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Ever dreamt of playing in the
FA Cup Final or playing for your country in rugby? Make your dream
come true with a Millennium Stadium tour.
Go into the players changing rooms and run down
the players tunnel. The pitch, laid on over 7,400 pallets, is moved
out when the Millennium Stadium is used for concerts and exhibitions.
Sit in the Royal Box and have a trophy presented. Look up at the
only retractable roof in a British Stadium. The roof takes 20 minutes
to open and the Millennium Stadium is only the second stadium of
its type in Europe and the biggest in the world with this feature.
Sit in the top row in one of the 72,500 seats, teetering over the
pitch and see if you get vertigo.
The stadium was restricted in size because of
next door's Cardiff Arms Park - which was for 125 years the historic
home of Welsh rugby and the reason for the steep seating of the
Millennium Stadium. With no space for a running track, spectators
are on top of the action.
See how part of one of the old stands from historic
Cardiff Arms Park is built into the new Stadium and crane your neck
up to see the four giant 93-metre tall arms holding up the roof
- they make the stadium Cardiff's second tallest building. Walk
along the World in Union boardwalk alongside the River Taff and
view the special paving stones inscribed with names of fans and
companies.
The £126 million Millennium Stadium took
just two years to build and opened in time for the Rugby World Cup
in 1999. Since then it has hosted Wales Rugby Internationals including
the Six Nations and matches against New Zealand, the Barbarians,
South Africa and Australia. During the build of the new Wembley
Stadium, Cardiff Millennium Stadium took on the FA Cup Final, Carling
Cup Final, Playoffs, FA Community Shield, LDV Vans Final, Challenge
Cup and League Cup Final among other events.
In each of the stadium's bars, the so-called
"joy machines" pour 12 pints in less than 20 seconds.
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 Millennium Stadium is currently Britain's
biggest capacity stadium. Visit it before the new Wembley Stadium
opens.
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
Click here to visit the Millenium
Stadium's official website.
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