There aren’t many places in the world with as much history as Wembley Stadium.
It was the host of the 1966 World Cup Final, where England beat Germany 4-2 in extra time. It has been the host of the F.A. Cup since 1923. It’s hosted six UEFA Champions League finals, with another one scheduled for this May.
Nearly anybody who is anybody has stepped through the Wembley gates, walked onto the pitch, and put on a performance for thousands of fans. Even Pele, who never got to play there, took a trip once just to kick a ball into the net. “Wembley is the cathedral of football”, said Pele.
So for me, it was a must see, and luckily enough I got a ticket for a tour last Tuesday, and was on my way.
As soon as you step out of the Wembley Park tube station, you look out, and there it is. A MASSIVE structure. Even from 500 yards away, it still looks like it is 300 feet tall (its actually 436 feet high!).
A word of note. The current Wembley Stadium you see today is a completely new arena, replacing the old Wembley, which stood from 1923 until 2003 (closed for good in 2000).
The new one, opened after five years of construction in 2007, is as state of the art as it gets. Seats with plenty of legroom, always facing the center. Two massive video screens on either side. Hundreds of luxury boxes. And that’s just for the fans. For the players, there are two home and two away locker rooms, all the medical and sport science supplies you can think of, and plenty of space to warm up under the stadium during halftime or before the match.
The tour guide mentioned that our first step’s into the stadium would be met with jaw-dropping awe.
And he was right.
As you enter the stadium from the club boxes, you take in the entire 90,000 seat structure, looming high above and not so far down below. While I’m sure the final seat in the last row of the top section isn’t a great view, the stadium is built on a high angle, so that fans are not very far away from the pitch. At other grounds, fans can be far from the pitch but much closer to the ground.
The tour takes you from the royal seats down to the locker rooms, and then on to the pitch, where you get a feeling of what it’s like to play in front of 90,000 screaming fans. A speaker above the tunnel to the pitch pumps out crowd noise. Definitely gave me chills.
With the NFL lettering still on the field, and plenty of the other signs around the stadium, standing on the side of the pitch had me thinking of what it was like to be Tom Brady of the New England Patriots and Sam Bradford of the St. Louis Rams, more than any member of the England national team.
I’ve been in NFL and college football stadiums before, and honestly, if this became an NFL venue, it would easily be one of the most intimidating. There are many aspects of the stadium that were designed to keep in crowd noise. Our tour guide had us scream out “HELLO WEMBLEY”, as if we were one of the many rockers that has graced the stage at the legendary complex. And just our group of 30 or so people were able to create a massive echo around the ground. So add 89,970 more people, and it’s gonna be pretty damn loud in there.
Another cool note I learned. Michael Jackson, he of Gary, Indiana, has played 15 times at Wembley Stadium (the old one at least), the most all-time. He also has a statue of himself at Fulham F.C.’s ground. But I’ll get to that later.
At the end of my tour, you’re led back into the stadium, through the press conference room, which has over 200 seats, and finally into the Champions League exhibit, with pieces of memorabilia from each Champions League final from 1952 to the present. Very cool stuff.
In front of the stadium, I snapped a picture of Sir Bobby Moore, the England and West Ham hero who captained the Three Lions to their sole World Cup glory in 1966.
Hopefully I’ll be back someday as a member of the media, and get to really partake in a match day. That would definitely be another event to check off my bucket list.
Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Up next is my trip to South London.
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