Second tier England: 5 Stadiums for Premier League Feeling

The Mammoth League – England's Championship kicks off the 2025/26 season on August 8. Event-Breaks.com on five stadiums where you almost (once again) feel like you're in the Premier League. 

24 clubs, 46 matchdays, and in the end, the playoffs with the “million-pound match” for Premier League promotion at Wembley – the Championship is a true exception among second divisions in Europe.

The average attendance in England’s second division last season was 22,051 spectators per match. That’s more than in the Dutch Eredivisie (20,052 per game) and only 6,000 less than in France’s top tier, Ligue 1. 

Only six leagues in Europe had a higher overall attendance than the Championship last year.

The German 2. Bundesliga ranks fourth in Europe in terms of attendance with an average of 30,493 fans per match, clearly ahead of England’s second tier.
However, the stadiums in the 2. Bundesliga – including in Berlin, Schalke, Hannover, Nuremberg or Kaiserslautern – are in some cases much larger than those in the Championship. 

The largest stadium in the Championship is the legendary Hillsborough, home of Sheffield Wednesday, with 38,859 seats, followed by The Riverside of Middlesbrough FC (33,746 seats) and Pride Park of Derby County (33,597). 

What is the second-best league in England?

The 24 clubs in the Championship have a combined market value of €1.71 billion – more than €1.25 billion more than the 2. Bundesliga (€448 million / Source: Transfermarkt.de).

The supposedly third-tier Football League One in England is also not a league of no-name clubs. 

Ten Football League One clubs have already experienced the Premier League. Among them: Bolton Wanderers with their German loanee striker Fredi Bobic (2002), and FC Barnsley, which author Ronald Reng immortalized with his German goalkeeper Lars Leese in “The Keeper of Dreams”. 

Football trips Championship England: May 15, 2025 – Sheffield United celebrated against Bristol City in the Championship playoff semi-final for the Premier League. Photo: Imago Images / Pro Sports Images

English Second Division Football: These clubs have played in the Premier League

19 Championship clubs have played in the Premier League (only Bristol City, Millwall FC, Oxford United, Preston North End, and Welsh side AFC Wrexham never made it to the top tier), so there’s Premier League flair in almost every stadium – and even more memories that fans still talk about in the pubs. That makes it hard to pick favorites. 

The Deepdale Stadium of Preston North End, once home (for five weeks in 1995) to a football novice named David Beckham, deserves a mention alone for the incredible support and overwhelming empathy shown to English champions Liverpool FC during the first match after the tragic death of Diogo Jota in July 2025. That was something special. 

Championship: A champion in the “second tier”

Another great story was written in a stadium that truly exudes Premier League flair: King Power Stadium, home of relegated Leicester City.

On May 7, 2016, Kasper Schmeichel, James Richard Gill, better known as Jamie Vardy, Danny Drinkwater, and others lifted the Premier League trophy here after a 3–1 win against Everton – perhaps the biggest surprise title in league history. The 32,000-capacity stadium is idyllically located on the Grand Union Canal, but the 30-minute walk from Leicester Central Station is not for the faint-hearted. 

Southampton FC will once again compete in the Championship at St. Mary’s Stadium. Although “The Saints” were relegated as bottom of the Premier League, the atmosphere in the stadium remains strong. “Although sometimes compared to Middlesbrough’s Riverside Stadium, St. Mary’s is overall better,” writes Duncan Adams in Football Grounds in England & Wales, “because all four stands are built in the same style and are the same height.”

You can test the atmosphere yourself on October 18, 2025: On that day, The Saints will host Swansea City, now owned by Croatian idol Luka Modric and rapper Snoop Dogg. 

Championship London Clubs: Millwall’s derby atmosphere

Millwall FC may be one of the clubs that have never played in the Premier League, but The Den is, in my opinion, one of the London grounds you absolutely must visit – even if it still commands respect. 

Especially when it’s derby day against local rivals, the “Lions” fans know how to create an atmosphere that few other Championship clubs can rival. 

Sheffield United: Bramall Lane is alive – the ground was voted one of the five most atmospheric stadiums in the Championship by footballleagueworld.co.uk in October 2024. Duncan Adams calls it “one of the most underrated stadiums in the country,” and I fully agree based on personal experience. 

You’ll experience its magic again this season at the “Steel City Derby” against Sheffield Wednesday.

Last but not least: Norwich City. At Carrow Road, things may not be as loud as in other Championship stadiums, but the atmosphere is incredibly friendly. 

Surrounding the stadium, which lies almost picturesquely by the River Wensum, it's easy to strike up a conversation with the amiable “Canaries” supporters. Here – long before the last renovation in 2010 – German-English European Cup history was made. In 1993, Norwich City eliminated Bayern Munich from the UEFA Cup, and Carrow Road became known across Europe.

This season, the East Anglian Derby against relegated Ipswich Town is surely the most anticipated match for the fans.

It will take place on April 11, 2026, in Norwich.

Fans of the yellow-greens still talk about that famous win over Bayern and their most recent Premier League promotion in 2021 at the stadium restaurant “Yellows.”

P.S.: For me personally, Carrow Road holds a very special place in the Championship rankings. On my honeymoon in 2023 – a garden tour through East Anglia – our hotel was located right here, overlooking the stadium. Room with a View.