WEMBLEY STADIUM: And... we're in!
- Posted on March 23, 2007 3:25 PM
- 1 comment
Our music obsessed lad about town, Jamie Stangroom found himself at Wembley Stadium last week when it opened its doors to the public. So, does it shape up? Was it worth the wait... Jamie spill the Wembley beans...
The brand spanking new Wembley Stadium opened its numerous doors and its 2,618 toilets (a world record) to the public for the first time last Saturday. Amongst the 30,000 strong, history-making crowd were members of the local Brent council and England fans, making this event a ‘Community Day’.
I have to admit that I’d lost my faith in the famous stadium ever re-opening, and it was only after half an hours prodding with my ‘Wembley 97’ flag pole against the surface, that I finally accepted my theory of the FA giving up on building a football stadium and instead erecting a giant bouncy castle, just in case we didn’t notice, was indeed fiction.
We’ve been fed the facts and the stats on the stadium for the last five years, we know you can (but never will) roll the London Eye beneath Lord Fosters arch! And we know that you could (and you never know) even drive a Eurostar train through it, but what’s this modern day coliseum actually like? Is it worth all the cash, time and media coverage spent?
If anything’s worth a near £800m then its football, and it’s spiritual home. If David Beckham can have a multi-million pound pad to suit his needs then why can’t the game that earn’t him his millions enjoy a nice home for itself and its giant family?
Well it certainly does fulfil the needs of a modern day football stadium and a little bit more. The view from the newly revamped ‘Wembley Park’ tube station is breathtaking, the concourse impressive and the arena itself is nothing short of spectacular. Concrete and red plastic seats have never looked so beautiful together; the 90,000 seats provide leg room sufficient enough for even Peter Crouch and gone are the days of ‘obstructed view’ seats. Hooray! And you’ll never have to give up on a hand dryer and resort to using your jeans again, the Wembley dryers actually risk taking your skin off, let alone drying your hands in seconds…I thought that was impressive anyway.
Amongst the concourse are the usual eating haunts that you would expect to find at a football ground, but if you fancy a pie then it’s going to set you back a shocking £4.50p! Or if you fancy a cheeseburger and drink ‘combo meal’ then you’d better be prepared to stump-up a whopping £8! Despite the crazy prices the beer pumps at the kiosks have the power to unleash four pints of beer in 16 seconds, that’s 47,000 pints in the half time period alone! As far as I’m concerned this makes up for the over priced pies! If you fancy something a little bit different then there are a number of restaurants and bars that serve both brassiere-style and a la carte, and there’s even two champagne-and-seafood bars!
It took a while, it cost a bit, it defied the likes of Bon Jovi and the Rolling Stones and thousands others, but it is worth the wait and on may 19th Wembley Stadium will officially open with the FA Cup Final and finally take its place again as the most famous stadium in the world.
Were you there? Have you seen the Stadium's inner organs? Tell us what you think in our comments section.
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Comments (1)
Chrissy Brand
Yes, the new stadium looks great. And wannabe legends are being created already. First hat-trick, fastest goal, both courtesy of the Italian lad Pazzini!
For a good read of Wembley's epic past, classic photos of great events, plus photos of the demolition and rebuild, the book: 'Wembley: Stadium of Legends' by Tomsett and Brand, (Dewi Lewis Media)hits the bookshops first week of April. It's also available at Amazon and details at: www.myspace.com/wembleystadiumoflegends
Posted on March 26, 2007 9:41 AM
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