Millennium Stadium
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| Millennium Stadium
<tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align: center;">Image:Millennium Stadium North.jpg | |
|---|---|
| Location | Cardiff, Wales |
| Opened | 1999 |
| Owner | Welsh Rugby Union
<tr><td>Surface</td><td>Grass</td></tr><tr><td>Construction cost</td><td>£126 million</td></tr><tr><th style="background: #efefef;" colspan="2">Former names</th></tr><tr><td colspan="2">Cardiff Arms Park</td></tr> |
| Tenants | |
| Welsh Rugby Union (National team) Football Association of Wales (National team) The Football Association temporarily (Football) | |
| Seats | |
| 74,500 | |
The Millennium Stadium (Welsh: Stadiwm y Mileniwm) in Cardiff is the national stadium of Wales, used primarily for rugby union and football home internationals. It was the largest Stadium in the United Kingdom with a capacity of 74,500, but relinquished this distinction when Old Trafford's extension was completed in 2006. Twickenham Stadium, the home of the England national rugby union team now holds the record, with its expansion to 82,000 seats. The Millennium Stadium is owned by Millennium Stadium plc which is a subsidiary company owned by the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU).
Contents |
[edit] History
The stadium was built in 1999 on the site of the old National Stadium, in Cardiff Arms Park. It was built for the 1999 Rugby World Cup, for which Wales was the main host. It was home to many of the matches, including the final.
The construction cost the WRU £126 million, which was considered remarkably low for a state-of-the-art stadium. This was funded by private investment, £46 million of public funds from the National Lottery, the sale of debentures to supporters (which offered guaranteed tickets in exchange for an interest-free loan), and loans. The development left the WRU heavily in debt.
The Millennium Stadium was first used for a major event on June 26, 1999, when Wales played South Africa in a friendly rugby match. Wales won the match 29-19: the first time they had ever beaten the Springboks.
[edit] Use
The stadium is the home of the Welsh rugby union team, who play all of their home fixtures at the venue. These games include those during the Six Nations, as well as the November Tests against nations from the Southern Hemisphere. Apart from the national team the stadium has been used for Celtic League games, as well as Heineken Cup matches. The Cardiff Blues sometimes play larger home fixtures at the ground.
The stadium hosted semi-finals of the 2005-06 Powergen Cup, as well as the 2005-06 Heineken Cup final where Munster defeated Biarritz.
Since 2000, the stadium has also been the almost-permanent home of Welsh football. The national team play the vast majority of home matches at the Millennium Stadium, with a handful once or twice a year in Wrexham or Swansea.
The first Welsh football game in the stadium in 2000 was against Finland, and drew a then record home crowd for Welsh football (soccer) of over 66,000. This has since been beaten on several occasions.
[edit] Features
The all-seater stadium has the capacity for 74,500 supporters and features a retractable roof (only the second stadium in Europe, and the biggest in the world, with this feature) to protect the playing surface from the elements.
- They say it has a sliding roof that they can slide all day.
- We'll slide it back when Wales attack, so God can watch us play
- Max Boyce in reference to the Welsh rugby team
The pitch itself is laid on top of some 7,400 pallets which can be moved so the stadium can be used for concerts, exhibitions and other events. This pitch has started to fall apart during some rugby matches.
The stadium was slightly restricted in size due to its proximity to Cardiff Rugby Club's home, in the smaller stadium elsewhere within Cardiff Arms Park. Efforts were made by the WRU to persuade the rugby club to move to a new stadium, but these were unsuccessful (the WRU and Cardiff rugby were in dispute); the stadium had to be completed with a break in its bowl structure (now known colloquially as "Glanmor's Gap", after Glanmor Griffiths, then chairman of the WRU). If an agreement can be reached in the future for the Cardiff Blues and Cardiff Rugby Club to relocate (possibly to share an all seater stadium with Cardiff City Football Club) it is likely that the stadium will be expanded.
In each of the stadium's bars, so-called "joy machines" can pour 12 pints in less than 20 seconds. (As an illustration of their efficiency, in a Wales-France match, 63,000 fans drank 77,184 pints of beer, almost double the 44,000 pints drunk by a similar number of fans at a game at Twickenham.)
The superstructure of the stadium is based around four 90.3 metre masts, making it the second tallest building in Wales.
Additional seating is sometimes added for special events such as a rugby Test against the All Blacks, or the FA Cup final.
[edit] Other uses
Image:Milleniumstadiumchampionshipplayofffinal06.jpg
As well as international rugby union, the Millennium Stadium has hosted a variety of sports, including association football, rugby league (Including the Challenge Cup final on 3 occasions between 2003 and 2005, and Welsh Rugby League internationals) speedway and indoor cricket.
Since 2001, the stadium has hosted the following English football tournaments whilst England's national stadium, Wembley Stadium has been undergoing rebuilding (Wembley had hosted the Welsh rugby team during the building of their new ground):
- FA Cup Final
- League Cup Final
- Football League Trophy Final
- Playoff finals for all levels of The Football League
- FA Community Shield
- Challenge Cup
These matches will stop being held in Cardiff after 2006 and efforts have been made to attract Cardiff City F.C. to use the stadium for their own home matches (which would provide much-needed income), but the Bluebirds are apparently determined to build their own stadium.
In September 2005 the stadium was host to the first ever indoor stage of the World Rally Championship during the Wales Rally Great Britain. The lower tier of the stadium was removed to create a figure-of-eight course.
The stadium is also transformed into a speedway track every year at around June to host the British Grand Prix.
The stadium has also been used for a variety of musical events, possibly some of the most famous being Madonna performing in her Confessions Tour in July 2006 and the Manic Street Preachers concert held on Millennium Eve and a recording of the BBC's Songs of Praise the following day, which attracted an attendance of 65,000. At the end of January 2005 the stadium hosted a charity concert in aid of the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.
Looking to the future, the stadium will stage some matches of the 2007 Rugby World Cup and is also to stage a complete round of Super League in 2007, to be known as Millennium Magic. It is planned to stage eight matches of the 2012 Olympic football competition at the stadium.
The stadium has also on occasion been used as a venue for shooting film and television productions. Dalek, an episode of the 2005 season of the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, was shot primarily on location at the stadium, using its underground areas to stand in for an underground base in Utah, United States in the year 2012. The location shooting for the episode took place during October and November 2004. The underground areas of the stadium was used again in Doctor Who for the 2005 Christmas Special, The Christmas Invasion. The area was used as the headquarters for UNIT, based under the Tower of London. The episode was broadcast on Christmas Day 2005. The Hindi film Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham was also filmed there.
[edit] Trivia
- If looking for any errors in the construction of the Millennium Stadium, a spelling mistake can be seen on the west side of the ground. Under the listing of 1999 Rugby World Cup squads, the New Zealand squad includes a "Juston Marshall" - clearly a mistake on the name "Justin Marshall"
[edit] See also
- Rugby union in Wales
- Wales national rugby union team
- Wales national football team
- Wales National Rugby League Team
- Rugby League in Wales
- Challenge Cup
[edit] External links
- Location Map, Geolink Google Map of this location
- Millennium Stadium
| Preceded by: Ellis Park Johannesburg | Rugby World Cup Final Venue 1999 | Succeeded by: Telstra Stadium Sydney |
| Preceded by: Twickenham London | Heineken Cup Final Venue 2001-02 | Succeeded by: Lansdowne Road Dublin |
| Preceded by: Murrayfield Edinburgh | Heineken Cup Final Venue 2005-06 | Succeeded by: Twickenham London |
| Six Nations rugby stadiums |
|---|
| England - Twickenham (London) | France - Stade de France (Saint-Denis) | Ireland - Croke Park (Dublin) |
| Italy - Stadio Flaminio (Rome) | Scotland - Murrayfield (Edinburgh) | Wales - Millennium Stadium (Cardiff) |
cs:Millennium Stadium cy:Stadiwm y Mileniwm da:Millennium Stadium de:Millennium Stadium es:Millennium Stadium fr:Millennium Stadium ja:ミレニアム・スタジアム nl:Millennium Stadium no:Millennium Stadium pl:Millennium Stadium pt:Millennium Stadium sv:Millennium Stadium zh:千禧球場
Categories: Articles to be merged | 2012 Summer Olympic venues | Buildings and structures in Cardiff | Football venues in Wales | Retractable-roof stadiums | Rugby league stadiums in Wales | Rugby union stadiums in Wales | Rugby World Cup stadiums | Sport in Cardiff | Structures celebrating the third millennium | UEFA 5 star stadiums | Speedway venues | National stadiums
