MercifulZeus!

I guess. Still don't think we'll ever start referring to the "Arch" as affectionately as we did the "Twin Towers", whatever the susequent global connotations of that phrase may have taken on.

Still can't help feeling that somewhere in the world in the next ten years or so, another stadium is going to rise from the ground with a grand arch very similar to Wembley's. What will make it unique then?

I wonder how much the arch alone cost, firstly to design and construct, then to repair because it got damaged during botched construction. If this feature had never been included, I'm sure the extra money could have been used to save the twin towers. Use them as a grand entrance hall, or a football museum. We have some of the world's foremost experts on building salvage, yet nothing could be done to save the one part of the old Wembley which truly was worth saving? There's a museum in Sussex, the Weald and Downland, which takes historically significant but crumbling buildings from across the south east of England, and reconstructs them brick by brick or stone by stone in the museum grounds. Wembley would have been just like this, only slightly larger.

As long as Multiplex are kept away from the Stratford stadium, we should be fine. We've actually seen plenty of wonderful new stadia go up in the UK over the last 15 years - the Reebok, the McAlpine (now the Galpharm), the KC Stadium, the City of Manchester, the Riverside, the Stadium of Light, (cough splutter) St Mary's, and of course the magnificent Millennium Stadium and the sensational new Emirates Stadium. All we need is a builder with a proven track record. I'm keeping a close eye on the White City development to see how well that keeps to schedule. Yes, Multiplex are doing that too.

I noticed that afterwards. Serves me right for skipping straight to the last page. I think ultimately any stadium which hosts a World Cup Final will gain worldwide recognition. I bet more people around the world know of the Pasadena Rose Bowl near Los Angeles, because of 1994, than almost any other venue in the States. But maybe not the match that made it famous, eh? Man, that was a bore.

If you're going to mention the Azteca stadium, how can you possibly not have in your mind the BIGGEST of them all: the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro? 55 years on and it still holds the world record (around 199,000 for the 1950 World Cup Final) for attendance at a sporting event.