This whole business of professional sport being played behind closed doors is strange – and now it looks as if it’s going to continue all the way up until Christmas. Perhaps beyond.
It’s a depressing thought, but for those of us who live within a goalkeeper’s punt of a football ground it’s been doubly bizarre because suddenly we haven’t had 20,000 supporters or so walking down our street in various mental states — sometimes happy, often downhearted.
My wife hasn’t missed this fortnightly procession one jot, not least because of the mess football fans leave behind and because it’s almost impossible to find a parking space when the team is playing at home. The language can be fruity, too.
Game of two halves: Manchester United’s Old Trafford ground has great transport links
Me? Living so close to the club I support and where I have a season ticket has hardly been a burden.
I can walk out of my door six minutes before kick-off and be in my seat by the time the referee blows his whistle to begin proceedings – and if I leave the stadium a minute or two before the end I can be back home almost instantly, with the kettle on and ready for the post-match interviews.
What I have never quite worked out is whether living so close to a stadium impacts positively or negatively on local house prices. The answer, apparently, is that it depends on the sport.
The property developers StripeHomes, based in Newcastle and mainly operating in the North East, has carried out research into buying and selling property near stadiums and concluded that cricket wins the day when it comes to an uplift in prices, while buying near a major rugby ground makes for the poorest investment.
House prices surrounding Lord’s, the so-called ‘home of cricket’, Sophia Gardens in Cardiff and The Grange Club in Edinburgh are all above neighbouring areas — at Stormont in Belfast, the average price is 22.5 per cent higher at £521,723.
This contrasts with rugby, where prices near Twickenham stadium in SouthWest London are 14.5 per cent lower than in Twickenham as a whole.
‘Living within close proximity of a major stadium will be a huge bonus for many sports fans, but it won’t be desirable for every homebuyer,’ said James Forrester, managing director of StripeHomes.
‘Although football and rugby both conjure images of rowdy crowds with a beer in hand, it seems as if buyers are less fazed about the gentleman’s game of cricket.’
Not surprisingly, the most expensive stadium in Britain to live next to is Lord’s in London’s St John’s Wood, with an average price of £1.3 million – although I would have thought Stamford Bridge, Chelsea’s ground, must also be pricey.
According to the estate agent comparison site, GetAgent, prices in Wolverhampton – whose team won promotion to the Premier League in 2018 – are up 22 per cent in the past year.
‘We sell a lot of houses within a stone’s throw from both Manchester United’s Old Trafford and Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium and I would say that only 20 per cent of buyers regard it as a problem,’ says Steve Peck, director of Home estate agents.
‘The other 80 per cent say it makes no difference at all.’
Mr Peck says there is little variation in prices whether a house is 100 yards from a ground or a mile-and-a-half away.
In the Old Trafford area, a three-bedroom terrace home costs from £200,000 to £300,000, and a three-bedroom semi from £230,000 to £300,000. But, he says, there are advantages.
‘The transport infrastructure is brilliant around both Manchester stadiums and the council is good at cleaning up immediately after matches.’
That’s not always my experience. In fact, my wife has often fired off frosty emails to the council demanding a more rigorous approach to getting the street looking decent following an invasion of football supporters.
Invariably, cans of lager, fish and chip wrappings, and cigarette butts find their way into our front garden.
But, when we come to sell, I shall have few qualms in pointing out the plus-sides, if you’re a supporter of my team, that is.
Mind you, I shall avoid telling a potential buyer about the time when a fan of a rival club saw me outside our house and begged me to let him use our toilet.
‘It’s either that or I go in the street,’ he said. I let him in – and seldom have I seen such gratitude written on the face of a total stranger.