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Wembley Stadium
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The original Wembley Stadium was a football stadium in Wembley, a suburb of north-west London, standing on the site now occupied by the new Wembley Stadium that opened in 2007.
t known as the British Empire Exhibition Stadium or simply Empire Stadium, the original stadium was built by Sir Robert McAlpine for the British Empire Exhibition of 1923, at a cost of £750,000, on the former site of Watkin's Tower. Sir John Simpson and Maxwell Ayrton were the architects and Sir Owen Williams was the Head Engineer.
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Encyclopedia
The original Wembley Stadium was a football stadium in Wembley, a suburb of north-west London, standing on the site now occupied by the new Wembley Stadium that opened in 2007.
History
First known as the British Empire Exhibition Stadium or simply Empire Stadium, the original stadium was built by Sir Robert McAlpine for the British Empire Exhibition of 1923, at a cost of £750,000, on the former site of Watkin's Tower. Sir John Simpson and Maxwell Ayrton were the architects and Sir Owen Williams was the Head Engineer. Originally intended to be demolished at the end of the Exhibition, it was saved at the suggestion of Sir James Stevenson, a Scot who was chairman of the organising committee for the Empire Exhibition.
At the end of the exhibition a buildings entrepreneur bought the grounds. Arthur Elvin (later to become Sir Arthur Elvin) became a buildings demolition contractor to clear the site. He bought the derelict buildings one by one and sold off the scrap. The stadium went into liquidation at the end of the Exhibition after it was pronounced "financially unviable". Elvin offered to buy the stadium for £127,000, using a £12,000 downpayment and the balance plus interest payable over ten years.
After complications following the death of the original owner, Elvin bought Wembley Stadium at the agreed price with the new owners, (Wembley Company) who honoured Elvin's original deal. They then immediately bought it back from Elvin leaving him with a healthy profit. Instead of cash he received shares which gave him the largest stake in Wembley Stadium and he became chairman.
The stadium's distinctive Twin Towers became its trademark. Also well known were the thirty nine steps needed to be climbed to reach the Royal box and collect a trophy (and winners'/losers' medals). Wembley was the first pitch to be referred to as "Hallowed Turf", with many stadia around the world borrowing this phrase. The stadium's first turf was cut by King George V and it was first opened to the public on 28 April 1923. In 1934, the Empire Pool was built. The Wembley Stadium Collection is held by the National Football Museum. The stadium closed in October 2000 and was demolished in 2003 for redevelopment.
Football
White Horse Cup Final
The Empire Stadium was built in exactly 300 days at the cost of £750,000. Described as the world's greatest sporting arena (at the time), it was ready only 4 days before the White Horse Final. The FA had not considered admission by ticket, grossly under-estimating the anticipation of the number of fans turning up to the 104 gates on match day. However, after the game, every event, apart from the 1982 replay, since has been ticketed.The first event held at the stadium was the FA Cup final on 28 April 1923 between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United. This is known as the White Horse Final. Such was the eagerness of fans and casual observers to attend the final at the new national stadium that vast numbers of people crammed through the 104 turnstiles into the stadium, far exceeding its official 127,000 capacity. The crowds overflowed onto the pitch as there was no room on the terraces. Estimates of the number of fans in attendance range from 240,000 to well over 300,000. It is estimated that another 60,000 were locked outside the gates. The FA were forced to refund 10% of the total gate money to fans unable to reach the terraces. The White Horse Final has the highest ever unofficial "non-racing" sports attendance in the world, which is very unlikely to be broken in the near future. (This claim, however, is disputed, as the Maracana held (officially) 199,854 fans during the 1950 World Cup final match between Brazil and Uruguay.) It was thought that the match would not be played because of the volume of spectators inside the stadium that had spilled onto the pitch. That was until mounted police, including Police Constable George Scorey and his white horse, Billy, slowly pushed the masses back to the sides of the field of play for the FA Cup Final to start, just 45 minutes late. In honour of Billy, the footbridge outside the new Wembley Stadium has been named the White Horse Bridge. The official attendance is often quoted as 126,047. The stadium also sported the largest football pitch in the world until it was made smaller to conform to FIFA regulations.
The "Matthews Final"
The 1953 FA Cup Final (dubbed the "Matthews" Final, after the performance of the winger) between Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers featured a hat-trick by Blackpool's Stan Mortensen in his side's 4-3 win. It remained the only hat-trick ever scored in an FA Cup Final at the original Wembley.
The Home of Football and England
The FA Cup final was played there in April or May until 2000 (excluding the 1970 replay when Chelsea beat Leeds at Old Trafford). It was also the venue for Finals of the FA Amateur Cup, League Cup (except for the early years when this was settled on a home and away basis), Associate Members' Cup and the Football League promotion play-offs (in the early years of play-offs they were home and away fixtures).
As the home of the English national football team, in 1966 it was the leading venue of the World Cup. It hosted the final game, where the tournament hosts, England, won 4-2 after extra-time against West Germany. Thirty years later, it was the principal venue of Euro 96, hosting all of England's matches, as well as the tournament's final, where reunified Germany won the cup for a third time with the first international Golden Goal in football history. The penultimate and ultimate competitive games played at the stadium resulted in 0-1 defeats for England to Scotland and Germany respectively.
In all, the stadium hosted five European Cup finals, including the 1963 final between AC Milan and Benfica, and the 1968 final between Manchester United and Benfica. In 1971 it again hosted the final, between Ajax and Panathinaikos, and once more in 1978, this time between Liverpool and Club Brugge. The last such occasion was in 1992, when Barcelona played Sampdoria. The FA unsuccessfully bid for the redeveloped Wembley to host the 2007 final. Wembley has also hosted two UEFA Cup Winners' Cup finals (in 1965, when West Ham United beat 1860 Munich, and 1993).
It was also the venue for Arsenal's home Champions League matches in 1998–99 and 1999–2000. It has hosted an individual club's home matches on two other occasions, in 1930 when Clapton Orient played two home Third Division South games and in 1930-31 for eight matches by non-League Ealing A.F.C. It was also to be the home of the amateur club which made several applications to join the Football League, the Argonauts.
The last FA Cup final to be played at the old Wembley saw Chelsea defeat Aston Villa with the only goal scored by Roberto Di Matteo. David Jack scored the first goal at Wembley during The White Horse Final in 1923. The last goal to be scored at the old Wembley came in Kevin Keegan's last game as England manager. Manchester City midfielder Dietmar Hamann (at the time a Liverpool player) hit a low free-kick as England were beaten 0-1 by their arch-rivals Germany on 7 October 2000. On that day, Tony Adams played his 60th Wembley match, setting the record for the most matches played there. As well as England appearances, his tally includes Cup Finals, Cup semi-finals, pre-season tournaments and Champions League matches for Arsenal. Adams also captained England in that match. Peter Shilton made 58 Wembley appearances, the second highest tally.
Of Wembley Stadium, Pelé said, "Wembley is the cathedral of football. It is the capital of football and it is the heart of football." in recognition of its status as the world's best-known football stadium.
Other sports
1948 Summer Olympics
Wembley was the main athletics venue for the 1948 Summer Olympics, with Fanny Blankers-Koen and Emil Zátopek among the notable winners.
Speedway
Between 1936 and 1960 Wembley hosted all of the first fifteen finals of the Speedway World Championship. It hosted another seven World Finals, the last one at Wembley took place in 1981. Wembley was also the home to the Wembley Lions motorcycle speedway team, formed by the Wembley Stadium chairman Sir Arthur Elvin. Speedway first took place at Wembley in 1929 and operated until the outbreak of World War II in 1939, a few days before the 1939 World Championship Final. The Lions returned in 1946 and operated in the top flight until the end of the 1956 season. A short lived revival saw the Lions in the British League in the 1970 and 1971 seasons.
Rugby League
In the sport of rugby league, the RFL has held its Challenge Cup final at Wembley from 1929 onwards. The largest crowd being for the 1985 cup final when Wigan beat Hull F.C. 28-24 in front of 99,801 fans. The stadium was also regularly used by the sport for major international matches, such as Great Britain versus Australia. The stadium set the international record crowd for a rugby league game when 73,631 fans turned out for the 1992 Rugby League World Cup Final between Great Britain & Australia. The Mal Meninga-led Aussies won the game 10-6 on the back of a brilliant Steve Renouf try in the north-east corner and Meninga's almost flawless goal kicking. The first Ashes tests of 1990 and 1994 are also particularly well remembered by English rugby league supporters. The 1995 World Cup final between England and Australia was also played at Wembley with 66,540 fans watching Australia win 16-8.
Rugby Union
Though the venue has not traditionally been a regular host of rugby union matches, England played a friendly against Canada on October 17, 1992, as their regular home stadium at Twickenham was undergoing redevelopment. Wales played its Five Nations home matches at Wembley (as Twickenham Stadium would not accommodate them) while Cardiff Arms Park was being rebuilt as the Millennium Stadium in the late 1990s (despite being in England).
Greyhound Racing
Wembley was also a regular venue for greyhound racing. It was the first sport Sir Arthur Elvin introduced to the stadium. The opening meeting was in 1927 and 50,000 people attended to watch the first race won by a greyhound named Spin. The dog racing provided the stadium with its main source of regular income, especially in the early days, and continued to attract crowds of several thousand up until the early 1960s.
Wembley's owner's refusal to cancel the regular greyhound racing meant that the match between Uruguay and France in the 1966 World Cup was played at White City.
American football
The National Football League held several preseason American football games at Wembley during the 1980s and 1990s, and the London Monarchs of the World League of American Football played at the venue in 1991 and 1992. Wembley hosted the inaugural World Bowl where the Monarchs defeated the Barcelona Dragons 21-0.
Gaelic football
From 1958 until the mid 1970s, hurling and gaelic football tournaments known as the "Wembley Tournaments" were held at Wembley Stadium to bring the Irish sports to expatriates in Britain at the time. Several Gaelic Football games were played in Wembley Stadium, most of them exhibition matches, most notably Kerry and Down in 1961.
Other events
Wembley Stadium also staged women's field hockey matches in which England appeared in their annual match between 1951 to 1969 and then from 1971 to 1991.
On 31 May, 1975, in front of 90,000 people, Evel Knievel crashed while trying to land a jump over thirteen single decker city buses, an accident which resulted in his initial retirement from his daredevil life.
In 1992, the World Wrestling Federation drew a sellout of 80,355 when SummerSlam was hosted at Wembley Stadium. This was one of the biggest crowds ever at a WWE event (and may in fact be the biggest due to the alleged fabrication of the Wrestlemania III record attendance). The main event featured English wrestler Davey Boy Smith winning the Intercontinental Championship from Bret Hart.
Music
Wembley Stadium became a musical venue in August 1972 with an all-star rock 'n' roll concert called the London Rock and Roll Show. It since played host to a number of concerts and events. Most notably the British leg of Live Aid, which featured such acts as David Bowie, Queen, Paul McCartney, The Who, Dire Straits and U2, was held at the stadium on 13 July 1985.
Other charity concerts which took place in the stadium were the 1988 Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert, The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness and the NetAid charity concert.
Acts who played at Wembley Stadium include:
- Michael Jackson (15 times)
- The Rolling Stones (12 times)
- Madonna (9 times)
- U2 (8 times)
- Genesis (they had four sold out shows in a row in early July 1987)
- Bon Jovi (5 times) (they had three sold out shows in a row from 23 June to 25 June 1995)
- Tina Turner (7 times, who had two sold out concerts recorded during her Twenty Four Seven Tour for the live tour DVD in the year 2000)
- The Animals (2 times, once 1965 performing 3 songs at the NME Poll Winners Concert and the other on December 31, 1983, during their reunion tour, which was released as "Rip It To Shreds!" in 1984)
- Bryan Adams (Bryan Adams had 2 sold out shows, 1992 and 1996)
- Oasis (2 times, who recorded their video and album "Familiar To Millions" at Wembley)
- The Cure (who recorded tracks for their Pictures of You single)
- Foo Fighters (They had 2 sold out shows and the shows took place 6&7 of June 2008 at the new Wembley)
- Guns N' Roses
- Fleetwood Mac (They had 10 sold out shows in 1988 on their "Shake The Cage" tour)
- AC/DC
- Bob Dylan
- Billy Joel
- Aerosmith
- KISS
- Jethro Tull
- Bruce Springsteen
- Prince
- Celine Dion
- Queen (whose concert on 12 July 1986 during the "Magic" tour was recorded for a live album)
- Freddie Mercury tribute
- Electric Light Orchestra
- Cliff Richard
- Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
- ABBA
- Bee Gees
- Status Quo
- Elton John
- The Beach Boys
- The Eagles
- Van Halen
- Muse (2 times, one of which was recorded and released as a DVD/CD titled HAARP)
- INXS
- Pink Floyd
- Metallica
- Bros
- Megadeth
- Simple Minds
- Spice Girls (2 times, one of which was recorded and released as a VHS/DVD)
- Blink-182
During Michael Jackson's Bad Tour in 1988, seven sell-out concerts were staged at Wembley which included five in a row, and two at a later date. Each concert had an attendance of 72,000 people. According to the Guinness Book of World Records Jackson set a new world record with 504,000 people attending the seven total concerts. These seven concerts were highly anticipated and created huge media attention. A further six sell-out concerts followed in 1992 during his Dangerous Tour and his three shows in 1997 during his HIStory Tour brought total tickets sold to over 1.1 million. Until the demolition of the 1923 stadium, this record had not been beaten.
Bon Jovi were the last musical act to play at the old Wembley before it was closed, and they were scheduled to be the first band to play at the new Wembley Stadium, with concerts on 10 June 2006 and the following day. However, due to the delays in the construction of the new stadium, the concerts were moved to the National Bowl in Milton Keynes.
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