First Wembley match will not be Cup final

14 April 2012

The first match at the new Wembley Stadium will not be the 2006 FA Cup final but a test event such as an England Under-21 international to be held in March next year.

The £757million stadium needs to stage an event with half to two-thirds of its full 90,000 capacity to test out all the power, organisational and safety systems before it will be awarded a safety certificate.

Construction of the stadium is on course to be finished in January next year with the pitch being laid in November.

Wembley chief executive Michael Cunnah said: "The stadium will basically be ready by the end of January but before we have the first official match, the FA Cup final, we will stage a couple of 'soft events' in order to gain the safety certificate from Brent Council.

"These events will probably be an England Under-21 international and possibly a schoolboy international where there will be a crowd of between 30,000 and 60,000 which will enable us to test all the facilities but not at full capacity."

Multiplex, the firm which have agreed a fixed-cost contract to build the stadium have recently said they do not expect to make an overall profit from the deal.

There were financial incentives in place for finishing the work early but Cunnah said that was not a likely scenario.

He added: "From what Multiplex have told us we do not anticipate them finishing early but the work will be finished on schedule."

All the corporate boxes have already been sold and around a third of the 15,000 premium seats. These cost a one-off payment of £3,900 plus £1,300 a year for 10 years, guaranteeing a seat at 12 major sports events per year at an average cost of £140 per event.

The new Wembley will be twice the size of the old stadium in terms of floor space, three times the size of the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, and will be the largest stadium in the world where all the seats will be covered.

It will have a retractable roof covering the seating areas - but not the pitch - which can be opened to allow sun, wind and rain onto the turf when events are not being staged.