WEMBLEY STADIUM IS OPENED AS THE EMPIRE STADIUM

Today, The Grandma has been watching the two Champion League finals played by Barça in Wembley in 1992 and 2011, a stadium that was opened on a day like today in 1923.

The original Wembley Stadium (originally known as the Empire Stadium) was a 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 its inaugural event, the League Cup final annually, five European Cup finals, the 1966 World Cup Final, and the final of Euro 1996.

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 pay-per-view to take place outside North America, it hosted the 1992 SummerSlam.

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 Empire Stadium, it was built by Sir Robert McAlpine for the British Empire Exhibition of 1924 (extended to 1925).

More information: Wembley Stadium

The stadium cost £750,000, equivalent to approximately £46 million in 2020, 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, 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 selling off 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 earnt a good sum from selling various buildings on the site, Elvin agreed to buy the stadium from White for a total of £127,000, using a £12,000 downpayment and the balance plus interest payable over ten years.

However, facing personal bankruptcy, White suddenly took his own life at his home King Edward's Place in 1927. This caused financial complications for Elvin, necessitating him to raise money within two weeks to commit to buy the stadium before it too was demolished.

More information: The Engineer

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, and 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 he subsequently became chairman.

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

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.

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 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 Saint Raphael's Estate.

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

More information: Standard

Wembley is the cathedral of football.

It is the capital of football and it is the heart of football.

Pelé