The Millenium Stadium The Millenium Stadium (now known as the Principality Stadium) was built in June 1999 in Cardiff. It is Wales’ national stadium . It was built to host the 1999 Rugby World Cup. It can hold 74,500 people and it is the second-largest stadium in the world with a fully retractable roof. The past national stadium had a capacity of 55,000. It was renamed the Princiality Stadium on the 22 of January 2016.

The highest recorded attendance was 74,576 for the Wales VS Scotland in the 2008 Six Nations champ- ionship There are on average 1.3 million visitors a year. In total, the stadium has hosted more than 350 events since 1999. Construction began in 1997 and ended in 1999 with a total cost of £121 million. The stadium was designed by a team led by Rod Sheard at Lobb Sport Architecture. Rod Sheard has designed many other buildings including Wembley Stadium, the London 2012 Olympic Stadium and Ascot Racecourse.

The first game played in the stadium was Wales Vs South Africa on the 26th of June. Wales won 29-19. It was the first time they had won against them ever. One Direction performed in the stadium just after the ground was re-turfed. 100,000 fans visited the stadium for the event. In November 2014 Wales won against South Africa for the second time. The closest Wales came to winning against South Africa before 1999 was in 1970 when they drew 6-6.

WRC In 2005 the Millenium Stadium held the World Rally Championships. An indoor 1km long race course with a pupose built jump was installed in the stadium. There was space for 51,000 viewers after the bottom tier of the stadium was removed for safety. There were 120 cars on the day. 40 spaces were reserved for amateur drivers to gain some recognition.

Government Funding In order for the old stadium to gain the offered £50m of government funding which it needed to upgrade the new stadium had to meet several criteria: It had to gain: Public support To make a substantial contribution to the community To look back on the past Millennium and into the new one Mark a significant movement in history Be of a high architectural design and environmental quality Include partnership with the local community Would not be possible on most commission funds

Fun Facts 200,000 nuts and bolts were used to built the stadium. There are 1,131 doors and seven lifts. It is the 3rd largest stadium in britain. It was the second stadium in Europe to have a fully retractable roof. The Amsterdam Arena with a capacity of 50,000 was the only other stadium to possess this feature. There are 110 floodlights on the premises. Each roof speaker weighs 10 tonnes which is the equivalent to two medium sized African elephants. 56,000 tonnes of concrete were used in the building of the stadium.