Stadium of Light
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The Stadium of Light is a football stadium, the home of Sunderland Football Club, in North East England.
After several abortive attempts to build a new stadium to replace Roker Park, Sunderland finally built the Stadium of Light and occupied it in summer of 1997. It originally had a capacity of 42,000 but has since been expanded to 49,000. However it is designed to allow a maximum capacity of 64,000.
It is placed on an area formerly known as the Sheepfolds on the northern bank of the River Wear, under which there were once coalmines. Two newly-built stations on the Tyne and Wear Metro service the station: Stadium of Light and St Peter's.
The name was chosen following a competition. Although it was partly inspired by Benfica's Estádio da Luz ground in Lisbon (which translates as "Stadium of Light"), the name in fact refers to the lasers built in to the corners of the ground which beam into the night sky, marking the ground out. A sign at one of the main entrances to the ground reads "INTO THE LIGHT"; the same words were found on a famous sign at the exit to the main elevator of the Monkwearmouth Colliery that once occupied the stadium site.
The stadium hosted its first international football match in 1999 when England played Belgium in a friendly match, and more seriously in April 2003 when England played Turkey in a qualification match for Template:Ec2.
The stadium has hosted the graduation ceremonies for the University of Sunderland since 2004.
Reference
Gillan, T (2001) Let There Be Light. S.T. Publishing. ISBN 0953592081 — catalogues the building of the stadium.
External link
bbc.co.uk (http://www.bbc.co.uk/wear/360/stadium_index.shtml) Free 360 degree views of the stadium