![Dean Court is a stadium in Bournemouth, England. Primarily used for football, it is the home of League Two team A.F.C. Bournemouth. Also currently known as the Fitness First Stadium for sponsorship purposes, although the naming rights are currently being made available to a new sponsor.[1]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110908034518im_/http://cdn2.wn.com/pd/71/96/70aca7ccfc17a54c188776aa4249_grande.jpg "Dean Court is a stadium in Bournemouth, England. Primarily used for football, it is the home of League Two team A.F.C. Bournemouth. Also currently known as the Fitness First Stadium for sponsorship purposes, although the naming rights are currently being made available to a new sponsor.[1]")
| Stadium name | Wembley Stadium |
|---|---|
| Nickname | The Twin Towers, Old Wembley |
| Logo image | |
| Caption | View from Wembley Way before the Germany v England semi-final at Euro 96 |
| Location | London, England |
| Coordinates | |
| Broke ground | 1922 |
| Opened | 1923 |
| Renovated | 1963 |
| Closed | 2000 |
| Demolished | 2003 |
| Owner | Wembley Company |
| Surface | Grass & track |
| Construction cost | £750,000 GBP (1923) |
| Architect | Sir John Simpson and Maxwell Ayrton |
| Former names | Empire StadiumBritish Stadium |
| Nicknames | The Twin Towers, The Hallowed Turf, The 39 Steps, The Cathedral of Football |
| Tenants | England national football team(1923–2000)Wembley Lions speedway team(1946–1957, 1970–1971)Arsenal F.C European games(1998–2000)Leyton Orient F.C.(1930) |
| Seating capacity | 82,000 (originally 127,000) |
| Original capacity | 127,000 |
| Followed by | New Wembley |
The stadium cost £750,000, and was constructed on the site of an earlier folly called Watkin's Tower. The architects were Sir John Simpson and Maxwell Ayrton and the Head Engineer Sir Owen Williams. It was originally intended to demolish the stadium at the end of the Exhibition, but it was saved at the suggestion of Sir James Stevenson, a Scot who was chairman of the organising committee for the Empire Exhibition. The ground had been used for football as early as the 1880s
At the end of the exhibition, an entrepreneur Arthur Elvin (later to become Sir Arthur Elvin) started buying the derelict buildings one by one, demolishing them, and selling off the scrap. The stadium had gone into liquidation, 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 Stadium owner, Elvin bought Wembley Stadium from the new owners, (Wembley Company) at the original price, since they 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. 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. In 1934, the Empire Pool was built nearby. The 'Wembley Stadium Collection' is held by the National Football Museum. The stadium closed in October 2000, and was demolished in 2003 for redevelopment. The top of one of the twin towers was erected as a memorial in the park on the north side of Overton Close in the Saint Raphael's Estate.
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 for the decisive match of the 1950 World Cup 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.
In 1956 and 1971, it was the venue of the home matches of the Great Britain national football team for the qualification matches to the Summer Olympic Games against Bulgaria.
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.
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 Leyton Orient F.C. 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.
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.
The twin towers were once an icon for England and Wembley before their demolition in 2003 which upset many members of the public.
One of the biggest events in the greyhound racing calendar was the Trafalgar Cup and the event was run at Wembley from 1929 until 1998 after which it moved to Oxford Stadium.
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.
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. The main event featured English wrestler Davey Boy Smith winning the Intercontinental Championship from Bret Hart.
Other charity concerts which took place in the stadium were the 1988 Human Rights Now! and 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:
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 five 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 & 11 June 2006. However, due to the delays in the construction of the new stadium, the concerts were moved to the National Bowl in Milton Keynes.
Category:Buildings and structures completed in 1923 Category:2003 disestablishments Category:Former buildings and structures of Brent Category:England national football team Category:FA Cup final venues Category:FIFA World Cup stadiums Category:Defunct football venues in England Category:Defunct athletics venues in England Category:Music venues in London Category:1948 Summer Olympic venues Category:Olympics athletics venues Category:Olympic equestrian venues Category:Olympic field hockey venues Category:Olympic football venues London Category:Defunct speedway venues Category:Sports venues in London United Kingdom Category:Demolished buildings and structures in the United Kingdom Category:Destroyed landmarks Category:UEFA European Football Championship stadiums Category:American Bowl venues Category:Wembley Stadium and Wembley Arena Category:Defunct sports venues in England
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![Dean Court is a stadium in Bournemouth, England. Primarily used for football, it is the home of League Two team A.F.C. Bournemouth. Also currently known as the Fitness First Stadium for sponsorship purposes, although the naming rights are currently being made available to a new sponsor.[1]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110908034518im_/http://cdn1.wn.com/pd/71/96/70aca7ccfc17a54c188776aa4249_thumb.jpg "Dean Court is a stadium in Bournemouth, England. Primarily used for football, it is the home of League Two team A.F.C. Bournemouth. Also currently known as the Fitness First Stadium for sponsorship purposes, although the naming rights are currently being made available to a new sponsor.[1]")
