WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS
Stateside Cup, EverBank Stadium, Jacksonville, Florida, USA, Saturday 27 July 2024, 7pm EDT
West Ham United will play in Florida for the first time in the Club’s history when we take on Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Stateside Cup on Saturday.
The Irons will contest the opening tie of the three-match, three-team tournament with their Premier League rivals at the home of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, EverBank Stadium.
Tickets for Saturday’s match are available to buy HERE. If you’re unable to get to Jacksonville, you can order a live stream HERE.
The game will mark the Hammers’ first visit to the United States in eight years, and the seventh time in total, having previously crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1963, 1964, 1967, 1971, 2008 and 2016.
Following Saturday’s tie, Julen Lopetegui and his squad will fly back to Tampa, where they have spent the week training, and prepare to tackle Crystal Palace in their second Stateside Cup fixture at Raymond James Stadium on Saturday 3 August.
How to get there…
Driving is the easiest way to get to EverBank Stadium – if you are already in the United States, of course!
Parking is available in Lot D at the stadium, priced at $33 per vehicle, and can be booked online HERE. The address is 87 Gator Bowl Boulevard, and Lot D will be open from 4pm-11pm EDT on matchday.
Otherwise, it is easy to catch a taxi or ride-hail vehicle from downtown or wherever you are staying in the First Coast area directly to EverBank Stadium.
To ensure you have no issues accessing the stadium, please read the EverBank Stadium ‘Event Day Ready’ guide HERE.
Where to stay…
You will almost certainly have booked your accommodation by now but, if you have not, there are plenty of options in and around Jacksonville.
The downtown area has lots of branded hotels along both banks of the St Johns River, which flows through the middle of the largest city in Florida.
Alternatively, you can stay a little further afield and nearer to the Atlantic coast in the Jacksonville Beaches area.
What to do…
The number one attraction in the area is Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens, which is home to over 2,000 animals – including jaguars! – and 1,000 varieties of plants. The Zoo is situated a few miles north of downtown.
Further north, about 15 miles up Interstate-95, is Catty Shack Ranch Wildlife Sanctuary, which is home to tigers and other big cats.
The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens is situated nearer to downtown, along the north bank of the St Johns River, just south of where Interstate-95 crosses on Fuller Warren Bridge. Under the canopy of the same bridge on Saturday morning will be the Riverside Arts Market, which hosts local artisans, craft makers, artists and farmers selling their goods.
If you want to get away from the city, how about driving around 30 mile south to St Augustine, the oldest European city in the United States? Or 25 miles north east to the natural beauty of Big and Little Talbot Island? Or simply head east to the Jacksonville Beaches and take in some sun, sea and sand!
What’s happened there before…
West Ham United have never visited Florida previously, but EverBank Stadium has certainly hosted its fair share of historic sporting events.
Opened in 1995 to replace the former Gator Bowl Stadium which previously stood on the site, EverBank Stadium has been home to the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars since they were introduced as an expansion team in the same year. Now, of course, the Jaguars are owned by the businessman Shahid Khan, who also owns West Ham’s Premier League rivals Fulham.
In 2005, Jacksonville hosted Super Bowl XXXIX, in which the New England Patriots defeated the Philadelphia Eagles.
EverBank Stadium also hosts the annual Florida–Georgia college American football rivalry game, and the Gator Bowl, a post-season college bowl game, as well as United States men’s national soccer team matches.
