Perhaps one of the most important aspects of a football fan’s experience is the connection to their favorite club team. Previous research has stated that football has subcultures consisting of supporters of each club showing their loyalty and support towards their club. Besides game day, a part of the fan’s experience can be touring the very place where their favorite players and coaches walk through on match days.

The experience of a stadium and team campus tour allows supporters to feel what the players may feel on a match day as they walk through the stadium. The other benefit is that tours allow fans to learn more history of their club and more behind the scenes action.

Each team is unique and has their own experiences. For this part of the study, a tour of the Etihad Stadium and Campus, where Manchester City play, was taken.

The beginning is a history lesson about Manchester City Football Club as fans get to learn more about anything revolving around the club from its beginnings in 1894 to the modern-day record setting teams under manager Pep Guardiola. It is here that any supporter can view artifacts from the team’s history and learn about the ups and downs of the club. They can learn about club legend Colin Bell from the 1960s, the struggles City later had with being relegated to the lower tiers of English football, and the rise of City back into top flight football starting with the 1999 Second-Division Playoff win that would promote them to the second tier of football and pave the pathway to get back.

The artifacts symbolize a time where City struggled, but the fans still supported them. For English City fans, this can be a time where they reflect on something that may be significant to their families. For City fans from other countries, it allows them to learn more about the dedication of the fans and more of the team’s history.

After the museum part of the tour, the tour guide took the group that I had been a part of to the outside part of the stadium. She explained a little bit of history behind the stadium. The Etihad Stadium was built in the early 2000s, but did not earn its name until 2008 when Sheikh Mansour from the United Arab Emirates bought City. One unique feature of City is the amount of money the club gets from the Sheikh. The common misconception is that the money was it was made just to make the senior men’s team successful. As I learned, it was explained that City was invested in by the Sheikh because of City’s involvement in the community. Long before the Arabian take over, Manchester City were invested in letting football into the community and for it to be for everyone in the community. The Sheikh admired that and invested in the club to increase the involvement of all people in the club. As the academy tour was the second part of the tour, it was easy to connect the ideas that the Sheikh wanted the new state of the art facilities built for the benefit of young players in City’s academies and both the men’s and women’s teams. The involvement in the community is a large part of the Manchester City identity.

After the little bit of history, the tour group I was in was taken into the stadium for the main part of the tour. To enhance the experience for all of the fans on the tour, there were video and sound effects that took place in certain areas. Everyone got to experience where the players walk in on a match day and walk to the noises and cheering that go on. We all got to experience the home dressing room and even got a video of what game day may look like in there. There was the experience of walking down the tunnel and up onto the pitch where thousands of fans would great all of the players. Of course, everyone can see all around the stadium and see what the players see. Anyone can imagine how nerve-wrecking, but exciting, it must be for players to experience the atmosphere every home match. Not only do they get the player experience, but they get the manager/coach experience of the press conference room. They can imagine what it may be like for manager Pep Guardiola to be faced with multiple questions after a match. Below are photos of what someone will see on the Etihad Stadium Tour. It also gives an idea of what a fan from another team’s home stadium tour would look like.

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As the women’s team stadium and the academy facilities are on the other side of the Etihad Campus, no pictures were to be taken as it was a community area that people work and live in. A lot of that part of the tour consisted about learning about the use of the academy and just about how much work is put into each match day at City.

For many people, being able to explore the place themselves and the players they love call home means a lot to them. It gives them a chance to connect with their teams and learn more about the identity of the club as well as feel a little bit more connected to the club they love.