Looked like they had not quite finished it, the bars seemed reasonably organised, but generally whole feel was disapointing. What it does have over wembley is the transport link and with westfield loads of places to eat and drink.
was in the lower tier so view pretty good view of the game.
Don't think you could really compare it to the KC, atmosphere was pretty poor again but that's the nature of international rugby league in England. 20 odd thou against 40 odd the crowd still had very little to shout about so pretty morgue like.

Decent enough stadium, looks huge but smaller capacity than you would expect which is good for rugby league cos we can have a good go at filling it and it will also look great on tv (if the game is any good anyway...)

Must say the renovation to football isn't great, the massive gap between tiers just looks ridiculous. They should do like a party deck type thing that they have in a lot of nfl grounds.

Didn't like it at all. I don't see what is so great about transport links; the tube is much closer at Wembley (say). I expected to have to queue to pick up my ticket, but the length of queues was enormous, I must have queued for over half an hour, and missed the beginning of the match (as did many, many, others). On the other hand, all the stewards I spoke to were helpful and polite. Once inside the stadium, I found I was miles from the action; any stadium with a running track makes for a poor spectator experience. Trundling up and down flights of stairs every time you wanted a beer or something was tedious, too.

Don't get me wrong, BTW, I'm no Wembley fan (although they are doing a lot of development around the stadium there, so complaints about there being insufficient chain-type eating places will presumably be addressed in future); if I had to pick a favourite stadium, it'd be the Millennium.

Think the atmosphere was the problem. Liked the stadium. When it's full of West Ham fans or if Wigan and Leeds were going at it or GB v Australia think it would be bouncing.

I was underwhelmed. Hated that they herded me through a shopping centre on a Saturday afternoon to get there. Purgatory is shopping centre on a Saturday,

If Shaun "Magic" Johnson and Kieran Foran had been playing it would have been bouncing.

The problem is that 44k at Wembley would look really poor on TV.

Hopefully once it becomes a regular venue, rather than -as now - a special event venue, it will improve in regard to toilets, stewarding etc. As for atmosphere, it's hard to generate much when the on- field entertainment is so mediocre ( except when it's filled with Union fans who are used to getting excited over very little)

If the teething problems can be sorted, I still think it represents a better proposition than Wembley at the moment, since we can reasonably expect to fill it.

We need to play internationals in big grounds and run the risk of it 'not looking good on TV'. Only England RU sell out their internationals, and that's because it's a massive corporate jolly.

Wembley is RL's home in London and if we're playing in London we should play there.

Meantime we should also be looking to play in cities in the 'hertlands' that aren't such rugby league hotbeds in order to spread the game.

Forget Wigan & Hull. We should be targeting St James's Park, Anfield, Old Trafford, or Hillsborough as venues.

Only problem with wembley us the one tube station, at least Stratford has two tube lines overground and DLR

Transport was great. 5 minutes or so from Liverpoool Street station on the tube. On the Central Line which is a prime line into Central London.

The Olympic Stadium is not a big ground? It holds 55K, there aren't [ithat [/imany stadiums in England that are bigger...

I do agree though about looking at using bigger football stadia for Internationals. St James Park in Newcastle would be a good option as it works well for Magic Weekend

The atmosphere yesterday was nothing to do with the ground - a combination of fans from different teams scared to cheer for England and a load of people new to the sport. It was crying out for an England supporters group...

I'd also argue Old Trafford atmosphere is better than Wembley. Club Wembley has ruined that place...

I'm sure West Ham fans will love it...not! However West Ham's owners/backers will be jumping for joy, £2.5M rent PA but with about £1.5-£2.5M worth of tax payer funded freebies/services/equipment.
The 272 millions to convert it to a 'multi use' stadium is utterly unbelievable considering the £429M odd to build it initially (Bid cost was only £280M).
I think the stadium itself is bang average all things considered, not that fussed if we don't go back any time soon as fans are too far away in too many places. I would imagine some seats are comparable to the nose bleeds at OT. I think the Emirates is superior/nicer/more inviting.

Why would the Emirates host a game of rugby league? Correct me if I'm wrong but they never expressed an interest in hosting a far more commercially appealing Rugby Union World Cup fixture.

Not quite true, there's Wembley Stadium station as well.