We visit Norwich City tomorrow night, with the kick off at 7.45pm. Despite the success of the Bournemouth beamback this game is not being screened at Elland Road, but that might be because we haven’t quite sold our allocation.
Carrow Road is about a mile to the south-east of the city centre, and if you're coming by car, the best way is to travel around Norwich on the A47 till you reach the A146, then take that road into the city. At the traffic lights turn right and follow the outer ring road, then go left at the next roundabout. Turn right at the next lights and follow the inner ring road round to the right, over the river and the ground is on your right. If in doubt follow signs for the railway station until you get to the river (where the rail station is off to the left and ground on your right).
The nearest streets to the ground are all residents only for parking, but you can invest £6 to park at the County Hall. This is well signposted and close to the A47 exit, and holds 2000 cars. If you're parking here it's best to get to arrive before 1pm to get a decent spot, otherwise you may get stuck in spaces at the back, and it would then take ages to get out at the end of the game.
The ground is approximately a five minute walk from the railway station, and although it would be possible to get a train back to Leeds after the game, I’ll include these directions for the benefit of Leeds fans who live a bit nearer. You need to turn left outside the station and walk along Koblenz Avenue, which will take you all the way to Carrow Road. This goes past a new leisure complex called the Riverside, which contains plenty of bars and fast food outlets, though this is predominantly an area for home supporters and most of the bars there will not admit or serve fans in away colours.
The main away fans' pub is the 'Compleat Angler', which is by the river opposite the railway station, and last time we came to the ‘fine city’ , the Leeds fans who crowded into that establishment were treated to a police escort to the stadium half an hour before kick-off. Another option is the 'Coach and Horses' on Thorpe Road, which brews its own beer and is around a 10 minute walk away from the ground.
Carrow road now holds 27,220 fans, and it has been virtually re-built since the early 90's, with all four sides of the ground having new stands. The redevelopment was completed when the old south stand was replaced by the new Jarrold Stand during the 2003/04 season. Norwich's official website promised that the new stand would "make Carrow Road one of the country's finest grounds". In total that stand holds 8200, and to make sure that the really important people were looked after they included 297 Premier Seats in the centre of the stand which are padded for extra comfort, as well as 15 new executive boxes.
The away allocation is 2,000, and we get a corner of the in the Jarrold Stand, close to the most vocal home fans it the Barclay stand. The facilities and view of the playing action are good, with plenty of leg room. But at some games the stewards try to order away supporters to keep seated throughout the game, which could cause a few clashes during our visit.
And now we come for the ticket prices, which are (deep breath) £40 for adults, with various categories of concessions at £30, £25 and £17. This has caused a bit of outrage on Twitter, and they’ve managed to charge away fans even more than we do for category A games (if tickets are bought in advance). Norwich price the tickets on a match by match basis according to supply and demand, and home non-season ticket holders in the same stand will be paying the same price.
Our official website reported this morning that at that time they still had 200 tickets left, and that any remaining would be sold on the night from the ticket office next to the away turnstiles, though it’s probably best to check they still have some left before setting out. Bearing in mind the price it’s a good effort to get so close to selling the allocation, although this might be down to a good take-up from the East Anglian whites, who have no choice but to pay £40 if they’re to watch a Leeds game in their local area.
Norwich don’t seem to have sold out to home fans either, as the game is still listed on their website, but tickets for the home stands are only on sale to fans already on their database who have bought at ticket at some point during the last five seasons.
Unusually for a football ground, snacks are really good, possibly thanks to Delia. The Club even bake their own pies which not only include the usual array such as steak & kidney, chicken & mushroom, but also a number of 'matchday specials' (which change from game to game) such as beef in red wine sauce, gravy & cheese, and also mushroom and garlic.
After a bit of bother a couple of years ago, this has become one of the few grounds where the fans are still segregated by the police as we exit the ground, with Leeds fans marched either to the railway station or there coaches. It remains to be seen whether they will take a more relaxed attitude this time, with it being a midweek game.
The Club have announced that at some point they would look at possibly replacing the Geoffrey Watling City Stand with a new 12,000 seat stand, and they could add an additional tier to the Jarrold (South) Stand, where the foundations are already in place. If both these schemes were carried out the overall capacity of Carrow Road would be increased to around 39,000.
This might all depend on Norwich re-establishing themselves in the Premier League, but they’re not doing badly so far this season, so could be in line for a quick return. So we might get a bigger allocation at Norwich at some point in the future, though hopefully at a more reasonable price.
Some of this stuff came from www.footballgroundguide.com, and many thanks to Norwich fan Richard Woods for helping me with his expert local knowledge. The snide comments about the ticket prices were entirely my own work.