Millennium Stadium
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The Millennium Stadium (Welsh: Stadiwm y Mileniwm), is the national stadium of Wales, located in the capital Cardiff, and is used primarily for rugby union and football home internationals. At the time of its construction it was the largest stadium in the United Kingdom with a capacity of 74,500, but has since been overtaken by Old Trafford, Twickenham Stadium and the new Wembley Stadium. The Millennium Stadium is owned by Millennium Stadium plc which is a subsidiary company owned by the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU).
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[edit] History
The stadium was built by John Laing plc 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 seven of the 41 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 26 June 1999, when Wales played South Africa in a rugby match before a test crowd of 29,000.
[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 second biggest in the world, with this feature) to protect the playing surface from the elements. The [uperstructure of the stadium is based around four 90.3 metre masts.
Additional seating is sometimes added for special events such as a rugby Test against the All Blacks, or formerly for the FA Cup final. 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.
In each of the stadium's bars, so-called "joy machines" can pour 12 pints in less than 20 seconds. During 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 stadium has a resident hawk named "Dad", who is employed to drive seagulls and pigeons out of the stadium.
[edit] North stand
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 Cardiff 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, known colloquially as "Glanmor's Gap", after Glanmor Griffiths, then chairman of the WRU. The stadium management resultantly accept the stadium structure is not finished.
Media speculation continues about an agreement to move the Cardiff Blues and Cardiff Rugby Club, with speculation heightened with the possibility to share the new Leckwith all seater stadium with Cardiff City Football Club, as well as the confirmation that the stand is suffering from concrete cancer. However, this is not a serious problem in the short-to-medium term.
[edit] Usage
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.
[edit] Rugby
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.
In 2007, the stadium hosted the rugby league Millennium Magic weekend, which saw an entire regular season round of Super League matches taken to Cardiff over the weekend of May 5th-6th. This is poised to become an annual event.
[edit] Football
Since 2000, the stadium has also been the almost-permanent home of Welsh football. The football team play the vast majority of home matches at the Millennium Stadium, with a handful once or twice a year in Wrexham. The first Welsh football game in the stadium in 2000 was against Finland, and drew a then record home crowd for Welsh football of over 66,000. This has since been beaten on several occasions.
[edit] Wembley construction
Whilst the Millennium stadium was under construction, the old Wembley had hosted the Welsh rugby team during the building of the new ground. The favour was returned from 2001 whilst England's national stadium, Wembley Stadium was undergoing rebuilding, with the Millennium hosting:
- FA Cup Final
- League Cup Final
- Football League Trophy Final
- Playoff finals for all levels of The Football League
- FA Community Shield
- Challenge Cup
The stadium became notorious for an apparent "away team hoodoo". The first seven finals were all won by the teams occupying the home dressing room with their fans in the North Stand. Stoke City beat Brentford 2-0 to end the "hoodoo."
Liverpool were the first team to win the FA Cup at the Millennium Stadium in 2001 after beating Arsenal 2-1. Fittingly they also won the last FA Cup to be held at the Millennium Stadium in 2006, after beating West Ham United 3-1 in a penalty shootout that followed a 3-3 draw after extra time in a final that was billed as 'the best cup final of the modern era.'
The last domestic cup match played was when Doncaster Rovers beat Bristol Rovers 3-2 AET in the Football League Trophy Final on April 1, 2007.
[edit] Motorsports
In 2001 it staged its first ever motorsport event, hosting the British round of the Speedway Grand Prix Series, and has done every year since, in 2007 attracting over 41,000, a record for British Speedway. 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. In addition to this, the stadium has hosted stages for the British Rally and motocross events.
[edit] Film
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 BBCsci-fi 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 were 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.
The Wembley stadium scene in the film 28 Weeks Later was actually filmed at the Millennium Stadium. Although the outside is footage of Wembley, the inside is all filmed in Cardiff. The effects team on the film edited the footage to make it look more like Wembley.
[edit] Other
In 2006, the venue hosted its first boxing event with Welsh stars dominating the card. Another event is being held in 2007, including a fight involving welshman Joe Calzaghe and Mikkel Kessler from Denmark.
The stadium has also been used for a variety of musical events, the most famous being 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 Tsunami Relief concert in aid of the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. The stadium has also hosted Madonna, Robbie Williams, U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers,The Rolling Stones and Bon Jovi.
Looking to the future, the stadium will stage some matches of the 2007 Rugby World Cup. It is planned to stage eight matches of the 2012 Olympic football competition at the stadium.
