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Life is made up of experiences. Some memorable, some forgettable. Football has given me many enjoyable times.
Supporting and attending my beloved Hammarby, and watching European, national and intra-city away games have all been great fun. Sometimes bitterly disappointing too.
At the end of the 2009 season, Hammarby were relegated from the Swedish Allsvensken. With an already bad budget, we also lost the television money income. Today we remain in the second division, but are currently top and finally look like we’ve worked out our team and finances.
Hammarby is a family, my family. Every family needs a home and their is no finer place than Söderstadion.
One of my friends who I attend matches with, Pontus, is an avid Arsenal fan. He used to be the president of the Swedish Arsenal fans. I remember asking him some years back how the move to the Emirates was. His silence spoke more than words. It was mixture between loss, sadness and passive acceptance, followed by a shake of the head. Highbury is the stuff of legends now.
Hammarby moved from Söderstadion just more than a year ago to the newly opened, ultra modern, mega expensive council owned Tele2 Arena. Last month Tele2 or Nya (new) Söderstadion as we say, won the 2014 venue of the year award. The Stadium business awards are held in London and it beat off the nominations of Allianz Arena, CenturyLink Field, Fischt Olympic Stadium, Goodison Park, Madison Square Garden and Wembley Stadium.
I wish no football fan to ever have to move stadiums. It is like a death in the family. You can build a new stadium, but not the charm. Not the emotional connection. We are building new memories. A new fortress. These things take time.
I feel lucky that in my life I attended Söderstadion. Even luckier that there are many films and photos on social media, match recordings and on YouTube. One can reminisce with it being actual real accounted events. Not just folklore, urban legend.
As I’ve mentioned on this site before, Ante Covic brought me many memories there.
Tele2 is very nice. The toilets don’t smell like piss, the views are amazing and it’s more family friendly. There are a lot less wooden terraces and a lot more comfortable seats. We have managed to keep our standing terrace along the long side instead of behind the goal.
About a month ago they started to rip down Söderstadion. They will build office blocks there. The sale of the land has financed the new stadium, and this is sad.
The saddest thing isn’t that we now have to share our new stadium with our rivals Djurgården, who we despise. It’s that we are a multi-purpose arena. Tele2 even has a retractable roof.
The Rolling Stones played there two weeks ago for example. That means we now play on astro turf. Söderstadion was pretty much awarded the best pitch in Sweden year-in year-out. It’s not just the play that’s different, you also don’t get the smell of the clipped grass.
The grass isn’t always greener, especially when there isn’t any.
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