When photographers converged upon Wembley on 24 March 2007 to capture the first proper match since its reconstruction, they discovered no expense had been spared. The working area was as spacious and plush as should be expected in a state-of-the-art £757m football stadium; shooting England Under-21s’ curtain-raiser against Italy would present few major problems but it was an addition to the facilities that raised eyebrows. To some astonishment, those present opened the doors on a fully equipped darkroom, with sinks provided for the wet processing of films. It was a pristine setup with one flaw: there was absolutely no need for it, with the vast majority of its target users having long since switched to digital methods.
The speed of technological change had, in this case, outstripped what had often seemed a glacial rate of progress since Wembley was first identified as the new national stadium’s home in 1996. Yet in context it was more a quirk than a bump in the road and, a decade on, the impression is of a facility more comfortable in its own skin than when it opened its doors under a lingering cloud of debate about its financing and the very role it ought to play.
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The main thing was to make sure it was a showpiece, and I think we managed that
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