WEMBLEY STADIUM

Wembley Stadium is the most important stadium in London, inaugurated in 2007 on the ashes of the previous historic stadium. It has a capacity of over 90,000 spectators and an oval shape, fully covered and with a retractable athletics track. Owned by the English Football Association, it is managed by the England national football team. To date, it is the most expensive stadium in the world, after Yankee Stadium in New York, with an estimated final cost of over 900 million euros. The second largest stadium in Europe after the Camp Nou in Barcelona, the Wembley stadium was designed primarily for football, but also for rugby, athletics competitions and concerts.

It is located in the district of Wembley, about 20 kilometers north-west of central London, and has hosted numerous matches of international importance including the football tournament at the 2012 London Olympics, two Champions League finals, two cup matches of the 2015 rugby world and numerous matches of the NFL International Series. The opening match was the match between the Under 21 national teams of Italy and England, which ended 3-3.

The Stadium is not usually used by a specific team, but from 2016-2017 to 2019 it hosted Tottenham Hotspurs matches, during the construction of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Wembley Stadium is divided into 4 sectors, named with the four cardinal points North (north), South (south), West (west) and East (east); the subdivision of the stadium depends on the event taking place, however spectators can choose between three rings called Level 1 (numbered from 101 to 144), Level 2 (numbered from 201 to 252) and Level 3 (numbered from 501 to 552).

The history of the Wembley stadium began in 2007, when it was completed after 4 years of works costing over 900 million euros, thus replacing the old stadium of the same name, opened in 1923 and demolished in 2003. The works for the construction of the new stadium went on between ups and downs: the company that was to take care of the construction of the arch, the Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company, was the first to realize that the costs would reach enormous figures. On March 20, 2006 a steel rod on the roof fell by almost 50 centimeters, forcing 3000 workers to evacuate the stadium, relentlessly delaying the delivery of works. Finally, on March 17, 2007, the stadium finally opened.