The Swiss 36 No. 8 St. Jakob-Park - FC Basel

FC Basel v FC Zürich

The time has come to stop messing around on this Swiss Tour of football grounds.  I feel my Swiss readers thoughts pulsating through the ethernet.  Give it up Fuzz - just go to the top Swiss Football club and you can quit all this comparing stadia rubbish.  After all, can Old Trafford really compare with Brunton Park (for the Swiss, home of Carlisle United)?  

They're quite right.  You get much more true emotion watching a game in Carlisle than you ever will at the Theatre of Dreams.  Think about it for a moment.  For dreams, it helps if you sleep.  To sleep, it helps if it's quiet!

Basel are the current Power-House of Swiss football with 7 of the 13 Super League titles this century so far going to St. Jakob-Park.  They finished as runners-up for 3 of the remaining seasons so that's ten from thirteen league campaigns ending in a top 2 finish.  Not bad, I suppose!

I've been to the stadium before, on two occasions to see Switzerland play first against England and then against Wales.  Good occasions, I throughly enjoyed both experiences.   But on those occasions I did not have my critical eyes open.

As usual, my good lady searched for the tickets for this fixture online and that's when we received the first shock.  Our tickets cost 48 SFr (£31.68) each!!  Admittedly, you could get cheaper tickets for this fixture and also even this price is cheap when compared with the entry price for top games in England.  But we have not sought out the cheapest ticket prices on the Swiss 36 tour and, in their own market, the next most expensive ticket so far has been the 30 SFr that we paid to watch FC Zürich play Grasshoppers.

So is the Basel experience worth 50%  more than the price of the most expensive of the rest?  Is it worth saving the 48 SFr to visit Basel by missing 4 home games at FC Winterthur?  This should be interesting!

Outside - Not much to look at

Like pretty much anywhere in Switzerland, getting to Basel is no problem with the train.  From Basel centre to the stadium, you have a choice of Train or tram.  Its not a problem although having gone on the tram on this occasion, I'd recommend the train in future.  The tram was very full.  The train would be similarly full, its just that the train is quicker.

The outside of the stadium looks like a cross between a block of flats at one side, and a bouncy castle at the other. 

Time to test those security guards and on this occasion we had a new strategy.  PET bottles are dangerous, Tetra-Pak Cartons are dangerous so how about paper cups from Burger-King?  Unanimously rejected by Basel's security guards!  We had to drink them or lose them.  There was not even the offer of a plastic cup in which to decant our drinks as has been offered at every single other stadium.

Long-Island Iced-Tea is a potent mix.  But my wife and I are from Yorkshire.  Tip away good quality beverages - never!

Inside - Now that's more like it!

At the end of the match, when we'd sobered up a little, my wife asked one of the security staff the idea behind this practice.  Paper cups are not regarded as dangerous, which is good because Basel serve Popcorn in them.  Apparently they don't want alcohol taking into the stadium.  I have not yet found any other stadium that applies rules on taking alcohol in.  They may be ferociously anal about the drinks container, but not the drink itself.  Can you buy alcohol in the stadium?  Yes, of course, they will serve beer at your seat!

Inside the stadium and you see how much that exterior under-sells the stadium.  Its a proper, 38500 capacity purpose-built football stadium and looks great!  Those expensive seats were great too, right on the front-row aligned with the edge of one penalty area.  Comfortable seats too.  Could I be warming to Basel?

A Fenced in Kop

Well I might have been had I not looked at how Basel's fabulous support are treated by the club.  First of all, the most vocal support stand on terraces behind the goal.  Now you you know what I think of fences.

Bizarrely, there are only these high fences at the kop end and around the away section.  Anywhere else and there's just a small perimeter wall and an electronic advertising hoarding between you and the pitch.  Obviously the fans who sing are the ones who need to be caged.  Its totally ridiculous as nothing would stop these fans from buying the ticket that I bought and sitting in the area without fences.

In the fan-shop we found a Basel shirt for 130 SFr.  I was amazed at this price as the same shirt is available in sports shops for 110 SFr.  I am hoping the shirt in question had a pre-preinted name and number although as in England, normally this is an option.

Points Time.

Getting There

8/10.  Easy enough by train or by tram but I did not see any dedicated match services,  certainly not on the tram.  Maybe they are there on the train?  With the support Basel have, it would be worth considering as the trams were very crowded.

Friendliness

7/10.  Security was consistent but flawed. Alcohol is their concern but its freely available in the stadium.  Alcohol or no alcohol, Basel are the first stadium I have visited not to offer plastic beakers to allow any drink, alcoholic or otherwise, to be taken into the stadium.  Fans have to booze it or lose it.  Oh, and if they suspect the fan is trying to get alcohol into the stadium, watching them drink that alcohol rapidly before entering the stadium really is going to maintain the sobriety of the proceedings isn't it?  

Safety

Flares? Fine but NO PAPER CUPS!

6/10.  Absolutely no problem where we were but I didn't like the standing areas or the away fan areas.  And look at what the paper-cup conscious security missed at both the home and away ends.  Flags being waved, flares being waved.  No chance of a flag catching light from a flare and starting a fire in those areas enclosed by high fences?

Basel do get big crowds so is there the potential for a Hillsborough or a Bradford fire?  Its fair to say that St. Jakob-Park is a great deal more modern than either Hillsboruough or Valley Parade (as it was then) but why take the chance?  Take the fences down and make it a good deal more safe.

View

8/10.  From my seat, 10/10 but I wouldn't have liked to be behind those fences.  (Is there some theme to this?)

Basel kop in full Swing

Atmosphere

8/10.  30400 spectators in a 38500 stadium isn't exactly a sell-out for arguably the biggest rivalry in Swiss football.  Perhaps Basel do need to look at those ticket prices.

That said, the atmosphere was very enjoyable even for a 0:0. Basel have a very vocal kop who keep going throughout the game.  I can also vouch for their away support's noise as when they played FC Winterthur they were similarly noisy.  

But FCZ played their part too.  Noise from both ends from where I was sitting but nothing from the sides.

Refreshments

FCZ played their part too

7/10.  Predictably Feldshitschen beer as it is the local brewery to Basel and its reasonably priced at 5.50 SFr for 4 dl.  But they did drop a clanger on the soft drinks.

With our rapidly slugged Long Island Iced-Tea still taking effect, we opted for a soft drink at half time.  Citro sounds like lemon but was in fact sparkling water.  Mrs. Duck does not like sparkling water!

So up she climbed to the concourse and tried again for a lemonade.  The same Citro was ordered and it tasted like lemonade!  What's going on Basel?

The standard sausage and chips menu was augmented by Pizza.  Like FC Luzern, there are executive facilities where I am sure 3 course menus etc. are offered.   But for proper fans, sausage, pizza, chips and popcorn is about it.

Redeeming Feature

The thought of how good it could be if they ripped those bloody fences out!

Overall

You've got to be joking love, it cost 130 SFr.!

45/60. 

The Match

0:0.  Basel were the better team on the day but Zürich kept their discipline well and deserved the point.

When I say deserved the point, it would be fairer to deduct points from both sides. In the first half, the well know Dave Bassett quote about not being able to hit a Donkey's arse with a frying-pan rang true.  Not one effort on target for either side.  Whistles from the Basel kop at the break.

It was marginally better in the second half.  David Da Costa, the Zürich 'keeper, was called into action twice: a decent effort from the edge of the area from Marco Streller came at a nice height for him to push away and a more demanding though less spectacular save at the feet of Valentin Stocker.  At the other end, Yann Sommer twiddled his thumbs.

Miss four FC Winterthur games to watch "der Klassiker" at Basel?  You have got to be joking!