Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Becomes Wembley Stadium's Backer
Xlylith writes "BBC News is reporting that Bill Gates and software giant Microsoft have signed to become first "Founding Partner" of the new Wembley stadium, in a five-year deal worth at least £5m. Microsoft technology will be used in the stadium, and the firm will get use of the pitch for 90 minutes a year. Guess where Vista will be launched in UK next year? Microsoft's press release is also available."
Sweet. It'll give us another chance to test the Stadium Sponsor Curse.
There is no home team as such, it is the new English national stadium. It is the neutral venue for the major football and rugby league cup finals. While the ground has been redeveloped the FA Cup final, League Cup final and Charity Shield have been been played at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff (the Welsh national stadium).
The England national team (who have being playing most of their matches in Manchester, Newcastle and Birmingham in recent years) will be playing their home matches at Wembley, but in association football, national teams do not have shirt sponsors in the same way as club sides do (it is still considered somewhat vulgar to sell out your country to some corporate interest, though no doubt things will eventually change as most other sports have gone this way).
The new Wembley stadium has taken longer than first forecast and run a long way over budget but it should be a spectacular venue. It will be the largest capacity sports venue in the world in which every seat is under cover, with a sliding roof so that the grass can be protected from/exposed to the weather as required, and each seat will have more leg room than the seats in the royal box at the old Wembley. In the words of Tony Banks, "it will make the Stade de France look like a dog kennel". Surprisingly, it will only be used for football at the 2012 Olympics, with a smaller, 80,000 seat Olympic stadium being built in the East of the city.
Suck figs.