Wembley Stadium

Wembley Stadium is a stadium in Wembley, located in the London Borough of Brent in London, England. It is owned by The Football Association (FA) via its subsidiary Wembley National Stadium Limited, and its primary use is for home games of the England national football team, and the main English domestic football finals. It is also used for pop concerts and other sporting events.

With 90,000 seats the stadium has the second largest capacity in Europe, and is the largest stadium in the world with every seat under cover. Immediately following its opening, it was often referred to as the “new Wembley Stadium” to distinguish it from the original stadium. The stadium is also the most expensive stadium ever built.

The previous Wembley Stadium (originally known as the British Empire Exhibition Stadium or Empire Stadium) was one of the world’s most famous football stadia, being England’s national stadium for football, and because of the geographical origins of the game was often referred to as “The Home of Football”. It hosted the European Cup (now the UEFA Champions League) final a record five times, and is one of seventeen stadia to have held a FIFA World Cup final. In 2003, the original structure was demolished and construction began on the new stadium, originally intended to open in 2006. This was later delayed until early 2007. The final completion date of the stadium was 9 March 2007, when the keys to the stadium were handed over to the FA.

Structure

* With 90,000 seats, the new Wembley is the largest stadium in the world with every seat under cover. This capacity is separated into 3 tiers of seating, with the lower tier holding 34,303 spectators, the middle one 16,932 and the upper one 39,165
* The stadium contains 2,618 toilets, more than any other venue in the world.
* The stadium has a circumference of 1 km (0.6 mi).
* At its peak, there were more than 3,500 construction workers on site.
* 4,000 separate piles form the foundations of the new stadium, the deepest of which is 35 m (115 ft).
* There are 56 km (35 miles) of heavy-duty power cables in the stadium.
* 90,000 m³ (120,000 cu yds) of concrete and 23,000 tonnes (25,000 short tons) of steel were used in the construction of the new stadium.
* The total length of the escalators is 400 m (¼ mi).
* The Wembley Arch has a diameter greater than that of a cross-channel train.

Pitch

The new pitch is 4 m (13 ft) lower than the previous pitch. The pitch size is 105 m (115 yards) long by 68 m (75 yards) wide, slightly narrower than the old Wembley Since the completion of the new Wembley, the pitch has come into major disrepute when it was commented on being “no good” and “not in the condition that Wembley used to be known for” by Slaven Bilić before the game between England and the team he managed, Croatia. It was confirmed when the pitch was terribly cut up during the game, which was blamed by some as the reason England did not qualify for UEFA Euro 2008 despite previous results also being blamed by others.

Roof

The new 6,350 tonne roof covers an area of over 45,000 square metres (11 acres), four acres of which are movable and rise to 52 m (170 ft) above the pitch. With a span of 317 m (1040 ft), the arch is the longest single span roof structure in the world and is 134 m (440 ft) above the level of the external concourse, which is designed not to cast a shadow on the pitch.

Tenants

The English national football team is a major user of Wembley Stadium. Given the ownership by The Football Association as of 10 March 2007, the League Cup final moved back to Wembley from Cardiff following the FA Cup final and FA Community Shield. Other showpiece football matches that were previously staged at Wembley, such as the Football League promotion play-offs and the Football League Trophy final, have returned to the stadium, as has the Football Conference play-off final. Additionally, the Rugby League Challenge Cup final returned to Wembley Stadium in 2007. The new Wembley is a significant part of the plan for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London; the stadium will be the site of several games in both the men’s and women’s football tournaments, with the finals planned to be held there. The Guinness Premiership reportedly discussed staging the London Double Header, usually held at Twickenham, at Wembley during the 2007-08 season, although the game was ultimately played at Twickenham.

The Race of Champions staged their 2007 event at the stadium, and have announced that the 2008 event will take place at Wembley Stadium, on 14 December, 2008.

Music

Besides football, Wembley can be configured to hold many other events, particularly major concerts. The first concert at the new stadium was given by George Michael on June 9, 2007. Other acts to have performed at the stadium are Muse, Metallica, Foo Fighters and Madonna, or Oasis due to perform in 2009. Two large charity concerts have been held at the new Wembley stadium, the Concert for Diana, a memorial concert ten years after the Death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Live Earth. Bon Jovi were scheduled to be the first artists to perform at the new Wembley but the late completion of the stadium saw the concerts relocated to the National Bowl and the KC Stadium.

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Wembley Stadium website
Wembley Stadium Tours
Wembley Stadium wikipedia entry
The Football Association
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