How old is new wembley stadium

With a span of metres 1, ft , this steel arch is the longest single-span roof structure in the world and, uniquely for a stadium, requires beacons for low-flying aircraft. The old Wembley closed in October , with demolition originally intended for that December and the new stadium due to open in After delays to the project, with demolition first started in September , the old Wembley was not completely demolished until February , with the new stadium scheduled to open in time for the FA Cup Final.

After further delays, the stadium was delivered nearly a year late, leading to legal disputes between WNSL and Multiplex, who ultimately made a significant loss on the project.

In it hosted the football finals of the London Olympics. At the end of the domestic season, the stadium also hosts the finals of the Football League play-offs. In European football , it hosted the Champions League Final , and will host the final again in In friendly tournaments, since it has been the venue of the summer Wembley Cup.

Outside of football, the stadium also hosts major rugby league games, such as the Challenge Cup and International Rugby League. The stadium is also an annual regular season venue for the American National Football League 's International Series , the first such venue outside North America.

The design of the building services was carried out by Mott MacDonald Ltd. Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners was appointed to assist Wembley National Stadium Limited in preparing the scheme for a new stadium and to obtain planning and listed building permission for the development.

The all-seater stadium is based around a bowl design with a capacity of 90,, protected from the elements by a sliding roof that does not completely enclose it. It can also be adapted as an athletic stadium by erecting a temporary platform over the lowest tier of seating. A "platform system" has been designed to convert the stadium for athletics use, but its use would decrease the stadium's capacity to approximately 60, The initial plan for the reconstruction of Wembley was for demolition to begin before Christmas , and for the new stadium to be completed some time during , but this work was delayed by a succession of financial and legal difficulties.

In , the London Mayor and Brent Council also announced wider plans for the regeneration of Wembley , taking in the arena and the surrounding areas as well as the stadium, to be implemented over two or three decades.

Delays to the construction project started as far back as In December , the constructors of the arch, subcontractors Cleveland Bridge, warned Multiplex about rising costs and a delay on the steel job of almost a year due to Multiplex design changes which Multiplex rejected. Cleveland Bridge withdrew from the project and replaced by Dutch firm Hollandia with all the attendant problems of starting over.

However in December , the builders admitted that there was a "material risk" that the stadium might not be ready in time for the final. On 20 March , a steel rafter in the roof of the new development fell by a foot and a half, forcing 3, workers to evacuate the stadium and raising further doubts over the completion date which was already behind schedule.

Rumours circulated that the reason for the blockage was due to Multiplex failing to pay the contractors who laid the pipes who then filled in the pipes with concrete. A spokesman for developers Multiplex said that they did not believe this would "have any impact on the completion of the stadium", which was then scheduled to be completed on 31 March On 30 March , the developers announced that Wembley Stadium would not be ready until On 19 June it was announced that the turf had been laid.

On 19 October it was announced that the venue was now set to open in early after the dispute between The Football Association and Multiplex had finally been settled. The new stadium was completed and handed over to the FA on 9 March The official Wembley Stadium website had announced that the stadium would be open for public viewing for local residents of Brent on 3 March , however this was delayed by two weeks and instead happened on 17 March.

While the stadium had hosted football matches since the handover in March, the stadium was officially opened on Saturday 19 May, with the staging of the FA Cup Final. Eight days before that on Friday 11 May, the Bobby Moore Sculpture had been unveiled by Sir Bobby Charlton outside the stadium entrance, as the "finishing touch" to the completion of the stadium. Aerial of the Wembley Stadium pitch during an England against Germany exhibition.

The new pitch is 13 ft 4. The grass has been relaid ten times since the stadium re-opened in and was relaid again in the summer of , ahead of the Community Shield. In March , the surface was relaid for the 10th time since , when the stadium was built.

In April , the pitch was again criticised following the FA Cup semi-finals , during which the players found it difficult to keep their footing and the surface cut up despite the dry conditions. The then Tottenham Hotspur boss, Harry Redknapp labelled it a "disgrace" after his side's semi-final defeat to Portsmouth.

It was not good enough for a Wembley pitch. Michael Owen , who previously criticized the pitch for causing him injury, said that it was much improved. The stadium roof has an area of 40, m 2 , of which 13, m 2 is movable.

However it was mentioned during live commentary of the FA Cup Final in that the pitch was in partial shade at the start at 3 pm and also during the match. The stadium roof rises to 52 metres above the pitch and is supported by an arch rising metres above the level of the external concourse.

With a span of metres, the arch is the longest single span roof structure in the world. The Australian firm Multiplex, which was the main contractor on Wembley Stadium, made significant losses on the project. Wembley Stadium during the Race of Champions. The English national football team is a major user of Wembley Stadium.

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. The new Wembley was a significant part of the plan for the Summer Olympics in London; the stadium was the site of several games in both the men's and women's football tournaments, with the finals being held there.

The Race of Champions staged their [53] and events at the stadium. Wembley has had a long association with American Football. A United States Football League game was staged there in , [55] and between and the old Wembley stadium hosted eight National Football League exhibition games featuring 13 different NFL teams.

As a result of this, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell stated in October that "he expects the NFL will start playing multiple regular-season games in Britain in the next few years, an expansion that could lead to putting a franchise in London. Louis Rams would become a temporary tenant of Wembley Stadium, playing an annual game at the stadium every year from to ; part of the reason the Rams were chosen was the fact that the team is owned by Stan Kroenke , who also is majority shareholder in a local Premier League team, Arsenal.

Future plans to have a permanent NFL team in London may come to fruition considering the coming years of growth. The stage at the Live Earth concert held at Wembley on 7 July 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 9 June Muse became the first band to sell out the new stadium on 16 and 17 June , and released a live DVD of the performance.

The tour became the fastest selling tour in UK in history [63] before that record was broken by Take That two years later with their Progress Live tour.

Two large charity concerts have been held at the new Wembley stadium, the Concert for Diana , a memorial concert to commemorate ten years after the death of Princess Diana , and Live Earth , a concert hosted at Wembley as part of the Live Earth Foundation , committed to combating climate change.

Take That concert. The move to Wembley allowed many more fans to watch the annual music event which has previously lasted over 5 hours with more than 15 performers. It is thought to be the biggest commercial music event held at the stadium. It will return to the Stadium in , with an even larger concert. American punk rock band Green Day continued their world tour, playing at Wembley on 19 June The gig was Green Day's biggest audience yet.

Muse returned to Wembley Stadium on 10 and 11 September as part of their Resistance Tour to a sell-out crowd, having previously played there in June Madonna played Wembley in during her Sticky and Sweet Tour , to a sold-out audience of 74, Take That played a record breaking 8 nights at Wembley Stadium in summer on their Progress Live tour, which has become the fastest and biggest selling tour in UK history.

The Olympics meant that no concerts took place at Wembley in summer , with other big shows taking place elsewhere. In summer , there will be five big shows.

Besides the numerous sporting events, the stadium was also home to a great number of concerts. On July 13, , the British Live Aid concert was held. During the Live Aid concert. The new Wembley Stadium. All came to an end in October The old Wembly Stadium was closed and remained locked for two years before the demolition process began in December A year later, the stadium was completely gone.

Construction of the current stadium, which bears the same name, began in and it was officially opened in The old Wembley Stadium: demolished to make room for the new Wembley Stadium. May 23, Nikola Petrovski. On the same northwest London site, positioned just some 98 feet to the north to make way for wider concourses and extra amenities, the use of the same site, orientation to the community and open bowl give this stadium an unmistakable nod to the past.

But that original story gets an expansion, one that dwarfs the original. New Wembley stands almost four times the height of the old structure, covering twice the area of the original. The modern amenities are expected, with food and drink service points, matching video boards, 30 escalators, 34 bars and the maligned middle tier of 16, luxury seats. Even the Royal Box sits near the same location in the middle of the northern stands, although the new version has steps from pitch to box instead of the 39 steps of old.

Then comes the surprise: a 7,ton steel roof structure eliminating the need for pillars that features a foot-tall steel arch supporting a retractable roof.

The 1,foot span makes it the longest single span roof in the world at over 11 acres, four of which are retractable. From under that arch, Wembley shows versatility by hosting concerts, an ever-increasing rotation of NFL games and its well-known roster of English football contests. This allows us to start asking how the stadium has done expanding the Wembley story without losing the history of old. Awash in an enrapturing game, surrounded by entranced fans, the stadium becomes a backdrop.

And the arch stands into the London horizon, constantly serving as its own backdrop to all the heritage that resides at Wembley. With a story nodding to the past but full of surprises to fit a sequel, the new Wembley sits just a few classic moments of nostalgia away from defining its own legacy.

This sequel demands it.