Wembley Stadium statement
Tuesday 1st August

Wembley National Stadium Ltd (WNSL) today issued the following statement from Chief Executive Michael Cunnah.

"We have always sought to give a realistic appraisal of progress on site and following Multiplex's statement to its shareholders it is important that we clear up some issues.

“The contract with Multiplex has two critical future milestones which Multiplex have deliberately confused.  Multiplex is required to hand WNSL a completed stadium which is defined in the contract as ‘Practical Completion’.  WNSL then has to work with Multiplex to finish certain works and to hold the various test events which will enable the safety certificate to be obtained and achieve ‘Operational Completion’, the point at which a fully-functioning stadium is delivered, capable of holding full-capacity events for 90,000 people.

“The latest date Multiplex had stated for PC was September, although we note that their latest statement does not actually give a new date or confirm the previous September date. Multiplex claim that they are substantially complete, however, we note again that Multiplex has yet to finish the stadium’s roof, the extensive remedial works to the stadium’s drainage network, the building management and life safety systems and the installation of approximately 10,000 of the stadium’s 90,000 seats, or to hand over any of the c.3,400 spaces in the stadium for snagging.

“In the absence of a detailed programme of work from the contractor that we can rely on, we estimate that Multiplex will finish their work at some point late this year.  When Multiplex do hand us the completed stadium, we have a detailed timetable of our works and test events which subject to co-operation from the contractor, should enable ‘Operational Completion’ to take place within two to three months of handover.

“We are still not in a position to name an opening event or rule any event in or out as we need Multiplex to make more progress on site. The bottom line for us is that we will be ready two to three months after they give us a finished stadium. If they can achieve that this year, then we will be able to open the stadium in early 2007. We hope that Multiplex will now devote all their energies to completing the stadium at the earliest opportunity as is their responsibility."