Wembley Stadium (1923)

This article is about the original stadium. For the current stadium that was opened in 2007, see Wembley Stadium.

Wembley Stadium

File:Wembley Stadium (1923) logo.svg
File:Wembley Stadium Twin Towers.jpg The Twin Towers of Wembley Stadium (2002)
Former names	Empire Stadium British Empire Exhibition Stadium
Location	Wembley, England
Coordinates	51°33′20″N 0°16′47″W Fatal error: The format of the coordinate could not be determined. Parsing failed.
Owner	Wembley Company
Capacity	82,000 (original standing capacity was 125,000, and later 100,000 prior to being made all-seated in 1990)
Record attendance	126,047 (Bolton Wanderers vs West Ham United – 1923 FA Cup Final)
Surface	Grass and track
Construction
Broke ground	1922 (1922)
Opened	28 April 1923 (1923-04-28)
Renovated	1963 (1963)
Closed	7 October 2000 (2000-10-07)
Demolished	2002–2003
Rebuilt	Replaced in 2007 by the new Wembley Stadium
Construction cost	£750,000 (1923)
Architect	Sir John William Simpson and Maxwell Ayrton Sir Owen Williams (engineer)
Tenants
England national football team (1923–2000) Wembley Lions speedway team (1946–1957, 1970–1971) Wales national rugby union team (1997–1999) Arsenal (UEFA matches, 1998–2000) London Monarchs (1991–1992) Leyton Orient FC (1930) Argonauts (1928–1930) Major sporting events hosted 1963 European Cup Final 1966 FIFA World Cup 1968 European Cup Final 1971 European Cup Final 1978 European Cup Final 1992 European Cup Final 1995 Rugby League World Cup UEFA Euro 1996

The original Wembley Stadium (/ˈwɛmbli/; originally known as the Empire Stadium) was a football stadium in Wembley, London, best known for hosting important football matches. It stood on the same site now occupied by its successor.

Wembley hosted the FA Cup final annually, the first in 1923, which was the stadium's inaugural event, the League Cup final annually, five European Cup finals, the 1966 World Cup final, and the final of Euro 1996. Brazilian footballer Pelé once said of the stadium: "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 stadium also hosted many other sports events, including the 1948 Summer Olympics, rugby league's Challenge Cup final, and the 1992 and 1995 Rugby League World Cup finals. It was also the venue for numerous music events, including the 1985 Live Aid charity concert. In what was the first major WWF (now WWE) pay-per-view to take place outside North America, it hosted the 1992 SummerSlam.

History

File:Postcard British Empire Exhibition 1924 25.jpg

Postcard depicting the "British Empire Exhibition" in 1924

The stadium's first turf was cut by King George V and it was first opened to the public on 28 April 1923. Much of Humphry Repton's original Wembley Park landscape was transformed in 1922–23 during preparations for the British Empire Exhibition of 1924–25. First known as the "British Empire Exhibition Stadium" or simply the "Empire Stadium", it was built by Sir Robert McAlpine for the British Empire Exhibition of 1924 (extended to 1925).

The stadium cost £750,000 (equivalent to approximately £46 million in 2020) and was constructed on the site of a folly called Watkin's Tower. The architects were Sir John Simpson and Maxwell Ayrton and the head engineer Sir Owen Williams. The original intention was 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, which proved to be a financial disappointment, the site at Wembley was considered by many to be a vast 'white elephant'. It was bought by a property speculator, James White, who planned to sell off the buildings for redevelopment, including the stadium which had been the centrepiece of the exhibition. Arthur Elvin, an ex-RFC officer who had worked in a tobacco kiosk at the exhibition and had previous experience working for a scrap metal firm, was employed by White to oversee the sale of the buildings and the clearance of the Wembley site.

The stadium had gone into liquidation after it was pronounced "financially unviable". After nine months, having earned a good sum from selling various buildings on the site, Elvin agreed to buy the stadium from White for a total of £127,000 as a £12,000 downpayment and the balance plus interest payable over ten years.

File:The old Wembley Stadium (cropped).jpg

Aerial view of Wembley Stadium, 1991

Facing personal bankruptcy, White killed himself at his home, King Edward's Place, in 1927. This caused financial complications for Elvin, requiring him to raise money within two weeks to buy the stadium before it too was demolished. He was able to finance this by forming the 'Wembley Stadium and Greyhound Racecourse Company'. He raised the money to buy the stadium at the original price he had agreed with White, then immediately sold it back to the company, leaving him with a healthy personal profit. Instead of cash, he received shares in the company, which gave him the largest individual stake in Wembley Stadium, and subsequently became chairman.

The electric scoreboard and the all-encircling roof, made from aluminium and translucent glass, were added in 1963.

File:Royal Box at Wembley Stadium 1986.jpg

The Royal Box in April 1986. Trophy presentations took place here.

The stadium's distinctive Twin Towers became its trademark and nickname. Also well known were the 39 steps needed to be climbed to reach the Royal box and collect a trophy (and winners'/losers' medals). 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 demolition commenced in December 2002, completing 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 nearby Saint Raphael's Estate.

The cities of Birmingham and Coventry launched bids to become the new home of England's football team following disputes and a political row regarding the new Wembley's construction. These bids were ultimately unsuccessful as the FA chose in 2002 to keep the national team at the new Wembley once completed.

Football

Wembley is best known for hosting football matches, having hosted the FA Cup annually as well as numerous England International fixtures.

White Horse Final

Main article: 1923 FA Cup Final[1][2]Billy the White Horse, saviour of the 1923 FA Cup Final

The Empire Stadium was built in exactly 300 days at the cost of £750,000. Described as the world's greatest sporting arena, it was ready only 4 days before the White Horse Final. The FA had not considered admission by ticket, grossly underestimating the anticipation of the number of fans turning up to the 104 gates on match day. However, after the game, every event, apart from the 1982 replay, was ticketed.

[3][4]Crowds define the edges of the pitch

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. 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 match was a 2–0 victory for Bolton Wanderers, withDavid Jack scoring the first ever goal at Wembley.

Matthews Final

Main article: 1953 FA Cup Final

The 1953 FA Cup Final between Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers was dubbed the "Matthews Final" after Blackpool's winger Stanley Matthews. At 38, he was making his third and ultimately his final attempt at winning an FA Cup medal. In the previous six years, he failed to earn a winner's medal against Manchester United in 1948 and Newcastle United in 1951. It featured a hat-trick by Blackpool's Stan Mortensen in his side's 4–3 win, with Matthews almost single-handedly turning the game around for Blackpool who had trailed 3–0 to Bolton Wanderers before fighting back to win the game. It remained the only hat-trick ever scored in an FA Cup Final at the original Wembley.

The FA Cup final was played there in April or May until 2000 (excluding the 1970 replay when Chelsea beat Leeds at Old Trafford). It was also the venue for Finals of the FA Amateur Cup, League Cup (except for the early years when this was settled on a home and away basis) and in later years the Associate Members' Cup and the Football League promotion play-off finals (in the early years of play-offs they were home and away fixtures). The 1988 final of the Middlesex Charity Cup was also played there.

International fixtures

[5][6]England v Scotland in 1981

Prior to the 1923 Wembley stadium, international football games had been played by England at various different stadia. Most early internationals (including the first ever international football match (1870)) were played at the Oval, which had been built in 1845 and has always been a major cricket venue. For the first 27 years the only International England games played at Wembley were fixtures against Scotland, with other games played elsewhere until 1951. The first team other than Scotland to face England at the venue was Argentina.

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 Gamesagainst 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. (Germany - Czech Republic 2:1)

Germany had beaten England on penalties in the semi-final after a 1-1 draw, with Gareth Southgate missing a penalty for England in the shoot-out.

England's final two competitive games played at the stadium resulted in 0–1 defeats for England to Scotland and Germany respectively. The first defeat was in the play-off for the Euro 2000 qualifiers in November 1999, but England still went through as they won the other leg 2-0 at Hampden Park. The very last game at Wembley, however, was the opening qualifier for the 2002 World Cup, and defeat prompted the resignation of England manager Kevin Keegan at the end of the game after just 18 months in charge.

Club football

[7][8]Bristol Rovers v Tranmere RoversLeyland DAF Cup Final in 1990

In all, the stadium hosted seven European Cup finals. The first two were 1963 final between AC Milan and Benfica, and the 1968 final between Manchester Unitedand Benfica. In 1971 it again hosted the final, between Ajax and Panathinaikos, and once more in 1978, this time between Liverpool and Club Brugge, another in1992, when Barcelona played Sampdoria. Wembley was selected for the 2011 and 2013 finals.

Wembley has also hosted two UEFA Cup Winners' Cup finals: in 1965, when West Ham United beat 1860 Munich, and in 1993, when Parma overcame Antwerp.

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 played two home Third Division South games whilst their Lea Bridge Stadium was undergoing urgent remedial works,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.

In March 1998, Arsenal made a bid to buy Wembley in hope of gaining a larger stadium to replace their Highbury ground which had a capacity of less than 40,000 and was unsuitable for expansion, but the bid was later abandoned in favour of building the 60,000 capacity Emirates Stadium which was opened in 2006.

Last matches

On 20 May 2000 the last FA Cup final to be played at the old Wembley saw Chelsea defeat Aston Villa with the only goal scored by Roberto Di Matteo. The last competitive club match there was the 2000 First Division play-off final on 29 May between Ipswich Town and Barnsley, a 4–2 win resulting in promotion to the Premier League for Ipswich. The last club match of all was the 2000 Charity Shield in which Chelsea beat Manchester United 2–0. The last international match was on 7 October in Kevin Keegan's last game as England manager. England were beaten 0-1 by Germany, with Dietmar Hamannscoring the last goal at Wembley. On that day Tony Adams made his 60th Wembley appearance, a record for any player. Adams also claimed England's final goal at the stadium, having scored in the previous home fixture against Ukraine on 31 May.

Other sports

Rugby league

[9][10]A marching band entertains the incoming crowd prior to the 1956 Rugby League Cup Final

In the sport of rugby league, the RFL has held its Challenge Cup final at Wembley from 1929 onwards. The stadium was also regularly used by the sport for major international matches, such as Great Britain versus Australia. In 1949 the France national rugby league team became the first French national team of any sport to win at Wembley. The largest crowd for a Challenge Cup final at Wembley was set in 1985 when Wigan beat Hull F.C. 28–24 in front of 99,801 spectators. The stadium set the international record crowd for a rugby league game when 73,631 turned out for the 1992 Rugby League World Cup Final between Great Britain and Australia. The Mal Meninga-led Australian team won the game 10–6 on the back of a Steve Renouf try in the north-east corner and Meninga's goal kicking. The1995 World Cup final between England and Australia was also played at Wembley with 66,540 spectators watching Australia win 16–8. The final of the 1999 Challenge Cup was the last to be played at the stadium, with the annual fixture moving to other grounds before returning to the new Wembley upon its completion in 2007.

Internationals

Game#	Date	Result	Attendance
1	12 March 1949	France def. England 12-5	15,000
2	16 October 1963	Australia def. Great Britain 22-16	13,946
3	3 November 1973	Great Britain def. Australia 21-12	9,874
4	27 October 1990	Great Britain def. Australia 19-12	54,569
5	24 October 1992	Australia def. Great Britain 10-6	73,631
6	16 October 1993	Great Britain def. New Zealand 17-0	36,131
7	22 October 1994	Great Britain def. Australia 8-4	57,034
8	7 October 1995	England def. Australia 20-16	41,271
9	28 October 1995	Australia def. England 16-8	66,540
10	1 November 1997	Australia (SL) def. Great Britain 38-14	41,135

1948 Summer Olympics

Wembley was the main athletics venue for the 1948 Summer Olympics, with Fanny Blankers-Koen and Emil Zátopek among the notable winners. The Stadium also hosted the semi-finals and finals of the Olympic hockey and football tournaments, the Prix des Nations event in the equestrian competition, and a demonstration match of lacrosse.

Speedway

Main articles: Wembley Lions (speedway) and Speedway World Championship

Speedway first took place at Wembley in 1929, and operated until the outbreak of World War II in 1939, a few days before the 1939 World Championship Final was due to be held, but was cancelled as a result of the war. The Lions returned in 1946 and operated in the top flight until the end of the 1956 season winning a number of League titles. A short lived revival saw the Lions in the British League in the 1970 and 1971 seasons. Lionel Van Praag, Tommy Price, and Freddie Williams, all won World Championships whilst riding for Wembley. The ashes for the speedway track were supplied by Richard Biffa Ltd who's operating base at the time was in Wembley Hill Road. Richard Biffa later became Biffa Waste Services.

Between 1936 and 1960 Wembley hosted all of the first fifteen finals of the Speedway World Championship. It hosted another nine World Finals before the last one at Wembley took place in 1981 in front of a record speedway attendance at the venue of 92,500 fans. Riders who won the World Championship at Wembley include 1936 World Champion Van Praag, Price, Williams, Jack Young, Ove Fundin,Barry Briggs, Ole Olsen, Bruce Penhall (the winner of the 1981 championship), and legendary rider Ivan Mauger.

Wembley was also the home to the Wembley Lions motorcycle speedway team, formed by the Wembley Stadium chairman Sir Arthur Elvin.

The Speedway track at Wembley Stadium was 345 metres (377 yards) in length. It was located inside of the Greyhound racing track, but intersected the stadiums playing field. The pits were located in the tunnel.

Stock Car Racing

Two meetings were held at Wembley in 1974 promoted by Trevor Redmond. The first meeting held featured BriSCA Formula 1 Stock Cars and National Hot Rods. The second meeting featured the BriSCA Formula 2 Stock Cars World Final with F1's in support. Before the first meeting the Wembley groundsman threatened to resign over possible damage to the hallowed turf. The pitch was surrounded by wooden beams and little damage was caused.

Rugby union

Though the venue was not traditionally a regular host of rugby union matches, England played a friendly against Canada on 17 October 1992, as their regular home stadium at Twickenham was undergoing redevelopment. Wales played their Five Nations and autumn international home matches at Wembley (as Twickenham Stadium would not accommodate them) while Cardiff Arms Park was being rebuilt as the Millennium Stadium in the late 1990s (a deal reciprocated for FA Cups during the construction of the new Wembley Stadium). In total there were seven internationals.

Date	Competition	Home team		Away team
17 October 1992	1992 Autumn International Series	England	26	Canada	13
29 November 1997	1997 Autumn International Series	Wales	7	New Zealand	42
5 April 1998	1998 Five Nations Championship	Wales	0	France	51
7 March 1998	1998 Five Nations Championship	Wales	19	Scotland	13
14 November 1998	1998 Autumn International Series	Wales	20	South Africa	28
20 February 1999	1999 Five Nations Championship	Wales	23	Ireland	29
11 April 1999	1999 Five Nations Championship	Wales	32	England	31

Greyhound racing

Wembley was also a regular venue for greyhound racing. It was the first sport Sir Arthur Elvin introduced to the stadium. The opening meeting was in 1927 and 50,000 people attended to watch the first race won by a greyhound named Spin. The dog racing provided the stadium with its main source of regular income, especially in the early days, and continued to attract crowds of several thousand up until the early 1960s (Photo of Wembley Stadium, prepared for the next greyhound race:[3]).

Two of the biggest events in the greyhound racing calendar are the St Leger and Trafalgar Cup Both were originally held at Wembley, the St Leger from 1928 until 1998 after which it moved to Wimbledon Stadium and the Trafalgar Cup from 1929 until 1998 after which it moved to Oxford Stadium. In 1931 the famous greyhound Mick the Miller won the St Leger.

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.

American football

The National Football League held nine preseason American football games at Wembley between 1983 and 1993. The Minnesota Vikings and the St. Louis Cardinals played the first game on 6 August 1983. The Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys played the last game on 8 August 1993. The United States Football League also played an exhibition game there on 21 July 1984 between the Philadelphia Stars andTampa Bay Bandits. The London Monarchs of the World League of American Football played at the venue in 1991 and 1992. Wembley hosted the inaugural World Bowl where the Monarchs defeated theBarcelona Dragons 21–0.

Gaelic football

From 1958 until the mid-1970s, hurling and gaelic football tournaments known as the "Wembley Tournaments" were held at Wembley Stadium to bring the Irish sports to expatriates in Britain at the time. Several Gaelic football games were played in Wembley Stadium, most of them exhibition matches, most notably Kerry and Down in 1961.

Other events

The stadium also staged women's field hockey matches in which England appeared in their annual match between 1951 to 1969 and then from 1971 to 1991.

On 26 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 (now known as WWE) drew a sellout of 80,355 when SummerSlam was hosted at Wembley Stadium. The main event featured English wrestler Davey Boy Smithwinning the Intercontinental Championship from Bret Hart.

Music

The stadium became a musical venue in August 1972 with The London Rock and Roll Show, an all-star concert. It later played host to a number of concerts and events, most notably the British leg of Live Aid, which featured such acts as David Bowie, Queen, Paul McCartney, Elton John, The Who, Dire Straits and U2, held at the stadium on 13 July 1985. Phil Collins made news by performing at Wembley, then boarding a helicopter to London Heathrow Airport, taking a British Airways Concorde to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and performing at that segment of Live Aid at JFK Stadium on the same day.

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:

• Michael Jackson (15 times, most by any artist in the history of Wembley Stadium, selling over 1.1 million tickets in the process)

During Michael Jackson's Bad World 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 sold out concerts. Over 2 million people tried to buy tickets. More concerts could have been staged but the stadium's quota was full. These seven concerts were highly anticipated and created huge media attention. He was also given a special award by Wembley Stadium Officials for achieving this milestone. The concert on 16 July 1988 (One of the seven sell-out concert) was attended by Princess Diana and Prince Charles. The DVD of this concert (Michael Jackson: Live at Wembley July 16, 1988) was released on 18 September 2012 as part of the 25th Anniversary reissue of his 1987 hit album Bad and as well as a stand alone DVD. A further five sell-out concerts followed in 1992 during his Dangerous World Tour and his last three shows in 1997 during HIStory World Tour brought total tickets sale over 1.1 million. To date, this record is not broken.

• ABBA (Played six sold-out concerts at consecutive nights in November 1979)
• Celine Dion (Twice, including 11 & 12 July 1999 as part of her Let's Talk About Love World Tour, performing to 80,000 people each night)
• Tina Turner (fives times at Wembley Stadium, three in 1996 and two in 2000. She had five sold out concerts recorded during her Twenty Four Seven Tour for the live tour DVD in the year 2000).
• Madonna (9 times, including 18, 19, 20 and 21 August 1987, 20, 21, 22 July 1990 and 25 and 26 September 1993, 22 September 2008)
• The Animals (twice, once 1965 performing three songs at the NME Poll Winners Concert and the other on 31 December 1983, during their reunion tour, which was released as "Rip It To Shreds!" in 1984)
• Oasis (two times, and recorded their video and album Familiar to Millions at Wembley)
• Guns N' Roses (In 1991 Izzy Stradlin played his last show as an official member.)
• Queen (Played two shows on the 1986 "Magic Tour", with the concert on 12 July recorded for a live album with edited video released on VHS as Queen at Wembley and full version released on DVD asQueen: Live at Wembley Stadium, Queen returned to Wembley to celebrate the life of Freddie Mercury with a tribute concert in 1992)
• Genesis (Played four consecutive sold out concerts 1–4 July 1987 with a total attendance of nearly 300,000. Shows were filmed for Genesis Live at Wembley Stadium)
• Johnny Cash (Played in 1979, recorded for the BBC in 1981 and 1986)
• The Who (18 August 1979: "The Who And Friends Roar In". Following a series of smaller warm-ups this was the band's first major concert after the death of drummer Keith Moon the previous year. An 80,000 sell-out.)
• INXS (The Concert was recorded and released as a VHS/DVD with the name Live Baby Live)
• Pink Floyd (2 nights in August 1988, World War II search lights were used outside the stadium for dramatic effect for approaching fans)
• The Spice Girls (two times, one of which was recorded and released as a VHS/DVD)
• The Bee Gees ("One Night Only" Tour in 1998 to a crowd in excess of 56,000)
• Simple Minds (Played in August 1989)
• Elton John (7 times, including 1975, 1984, 1992 and 1998. He headlined a summer concert in 1984, part of his European Express Tour, along with bands such as Paul Young, Kool and The Gang and Wang Chung. The show was recorded for a Showtime concert special.)
• Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (played three times on the 1984-85 Born in the U.S.A. Tour, twice on the 1988 Tunnel of Love Express Tour)
• The Rolling Stones (12 times between 1982, 1990, 1995 and 1999)
• U2 (9 times between 1985 and 1997, including Live Aid.)
• Eagles (2 nights in 1996 as part of their Hell Freezes Over Tour.)
• Bon Jovi played three consecutive nights in June 1995, which were filmed for Live from London. They were also 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 and 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.
• Cliff Richard played the 16 and 17 June 1989. The concert was recorded and released as From a Distance: The Event album and VHS/DVD. Guests included The Shadows, Aswad, Kalin Twins, The Searchers and Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Dallas Boys, The Vernons Girls, Jet Harris and Tony Meehan.
• Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young played 14 September 1974. Guests included Joni Mitchell, The Band, Jesse Colin Young.

External links

• "The Stadium in Wembley Park". The Engineer. 6 April 1923. http://www.theengineer.co.uk/april-1923-wembley-stadium/. Retrieved 26 August 2013.  – Architectural drawings and plans of the 1923 stadium
• Old Wembley Stadium @worldstadia.com
• Wembley Stadium & the 1948 Olympics - UK Parliament Living Heritage
• Wembley trivia
• Extract from Vintage Speedway Magazine – Wembley The Last Amen
• White Horse Cup Final – The Times

Template:S-sta

Preceded by Stamford Bridge	FA Cup Final venue 1923–2000	Succeeded by Millennium Stadium Cardiff
Preceded by Olympiastadion Berlin	Summer Olympics Main venue (Olympic Stadium) 1948	Succeeded by Helsingin olympiastadion Helsinki
Preceded by Olympiastadion Berlin	Summer Olympics Athletics competitions Main venue 1948	Succeeded by Helsingin olympiastadion Helsinki
Preceded by Olympiastadion Berlin	Summer Olympics Men's football final venue 1948	Succeeded by Helsingin olympiastadion Helsinki
Preceded by Olympisch Stadion Amsterdam	European Cup Final venue 1963	Succeeded by Praterstadion Vienna
Preceded by Heysel Stadium Brussels	European Cup Winners' Cup Final venue 1965	Succeeded by Hampden Park Glasgow
Preceded by Four venues used for the 1962 FIFA World Cup, when the first matches were all played at the same time	FIFA World Cup Opening venue 1966	Succeeded by Estadio Azteca Mexico City
Preceded by Estadio Nacional de Chile Santiago	FIFA World Cup Final venue 1966	Succeeded by Estadio Azteca Mexico City
Preceded by Estádio Nacional Lisbon (Oeiras)	European Cup Final venue 1968	Succeeded by Estadio Santiago Bernabéu Madrid
Preceded by San Siro Milan	European Cup Final venue 1971	Succeeded by De Kuip Rotterdam
Preceded by Stadio Olimpico Rome	European Cup Final venue 1978	Succeeded by Olympiastadion Munich
Preceded by Toso Pavilion Santa Clara	World Games Main venue 1985	Succeeded by Wildparkstadion Karlsruhe
Preceded by Stadio San Nicola Bari	European Cup Final venue 1992	Succeeded by Olympiastadion Munich
Preceded by Eden Park Auckland	Rugby League World Cup Final venue 1992 and 1995	Succeeded by Old Trafford Manchester
Preceded by Estádio da Luz Lisbon	European Cup Winners' Cup Final venue 1993	Succeeded by Parken Stadium Copenhagen
Preceded by Ullevi Gothenburg	UEFA European Championship Final venue 1996	Succeeded by De Kuip Rotterdam