Twelve years have passed since the FA closed the doors to the original Wembley stadium and saw to it that the famous twin towers were gone forever. With five years of the ‘New Wembley’ now behind us maybe we’re at a point where we can ask ‘was it all worth it’?
Wembley Stadium is a modern day masterpiece. An exceptional feat in not just football stadia but in architecture in general. But let’s not forget the expense and disruption it took to get us there.
The New 90,000 seater Wembley stadium was originally planned for completion in 2003. However due to an array of legal issues and general finance problems the stadium finally opened its doors in 2007. In 2006 a steel rafter in the roof fell by a foot and a half, causing work within the stadium to be stopped temporarily, thus just adding to the delays. Stories like this seemed common place in the media.
It was originally agreed that the stadium would cost the FA a fixed price of £445m, however costs sky rocketed out of control and the build went on to total £757m. It is estimated that when taking into account the changes to the travel infrastructure around the ground that the total cost of the build is closer to £1billion.
A significant amount of money for any project of this nature. By comparison, Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, which opened a year earlier cost just £390million. A huge chunk of which was recouped in naming rights. A smaller stadium by approx 30,000 but much smarter business one would think.
The cost aside, another huge gripe that seemingly everyone has had with Wembley is the state of the pitch. Once famed for its ‘bowling green’ like surface, Wembley’s playing surface was now getting abuse from all angles.
After the 2010 FA Cup Final, winning Captain John Terry famously claimed that the pitch was the worst that they had played on all season and had ruined the cup final. This was after improvements had been made following the pitch noticeably cutting up during the FA Cup Semi Finals that season.
In total the pitch has now been re-laid 12 times. Most recently done with state of the art Desso fibres which support the grass, this at an estimated cost of £500,000. The pitch does seem to be adequate now but it has taken a matter of years. It is a football stadium, maybe the grass should have been a little higher on the priorities list.
So the stadium had problems in construction, legal disputes, financial issues, problems with the pitch, but what do we have on our hands now? A quite fantastic stadium.
I have been fortunate enough to attend events at the stadium four times, all for quite different reasons. I have seen an England friendly, the Championship play off final, an open air concert and most recently the FA Cup Semi Final between Spurs and Chelsea. Any complaints about a lack of enjoyment can be labelled at the performance of my team, not at the stadium itself. It’s magnificent.
Wherever you sit in the ground you are guaranteed a great view and a fantastic atmosphere. Despite its size there is still something quite compact about the ground which really adds to an intimidating sea of noise from fans in all corners. And the allure of the stadium and its history is such that very rarely do even a small club not sell the majority of their ticket allocation. Interestingly, Millwall currently hold the record for the most fans at a game at the New Wembley, the same record that they held at the old stadium.
It truly is a fitting venue for Internationals and a home for the England football team that we can all be proud off. It has proved just as useful elsewhere, attracting the biggest acts in the world as a concert venue, hosting International Rugby League and Rugby Union. It even boasts an annual NFL game, the only stadium outside of the USA to do so. This summer it will be able to add Olympic football to its ever growing résumé.
No one can call into question the grounds quality. A match day experience there is like no other. We have the second largest stadium in Europe and since it was built on the original site of its predecessor it can call on all of the history that goes with it. I struggle to put into words how impressive it is when you’re right there in the middle of it. I implore you to go there if you can and take in all it has to offer. You won’t be disappointed.
But, was it all worth it?
Was it worth the spiralling costs as the country, football included, plummeted into a recession? We can never say with any certainty. In monetary terms, it probably wasn’t quite worth it. The stadium is impressive but we certainly paid well over the odds for it.
But when it comes to things you can’t put a price on, things like atmosphere and the feeling of awe you get when you’re there, we don’t have much to complain about.
The issues around price and more importantly value for money will fade with each passing year. But Wembley itself will live on forever.