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The Millenium Stadium - How it all came about..

Introduction

As early as 1994 a group redevelopment committee was set up to look at redeveloping the stadium and linking this to the regeneration of west Cardiff.

1n 1995 the WRU won the right to host the rugby world cup in 1999 ­ against severe competition from the southern hemispheres.
A review of the national stadium of Cardiff Arms Park (designed in 1962) showed that the stadium had long since been overtaken, with Twickenham and Scotland having developed stadia with capacities of 75,000 and 67,000 respectively and France about to build the Stade de France with a capacity of over 80,000.Capacity in the old stadium was 53,000 (including 11,000 standing in the east terrace). New safety regulations would mean that the capacity would be further reduced by "all-seater" arrangements.
There were no spectator facilities in the old stadium other than toilets.

It was decided that the new stadium should have a roof to accommodate a requirement for multi-use and also a natural grass pitch for rugby. Therefore a retractable roof was incorporated into the design brief. The only other retractable roof in Europe is in the Amsterdam Arena which has a capacity of 50,000.A number of different development options were considered including adding a third tier to the existing stadium and moving to a completely new site.

The redevelopment option eventually chosen and supported by the Millennium Commission is the fourth redevelopment in the history of Cardiff Arms Park.