Wembley Stadium

The idea of a national stadium is slightly confusing to people from the U.S. Almost every country in the world has one except us. We are, of course, just too big for such a thing, and we’re used to big games moving around anyway. Imagine having the Super Bowl in Dallas every year just because it’s in the middle of the country.

In England, the final of almost every competition in men’s football is at Wembley Stadium: Cups, League playoffs, all of it. Even the FA Cup semifinals are there now. It’s for this reason that “going to Wembley” signifies “playing for silverware,” and why, whenever a club confirms they are headed there, their fans start singing:

Que sera sera,

Whatever will be will be.

We’re going to Wemb-a-lee!

Que sera sera.

It’s also where the men’s national team plays most of its home games. (The women’s FA Cup final has been there since 2015; otherwise, the women, including the national team, move their games around but do often play at Wembley.) Wembley has hosted Champions League finals, 2012 Olympic gold medal games, concerts, and NFL games. In 2021 it also hosted the semis and final of the UEFA European Championships, and in 2022 it hosted the same for the Women’s Euros-which England also won. In 2024, it also hosted the UEFA Champions League Final.

By the way, Wembley is an actual place that people live in. The stadium is named for the place, but the way people talk about it, you would think that the stadium is the entire place.

This is the second Wembley Stadium. The first stadium, built on the same spot in 1923 for an exhibition, was originally called the Empire Stadium and held 127,000 people, mostly on terraces. Four days after it opened, they had the FA Cup final there, but they didn’t bother to sell tickets. It’s estimated that between 240,000 and 300,000 people showed up, and they poured onto the field, threatening the game itself. Enter legendary Police Constable George Scorey and his horse, Billie. The horse was actually grey but looks white in the old films. They (with some help) pushed the crowd back, and Bolton Wanderers beat West Ham United, 2-0. The bridge outside the stadium is still called the White Horse Bridge.

That stadium, which also hosted Live Aid in 1985, just got too old and dumpy, so it came down in 2002. To the consternation of many, so did its iconic twin towers. The debris wound up under a mound in a park called Northala Fields, so you can still climb the old Wembley there if you’d like.

All the finals moved to Cardiff for a few years while the new intergalactic spaceship of a stadium was built. It opened in 2007 and holds 90,000 for football (Adele drew 98,000 for a concert). There are three rings of seats; the one in the center is called Club Wembley and is backed by a concourse that wraps around most of the stadium, with bars, restaurants, shops, and even a champagne bar. In the lower level, the sideline seats that are always empty early in the second half are the Bobby Moore Club, named for the hero of the 1966 World Cup winners whose statue also stands outside overlooking everything like a Greek god. You have to be about as rich as a god to sit there.

For league and Cup games, each club is assigned to one end of the stadium and gets 25,000 to 40,000 tickets. The remaining seats are in the club areas, where you are not allowed to wear team shirts, cheer too much, or engage in “persistent standing.” If one team is from London and the other from up north, the police actually steer them to separate train stations, each one closest to their end of the stadium. This is in part for convenience and also for keeping the loonies away from each other. It only takes a few, you know.

Just a few random facts before we move on. The stadium has 166 executive suites in addition to all the club-level lounges. The arch over the top actually holds up much of the roof. It’s 1,033 feet long and is the longest unsupported roof structure in the world. The crossbar that played a major and controversial role in the 1966 World Cup Final (look it up) is in the lobby; you can see it on the tour. Wembley has 2,618 toilets—the most of any venue  in the world. It has 35 miles of power cables, 120,000 cubic yards of concrete, and 25,000 tons of steel. We are pretty sure it can fly and communicate with other planets. All of this cost £798 million to build.

Aside from Bobby Moore, there is also a statue of five rugby players. We can’t tell you a single thing about any one of them.

If you want to win a trivia contest sometime, the first competitive game there was won by Stevenage Borough (now FC), 3-2 over Kidderminster Harriers in the FA Trophy final of 2007.

The Wembley tour is totally worth a trip out there. Tours are offered almost every day that there isn’t a game on. An adult ticket is £24 and kids under 16 are £17. There are also VIP options. The tour lasts about an hour and 15 minutes, and it’s pretty much a standard tour: in the box seats, hospitality areas, dressing rooms, and media room, then through the player tunnel to the touchline. It’s just all a lot bigger than usual. And there’s a royal box, which you still can’t sit in, lowly commoner. You will need to book tours ahead at bookings.wembleytours.com.

There is also a small café and a museum about England winning the 1966 World Cup. In fact, there is a lot about England winning the 1966 World Cup. It’s kind of the only thing they ever did, other than invent the game.

Touring Wembley Stadium

I highly recommend taking a tour of Wembley Stadium. It’s the national stadium of Great Britain, home of championship games ranging from amateur to the FA Cup Final, as well as many other games like the Champions League Final. This...

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GETTING THERE: Traditionally, Wembley Park is the way to go, as you come out of the ground with thousands of other people and walk Olympic Way up to the stadium.

But the best way is to go to Marylebone station in London and take Chiltern Railways one stop to the Wembley Stadium station. You’re on the train for nine minutes, and from there it’s less than 10 minutes’ walking.

Whichever way you go, plan to get there early, and assume that it will be three levels of nightmare getting out of there after the game.

Also note that there is now a strict bag policy at Wembley. Basically, try not to bring one. A purse is fine, but anything bigger than 11 x 8 x 8 inches has to be stored nearby for £5.

PUBS: If you’re sitting in Club Wembley (which is where most of the hospitality stuff is), you’ll have myriad options on the concourse. The traditional pub for pregame, though, is The Green Man on Dagmar Avenue. It’s about a 15-minute walk from the stadium and has a sprawling outdoor seating area that will be insane before games. Sometimes it’s designated for one team’s fans, but you can possibly talk your way in, unless you’re wearing the other team’s shirt. Also popular are The Torch and the Crock of Gold on Bridge Road, behind Wembley Park station.

If you’re starting out from Marylebone, there is a sports-themed pub in that station and two other pubs—The Globe plus the more traditional Bell Inn—within a block.

GRUB: The amazing blog Londonist has an entire post about where to eat (and drink) in Wembley, whose population they say is two-thirds Asian. Go over to Londonist.com and search “eat drink Wembley.”