Wembley Stadium (1923)

Wembley Stadium
The Twin Towers Old Wembley
The white towers on the - in the picture - upper side of the stadium were the namesake for the nickname "The Twin Towers"
Data
place	Wembley , London , United Kingdom
Coordinates	51 ° 33 '20 "  N , 0 ° 16' 46"  W Coordinates: 51 ° 33 '20 "  N , 0 ° 16' 46"  W.
owner	Wembley Company
start of building	1922
opening	1923
First game	28 April 1923 Bolton Wanderers - West Ham United 2-0 ( FA Cup Final 1923 )
Renovations	1963
demolition	2003
surface	Natural grass
costs	750,000 pounds
capacity	82,000 places (originally 127,000 places)
Events
1948 Summer Olympics International matches of the English national football team International matches of the England rugby union team Soccer World Cup final 1966 Football European Championship final 1996 Final of the European Champion Clubs' Cup 1963, 1968, 1971, 1978, 1992 FA Cup Finals (1923-2000) Music events, e.g. B. Live Aid (1985)

The original Wembley Stadium (English: Wembley Stadium ; officially: British Empire Exhibition Stadium , also called The Twin Towers or Old Wembley for short ) was a stadium in Wembley , part of the London borough of Brent . The building, which opened in 1923, was mainly used for national and international football games, but was also the venue for the 1948 Olympic Games , the Live Aid concert and numerous other sports and music events.

The stadium gained worldwide fame through the final of the Soccer World Cup in 1966 , in which the legendary Wembley goal was scored . The Brazilian world footballer Pelé described Wembley as the “cathedral”, “capital” and “heart” of football in relation to its importance for international football.

The architecturally distinctive twin towers, the nickname established The Twin Towers (dt .: The twin towers ). The 39 steps that the players had to climb to hand over a trophy in the Royal Box were also known. The stadium has not been used since 2000 and was demolished in 2003. Four years later, the new Wembley Stadium opened on the same floor, which gave the old stadium the nickname Old Wembley .

history

Exterior view of Wembley with its " Twin Towers " during the European Championship 1996

The reason for the construction of the Wembley Stadium was the British Empire Exhibition , which took place from 1924 to 1925 , so the stadium was officially called the British Empire Exhibition Stadium . Sir Robert McAlpine , a construction company named after its founder Robert McAlpine , was responsible for the design and implementation . The architects John William Simpson and Maxwell Ayrton as well as the chief engineer Owen Williams acted as site managers . The site on which the unfinished project of Watkin's Tower was located was selected as the building site . 1922 work began and were on a budget of 750,000 pounds completed within exactly 300 days. Only three days after the construction was completed, the FA Cup final in 1923 was the first football match in the stadium.

The plan was to demolish the stadium again after the exhibition, but James Stevenson , who chaired the organizing committee of the British Empire Exhibition, successfully campaigned for the building to be preserved. Arthur Elvin , who owned a stand himself during the exhibition and sold cigarettes, bought several of the buildings in the exhibition that were no longer needed, tore them down and sold the resulting scrap for a profit. Eventually he made enough money that way to offer James White, the current owner, £ 127,000 for the stadium. White passed away a short time later, so the Wembley Company took over and accepted the offer from Elvin. However, the Wembley Company immediately bought back the stadium and paid Elvin out in shares that made him chairman of the stadium.

In 1934 the stadium area was expanded to include the Wembley Arena , which was built for the British Empire Games in 1934 . In 1963 the first extensive renovation of Wembley Stadium took place, during which an electronic scoreboard was installed and an aluminum-glass construction was added to the roof.

The stadium was closed in October 2000 and demolished (delayed by financial and political difficulties) in 2003, with the demolition or non-preservation of the twin towers in particular causing protests. In March 2007, the new and twice as large Wembley Stadium , which holds 90,000 spectators and was, among other things, the venue for the 2012 Olympic Games, was completed on the same floor .

Events

Soccer

Spectators push over the goal line

Billy the white horse

Just three days after the stadium opened, the FA Cup final between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United was the first football match in the new stadium. This would go down in English football history as the White Horse Final . Since King George V was to present the cup, the English FA was forced to provide a full stadium with lots of advertising. However, the result was a crowd of over 250,000 viewers, who by far exceeded the stated capacity of 127,000. A lack of space and spectators on the playing area were the result, so it was unclear whether the game would take place at all. After all, it was Constable George Scorey and his gray horse Billy who pushed the spectators off the field so that the game could kick off 45 minutes late. There were other mounted police involved in this action, but Billy was remembered because of his eye-catching color.

Until the closure in 2000, all FA Cup finals took place at Old Wembley . Most of the final games of the FA Amateur Cup , the League Cup and the Football League Trophy were also played in Wembley.

At the international level, Wembley was primarily the home of the English national football team , which played over 80 international matches there, with games being played in other London stadiums until the early 1960s, especially in Highbury in the district of the same name (12 games). The finals of the 1966 World Cup and the 1996 European Championship also took place there . In the former, the legendary Wembley goal fell between England and Germany , making it 3-2 for England over the course of the game. The ball hit the goal line after a shot from Geoff Hurst ; nevertheless it was decided on goal. The game ended with a 4-2 victory for the English and their only world title. In addition, the finals of the European Cup of National Champions of 1963 , 1968 , 1971 , 1978 and 1992 took place here.

Olympic games

110-meter hurdles, 1948

The Empire Stadium was the main stadium of the Olympic Games 1948 . The opening ceremony, the closing ceremony and many competitions took place here. The athletics competitions as well as the semi-finals, the third-place games and the finals of the hockey and football tournaments were held here.

Other sports

Start of rugby game, 1956

After football, the most popular sport in Wembley was rugby , with the Challenge Cup finals since 1929 and the final of the Rugby League World Cup in 1992 . There were also games in American and Gaelic football , albeit to a lesser extent .

Between 1936 and 1960, all 15 finals of the individual speedway world championships took place on the stadium's racetrack, which was also often used for greyhound races . The Speedway World Cup final took place here in 1972, 1975, 1978 and most recently in 1981 in front of 90,000 spectators.

Concerts

In 1985, the Live Aid benefit concert for the benefit of the African population took place in Wembley . In London and Philadelphia , numerous international top stars played for a total of 16 hours, so that a donation amount of over 100 million euros was reached. Queen , Bon Jovi , The Who , Dire Straits , Eric Clapton and U2 played in London . In 1988 a benefit concert for Nelson Mandela was organized on the occasion of his 70th birthday .

Michael Jackson is the artist who played the most concerts at Wembley with 15 concerts; he sold a total of over a million tickets. During his first solo tour Bad World Tour , he played seven concerts in front of a total of 504,000 spectators and thus secured an entry in the Guinness Book of Records .

The following artists and bands (selection) appeared - in addition to those already mentioned - in solo concerts: Billy Joel , Genesis , the Spice Girls , Tina Turner , Madonna , Pink Floyd , Johnny Cash , Elton John , the Rolling Stones , Fleetwood Mac , Celine Dion , Oasis , the Bee Gees , Guns N 'Roses , the Eagles, and the Simple Minds . In 1985 the Live Aid Benefit Concert took place at Wembley Stadium , and in 1992 the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert .

literature

• Pete Tomsett, Chris Brand: Wembley: Stadium of Legends . Dewi Lewis Media Ltd, 2007, ISBN 978-0-9546843-9-6 . (English)

Web links

Commons : Wembley Stadium (1923)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website at wembleystadium.com
• Information about Wembley Stadium on stadiumguide.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ dailymail.co.uk: "Wembley is a tower of strength at last" (English, June 16, 2011, accessed on May 23, 2013)
2. ↑ ^{a b} Information on stadiumguide.com (accessed May 24, 2013)
3. ↑ ^{a b} guardian.co.uk: "The height of ambition" (English, March 14, 2006, accessed May 24, 2013)
4. ↑ guardian.co.uk: "Foster topples the Wembley towers" (English, June 13, 1999, accessed May 24, 2013)
5. ↑ telegraph.co.uk: "The road to Wembley" (English, September 25, 2002, accessed May 24, 2013)
6. ↑ 11freunde: "The White Horse Final" (September 8, 2011, accessed on May 25, 2013)
7. ↑ official report on the 1948 Summer Olympics (PDF, accessed on May 26, 2013; 32.4 MB)
8. ↑ setlist.fm: Concerts at Wembley Stadium (English)