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Sat 05 February 2022 | 20:29

Top facts about Wembley Stadium, the home of English football

Many countries have their iconic stadium, like Maracana for Brazil and Wembley for England, but we have already talked about the Brazilian field of wonders and now it's time for England's beautiful football stadium; welcome to top facts about Wembley Stadium, the home of English football.

Wembley Stadium is a football stadium in Wembley, London. The first fact of top facts about Wimbley stadium is that it was built on the site of the original Wembley Stadium, which was dismantled between 2002 and 2003. It opened in 2007.

The stadium hosts significant football matches, including

England's national team

's home fixtures and the FA Cup Final. The Football Association (FA), whose offices are in the stadium, owns Wembley Stadium through its subsidiary Wembley National Stadium Ltd.

The FA is the governing body of English football, and its headquarters are in the stadium (WNSL). It is the largest stadium in the United Kingdom and the second-largest stadium in Europe, with 90,000 seats.

The stadium, designed by Populous and Foster and Partners, is capped by the 134-meter-high (440-foot) Wembley Arch, which acts as a visual and structural landmark throughout London, sustaining almost 75 percent of the roof weight. Multiplex, an Australian company, built the stadium for £798 million (£1.22 billion today).

Wembley Stadium, contrary to common misconception, does not feature a retractable roof that covers the playing surface. The east and west ends of the stadium include two partly retractable roof structures that may be opened to admit sunshine and help pitch expansion.

A unique article of top facts about Wembley Stadium, the home of English football

In this article of

top facts about Wembley

, we will talk about the history of this field first which will contain parts related to the old ground as well as the construction of the new field.

We have also provided information about the structure itself, other uses of this stadium, and the transportation system which will transfer the fans from their town to the stadium. Now, without any further introduction let us hop into the article and learn more about the top facts about Wembley stadium.

Wembley stadium history

Although the Wembley stadium has a long history in the English culture, the new stadium has only been there since 2007, so when we talk about the history of the new stadium there is not much to explore but just to make the top facts about Wembley complete, we gathered everything we could to create a unique and perfect article just for you.

Wembley Stadium was designed by Foster + Partners and HOK Sport (now Populous), as well as engineers Mott Stadium Consortium, which was made up of three structural engineering firms: Mott MacDonald, Sinclair Knight Merz, and Aurecon. Mott MacDonald was in charge of the building services design.

Sport England, WNSL (Wembley National Stadium Limited), the Football Association, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport, and the London Development Agency all contributed to the stadium's construction, which was managed by Australian company Multiplex.

With a cost of £798 million in 2007, it is one of the most costly stadiums ever built, and it boasts the world's largest roof-covered seating capacity.

The all-seater stadium, which has a capacity of 90,000 people and is protected from the weather by a sliding cover that does not entirely surround it, has a bowl design with a capacity of 90,000.

The stadium's distinctive feature is a 7 m (23 ft) internal diameter circular section lattice arch with a 315 m (1,033 ft) span, constructed 22 degrees off true and rising to 133 m. (436 ft). It bears the whole weight of the north roof and 60 percent of the retractable roof's weight on the southern side. The arch is the longest unsupported roof structure in the world.

The old Wembley stadium

The

top facts about Wembley stadium

is both about the original stadium and the new one.

The stadium, which cost £750,000 (about £46 million in 2020), was built on the site of an older folly known as Watkin's Tower. Sir John Simpson and Maxwell Ayrton were the architects, while Sir Owen Williams was the chief engineer.

The stadium was supposed to be demolished after the end of the Exhibition, but it was preserved thanks to Sir James Stevenson, the head of the Empire Exhibition's organizing committee. Since the 1880s, the ground had been utilized for football.

It was most renowned for holding big football events, and it stood on the same spot that its successor presently occupies.

Wembley has hosted the FA Cup final on an annual basis, the first in 1923, the League Cup final on an annual basis, five European Cup finals, the 1966 World Cup Final, and the

Euro 1996

final.

Pelé

, a Brazilian footballer, famously stated about the venue: "Wembley Stadium is known as the "Cathedral of Football." It is both the capital and the beating heart of football ", in honor of its reputation as the most well-known football stadium on the planet.

The 1948 Summer Olympics, the Challenge Cup final of rugby league, and the 1992 and 1995 Rugby League World Cup Finals were all held in the stadium. Numerous music events, notably the 1985 Live Aid charity concert, were held there.

Wembley stadium construction

In 2004, London Mayor Ken Livingstone and Brent Council unveiled broader plans for Wembley Stadium's rehabilitation, which would include the arena and surrounding districts as well as the stadium, and would take two or three decades to complete.

In 2004, there were other mistakes, including a tragic accident involving carpenter Patrick O'Sullivan, for which PC Harrington Contractors was fined £150,000 for violating health and safety standards.

 By November 2005, the WNSL was still hoping for a handover date of March 31, in time for the May 13 cup final. The builders, however, confirmed in December 2005 that there was a "substantial danger" that the stadium would not be finished in time for the final.

The FA validated these fears in February 2006, when the game was moved to

Cardiff

's Millennium Stadium.

A steel rafter in the new development's roof dropped by 12 feet (46 cm) on March 20, 2006, forcing 3,000 employees to flee the stadium and casting more doubt on the project's completion timetable, which was already behind schedule.

Due to earth movement, sewers beneath the stadium collapsed on March 23, 2006. The problem was caused by improperly installed pipes, according to GMB Union head Steve Kelly, and the solution would take months.

The developers revealed on March 30, 2006, that Wembley Stadium will not be completed until 2007. All planned events and performances had to be relocated to more suitable venues. It was announced on June 19, 2006, that the turf had been placed.

After the disagreement between the Football Association and Multiplex was ultimately resolved on October 19, 2006, it was reported that the facility will now open in early 2007. In addition to the value of the initial fixed-price contract, WNSL was expecting to pay Multiplex about £36 million.

Wembley stadium structure

We have provided general facts about the structure of this stadium in this part of top facts bout Wembley stadium just for you to get familiar with the building itself.

There are 2,618 restrooms in the stadium, which is more than any other arena on the planet. The stadium has a 1-kilometer circumference (0.62 mi).

The bowl's volume is 1,139,100 m3 (1,489,900 cu yd), somewhat less than Cardiff's Millennium Stadium but with a higher seating capacity.

There were almost 3,500 construction workers on-site at its maximum.

The new stadium's foundations are made up of 4,000 individual piles, the deepest of which is 35 meters (115 ft).

The stadium has 56 kilometers (35 miles) of heavy-duty electricity wires.

The new stadium was built with 90,000 m3 (120,000 cu yd) of concrete and 23,000 tons (25,000 short tons) of steel.

The escalators are 400 meters (14 miles) long in all.

Here is a fact worthy of being among the top facts about Wembley stadium: the arch's cross-sectional diameter is larger than that of a Eurostar train crossing the channel.

Pitch

Let us talk about the most important part of the stadium in this section of

top facts about Wembley stadium

.

Here is a fact of top facts about Wembley stadium: the pitch is 115 yards (105 meters) long and 75 yards (69 meters) broad, somewhat smaller than the original Wembley, as needed by the UEFA stadium classifications for a category four stadium, the highest level.

The surface fell out of favor with the building of the new Wembley Stadium. Before a game between England and the team he led,

Croatia

, in November 2007, Slaven Bili characterized it as "no good" and "not in the state that Wembley used to be renowned for."

During the game, the surface was ripped up, which some blamed for England's failure to qualify for UEFA Euro 2008. Following criticism of the surface from managers Sir Alex Ferguson,

Arsène Wenger

, and David Moyes, the Football Association agreed in April 2009, after the FA Cup semi-finals, that upgrades to the Wembley pitch were needed.

For the tenth time since opening, the surface was relaid in March 2010. The pitch was again chastised in April 2010 after the FA Cup semi-finals, during which the players struggled to retain their footing and the surface was ripped up despite the dry circumstances.

After Tottenham Hotspur's semi-final defeat to Portsmouth, then-manager

Harry Redknapp

called it a "disgrace." Before the 2010 Community Shield match between Chelsea and Manchester United, the stadium was resurfaced with a Desso GrassMaster semi-artificial pitch. Michael Owen, who had previously complained about the surface injuring him, claimed it had greatly improved.

The International Series of the National Football League has utilized Wembley for American football contests.

The Roof

The stadium roof is 40,000 m2 (430,000 sq ft) in size, with 13,722 m2 (147,700 sq ft) of it being moveable. The sliding roof was installed primarily to avoid darkening the pitch, as grass requires direct sunshine to thrive. By pulling the roof back on the east, west, and south, the sliding roof design reduces shadows.

The lead architect, Angus Campbell, also stated that one goal was to have the pitch in direct sunshine for matches played between 3 and 5 p.m. between the beginning of May and the end of June when the FA and World Cups would be held.

The surface was in partial shadow at the start at 3 p.m. and throughout the contest, according to live commentary of the mid-May 2007 FA Cup Final.

The roof of the stadium rises to 52 meters (171 feet) above the field and is supported by an arch that rises 133 meters (436 feet) above the exterior concourse level. The arch is the world's largest single-span roof structure, with a span of 315 meters (1,033 feet).

Wembley stadium other uses

Aside from football Wembley has hosted many concerts and other special sports events and in this section of top facts about Wembley, we will talk about these events.

The English national football team is a regular user of Wembley Stadium, which is owned by the Football Association (the governing body of English football). Following the

FA Cup

final and FA Community Shield, the League Cup final was transferred back to Wembley from Cardiff in 2007.

Other major football events, such as the Football League promotion play-offs and the Football League Trophy final, have returned to Wembley. Wembley has also hosted the Conference National (now National League) play-off final since 2007, as well as the FA Women's Cup final since 2015.

The new Wembley Stadium was an important aspect of the London 2012 Summer Olympics program; it hosted multiple games in both the men's and women's football competitions, as well as the finals.

Gebler Tooth, the architect behind Team GB House at the London 2012 Olympics, created the FA headquarters at Wembley Stadium, which includes social rooms and a boardroom.

In 2007, Wembley Stadium hosted the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final for the first time, as well as both semi-finals of the 2013 Rugby League World Cup. The 2015 Rugby World Cup was held in 13 different venues, with Wembley being one of them.

The stadium hosted the Race of Champions events in 2007 and 2008.

Tottenham Hotspur

and the stadium's operators (Wembley National Stadium Ltd) agreed to utilize the stadium for all of their European matches during the 2016–17 season, followed by the full 2017–18 season.

They also played the majority of their home games at Wembley during the 2018–19 season, until April 2019, when they moved to their new stadium.

Music Concerts

The stadium is regarded as a "public transportation destination" with relatively few parking options. Brent Council has implemented a variety of measures relating to on-street parking and access restrictions on roads surrounding the stadium to reduce the impact of motor traffic on nearby households and businesses.

The "Wembley Stadium Protective Parking Scheme" establishes a border inside which only individuals with an event day parking permit are permitted to park on the street. Fulton Road, Engineers Way, and South Way will be closed from 10:00 a.m. on the day of the event until midnight.

Wembley Park Station (on the Metropolitan and Jubilee lines) is connected to the stadium by Olympic Way, while Wembley Central (Bakerloo line) is connected via the White Horse Bridge. Wembley Central (London Overground, Southern, and London Northwestern Railway services) and Wembley Stadium railway station have rail connections (Chiltern Railways services).

The onsite parking facility, which is primarily the open-air surface parking around the eastern flank of Wembley Stadium and the multi-story car park, is shared with Wembley Arena.

Green Car Park and Red Car Park are the names of the two parking lots. Disabled parking is provided at a discounted fee in the Green Car Park, however, it is first-come, first-served. Opposing team fans have been segregated into two distinct car parks on select football event occasions.

Thank you for reading our top facts about Wembley stadium. We have also prepared articles about other world-famous stadiums and we would appreciate it if you also check those out if you are interested in articles related to top-class stadiums.

 

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