Date and Venue
20 July v Manchester United, NRG Stadium
Where is the NRG Stadium?
It’s based in Houston, Texas, which is situated in the southern part of the United States.
What’s the stadium like?
The NRG Stadium has a seated capacity of 71,795 with the capability of stretching to 80,000 for concerts.
It also boasts two large video screens at each end of the stadium, which, at 14,549 square feet, are the second largest digital display screens in any stadium in the world.
The stadium has a retractable roof as well that can be opened or closed in just seven minutes.
Who plays there?
The stadium is home to National Football League (NFL) side the Houston Texans.
As well as hosting the Texans regularly, the NRG Stadium was home to Super Bowl 38 and Super Bowl 51, the latter being a historic one as it was the first SB game to be decided in overtime.
In addition to this, the stadium hosted the US national soccer team as well as WrestleMania 25 in 2009.
What transport links are there?
The city’s main airport is the George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), which you can fly to direct to from Manchester Airport.
Once in Houston, the main method of transport is by car with their roads comprising of around 740 miles of freeways and expressways.
The city has a rail system called METRORail, which spans 23.8miles and includes the NRG Stadium as one of its stops.
Make sure you visit these attractions…
Space Center Houston
It’s the official visitor centre of NASA’s Johnson Space Center and is a huge complex that houses plenty of interesting exhibitions from a replica of America’s first space station to a piece of rock form the moon.
If you visit on a Friday, you can meet an astronaut with them doing presentations from 11am to 1pm.
Houston Zoo
The zoo is one of the city’s most popular attractions and hosts over 6,000 animals spread over its 55 acres in Hermann Park.
Buffalo Bayou Park
One of Houston’s natural gems, the park is a 160-acre green space that runs through the city with the slow-moving river its centerpiece.
Anyone famous from there?
From the entertainment world to the sporting world, there are plenty of notable people from Houston.
In the music industry, Beyonce, Johnny Nash and Kelly Rowland are three of the names to originate from the city and are joined by Patrick Swayze, Jim Parsons and Hilary Duff from the entertainment industry.
Moving into famous sporting stars and 2016 Olympics gold medallist Simone Biles classes Houston as her hometown. The National Basketball Association (NBA) is also well represented with Jimmy Butler, DeAndre Jordan and Emeka Okafor all hailing from the city.
Wrestling legends the Undertaker and Booker T were also born in Houston.
Does the Club have any links with Houston?
The Blues were supposed to play there a few years back in a post-season friendly but the game was cancelled due to extreme weather.
Otherwise, Houston’s link to Manchester is a small community with the same name around a 15-minute drive from the city centre.
Did you know?
Houston is the fourth most populated city in the US behind New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
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