Wembley Stadium (Old)

London (Wembley), Greater London, England

Rugby League: Venues ▾

Wembley Stadium (Old), London (Wembley), England — opened 1923, 76 rugby league games hosted, home of None (neutral national venue; demolished 2003).

Sourcing caveat: Two independent tallies of the biggest Challenge Cup Final crowds (Total Rugby League and Zero Tackle) broadly agree on the ranking and figures for Wembley's biggest finals, and the headline 1985 record of 99,801 is independently confirmed by Wikipedia's dedicated 1984-85 Challenge Cup article, which explicitly calls it 'the highest ever recorded for the Cup Final at Wembley Stadium.' Exact capacity figures for the stadium varied considerably by decade and by seating configuration (standing terraces were far more extensive in the 1930s-1980s than after 1990s all-seater conversions), so the capacity figure given here is a general characterisation, not a single official figure valid across the venue's whole 77-year life.

Ground facts

Opened	1923
Home club	None (neutral national venue; demolished 2003)
Closed	2000
Demolished	2002-2003 (demolition began December 2002, completed 2003)
Site today	The current (2007) Wembley Stadium, a much larger venue, was built on the same site — a separate, current venue not covered by this entry
Games hosted (rugby league, on record)	76
Top recorded crowd	98,536 (Rugby League — 1966 Challenge Cup Final, Challenge Cup: St Helens 21-2 Wigan)
Capacity	Around 100,000 at its rugby-league peak (reduced to roughly 79,000 all-seated by the 1990s after post-Hillsborough seating conversions); varied significantly across its 77-year life
Test matches hosted	2
Challenge Cup Finals hosted	15
Surface	Grass
First rugby league match	First Challenge Cup Final held at Wembley: 4 May 1929 — Wigan 13-2 Dewsbury, attendance 41,500 (the first Challenge Cup Final played there)
Last rugby league match	Last Challenge Cup Final held at the old Wembley: 1 May 1999 — Leeds 52-16 London Broncos, attendance 73,242; the stadium closed for redevelopment shortly after, and the 2000 Challenge Cup Final moved to Murrayfield, Edinburgh
Years used	1929–1999
Location	London (Wembley), Greater London

Name history

Empire Stadium — 1923-1990s (official original name, built for the 1924-25 British Empire Exhibition)
Wembley Stadium — in general/popular use throughout its life, and the name it is now retrospectively distinguished as 'Wembley Stadium (1923)' or 'the old Wembley' to separate it from its 2007 replacement on the same site

Rugby league history

The original Wembley Stadium -- officially the Empire Stadium, built for the 1924-25 British Empire Exhibition -- became the single most famous and prestigious venue in the history of rugby league, almost entirely through one annual fixture: the Rugby Football League's Challenge Cup Final, staged there in most years from 1929 to 1999 (excluding the wartime years, when the final moved elsewhere; it returned to Wembley in 1946 and remained the Cup Final's near-permanent home for the rest of the 20th century). Because it hosted essentially one rugby league fixture a year rather than a regular playing schedule, its total game count (in the low dozens across seven decades) is modest by the standards of a club's home ground -- but no other rugby league venue in the sport's history carries anything like its cultural weight. For generations of players and fans in the north of England, an invitation to 'walk out at Wembley' -- down the famous 39 steps from the players' tunnel to collect the trophy -- was the sport's single greatest occasion, commonly described in rugby league writing as the 'Wembley mystique': the Cup Final was, for decades, rugby league's only regular appointment on national television and its only real shop window to a UK-wide audience. Wembley also delivered some of the biggest crowds in the sport's history. Crowds climbed steeply in the years after the Second World War, with the 1948/49 final (Bradford Northern beating Halifax) drawing 95,050, and several finals through the 1950s-80s regularly exceeding 90,000-95,000 -- figures unmatched by any regular rugby league fixture anywhere in the world at the time, bar the one-off 1954 Challenge Cup Final replay at Bradford's Odsal Stadium (102,569, necessitated when the first match at Wembley finished level). The record crowd for a Challenge Cup Final specifically at Wembley itself came on 4 May 1985, when 99,801 saw Wigan beat Hull FC 28-24 in one of the most fondly remembered finals in the competition's history -- a match still regularly cited by British rugby league writers as among the greatest Cup Finals ever played. Wembley additionally hosted the finals of the 1992 and 1995 Rugby League World Cups; the 1992 final (Australia beating Great Britain 10-6 in front of 73,631) set a new international rugby league attendance record at the time. By the 1990s, changing crowd patterns, all-seater-stadium requirements introduced after the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, and the sport's move to summer Super League rugby had reduced typical Challenge Cup Final crowds well below their 1970s-80s peaks (the 1999 final, the last held there, drew 73,242). The stadium closed in October 2000 for a full and costly rebuild; demolition began in December 2002 and was completed in 2003, and a new, larger Wembley Stadium (capacity approximately 90,000, opened 2007) was subsequently built on the same site. The Challenge Cup Final has been held at the current Wembley Stadium in most years since 2007, but that is a distinct, separate venue from the one described in this entry.

Far better known worldwide as the home of the FA Cup Final (hosted almost every year from 1923) and of the England men's football team, and as a venue for major athletics, boxing and American football events; rugby league's Challenge Cup Final was one of several major annual cup finals Wembley hosted across different sports.

Historic Test matches, Cup & Grand Finals hosted

1928/29 Challenge Cup Final, 4 May 1929 — Wigan 13-2 Dewsbury, attendance 41,500 (first Challenge Cup Final at Wembley)
1938/39 Challenge Cup Final — Halifax 20-3 Salford, attendance 55,453 (the highest of the pre-war Wembley era)
1948/49 Challenge Cup Final — Bradford Northern 12-0 Halifax, attendance 95,050
1949/50 Challenge Cup Final — Warrington beat Widnes, attendance 94,249
1950/51 Challenge Cup Final — Wigan beat Barrow, attendance 94,262
1960/61 Challenge Cup Final — St Helens 12-6 Wigan, attendance 94,672
1965/66 Challenge Cup Final — St Helens 21-2 Wigan, attendance 98,536
1968/69 Challenge Cup Final — Castleford 11-6 Salford, attendance 97,939
1969/70 Challenge Cup Final — Castleford 7-2 Wigan, attendance 95,255
1977/78 Challenge Cup Final — Leeds 14-12 St Helens, attendance 96,000
1979/80 Challenge Cup Final — Hull KR 10-5 Hull FC, attendance 95,000
1984/85 Challenge Cup Final, 4 May 1985 — Wigan 28-24 Hull FC, attendance 99,801 — the highest-ever attendance recorded for a Challenge Cup Final at Wembley Stadium
1987/88 Challenge Cup Final — Wigan 32-12 Halifax, attendance 94,273
1997 Challenge Cup Final — St Helens 32-22 Bradford Bulls (the first Wembley final of the Super League era)
1998/99 Challenge Cup Final, 1 May 1999 — Leeds 52-16 London Broncos, attendance 73,242 (last Challenge Cup Final held at the old Wembley)
24 October 1992 — 1992 Rugby League World Cup Final: Australia 10-6 Great Britain, attendance 73,631 — a rugby league international attendance record at the time (surpassing the previous record of 70,204 from 1932), not beaten until the 2013 World Cup Final (74,468, Old Trafford)
1995 Rugby League World Cup Final — Australia 16-8 England, attendance 66,540

Pre-dates the site's structured match-by-match records for these competitions, so listed here as sourced facts rather than linked match pages.

Sources

Data last verified: 11 August 2026.

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