usually serve alcohol to away supporters they might not do so when Leeds are in town. The usual away allocation is 3,000 places in the North East corner, but they have given us 4,500 tickets for this game. Even so, we have managed to sell our allocation, and this match could break the record attendance for a league game at the stadium. This is currently held by the game when they were presented with the League Two trophy against Morecambe last season, which attracted a crowd of 17,250. The biggest crowd for any match here was the 20,222 who came to watch the England under 21s against Bulgaria last year.

Prices for away fans are £17 for adults, with concessions at £12 and juniors £7. The Dons are still selling home tickets online, but unless you’re already registered on their database, you will only be able to buy tickets if you have a local postcode. No tickets will be on sale on the day of the game.

There are further developments in progress, which will take the total cost of the stadium up to £60m. Seating will be installed in the upper tier (which is already built but currently seatless), which will raise the capacity to 30,000. A 5,000 capacity indoor arena has been built and will be fitted out and attached to the south end of the stadium, where it will be home to the MK Lions basketball team. They are also in the process of completing a hotel as an integral part of the West Stand, where hospitality boxes will double up as hotel bedrooms during the time they're not used for matches or events.

Some of this stuff came from http://www.footballgroundguide.com/.

Photo: Action Images

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