On The Road - BEC/Police Tero: 2017

On The Road - BEC/Police Tero

27th May, 2017

 

Stadium

Boonyachinda Stadium, Lak Si, Bangkok

 

Transport

Car from SriRacha

 

Cost

B400 - petrol

B300 - tolls

 

Travelling Time (total journey)

4 hours 10 minutes. A fairly straightforward journey. However, we did take a wrong turn when close to the stadium. Luckily, we met a Tero fan at the petrol station, who jumped in the back and directed us to the ground.

 

Total Distance Travelled

270kms

 

Match Ticket

B200 - which I think is a bit steep. The same seats were B150 for home fans.

Programme

A free A5 sized full colour effort running to 16 pages. Lots of pictures, with only one full page advert (for Chang). Two features on Chonburi - a close look at Renan Marques and a match preview - but lots for the home fans to enjoy. Which is fair enough. Bizarrely, all the page headings are in English, but the articles are exclusively in Thai.

 

Club Shop

They had two. Outside the main stand they had a mobile store with a couple of tables in front and around the far side, they had a larger, permanent one. Both were selling all the latest in Tero merchandise - a mix of BEC and Police goods were in stock. This is clearly something they are taking very seriously.

 

Away End

A third of the covered main stand - which was something to be thankful for on such a wet day. The plastic seats were backless, but unusually for any football stadium, there was plenty of leg room. We had a decent view of the pitch and the aeroplanes taking off from Don Muang.

 

Staff

Excellent! They were all really friendly and helpful. The young cadets who were working as stewards in the away end were a good laugh too and enjoyed joking with the travelling fans.

Food

Disappointing. There wasn't anywhere the choice you get at most Thai grounds. It was mainly sausages and pigs in blankets, which were both very tasty, but would have liked to have seen more on offer. There is a small Tero Cafe behind the open stand - which was showing the early T1 kick off and doing a roaring trade - but I didn't go in.

 

Beer

I had to walk all the way around to the far side of the stadium to buy a big bottle of Chang for B70. The lady very kindly put this into a plastic glass, which I was allowed to take into the ground (Yippee!). Food was also able to be taken in (Yippee! again).

 

Highlight of the Day

The result. A fine all round performance in very difficult conditions and every single player put in a shift. A hard earnd and well deserved three points.

 

Overall Experience

BEC/Police Tero have made a decent effort to make the place seem like home and deserve a lot of credit. There was a pleasant enough atmosphere both inside and outside the stadium - in spite of the weather. It's early days, but you can see that they have the ambition to build a club to be reckoned with. I'm already looking forward to my next visit.