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| Stage One (November 1994-October 1995)
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| November 1994 | The Sports Council agreed its strategy for the project, and decided to establish a Project Steering Group to consider the best way forward.
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| February 1995 | The Project Steering Group was established, comprising The Sports Council, FA, Football League, FA Premier League, Rugby Football League and British Athletic Federation.
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| The role of the Steering Group was to establish bid criteria, develop an initial brief for the project, and assist in the assessment of bids.
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| April 1995 | The Sports Council issued criteria (agreed by the steering group) to assist bidders for the project.
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| July 1995 | The Sports Council received the five bids for the project—Birmingham, Bradford, Manchester, Sheffield, Wembley.
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| October 1995 | The Sports Council announced its decision to shortlist Manchester and Wembley for further consideration.
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| Stage Two (November 1995-December 1996)
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| Nov-Dec 1995 | All five bids were debriefed in detail during this period.
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| April 1996 | Sterring Group role completed and disbanded.
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| June 1996 | Sports Council Framwork Document published providing detailed guidance to bidders on the project requirements, indicative terms of grant and the rules of the process.
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| September 1996 | "Stage two" bids received from Wembley and Manchester.
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| December 1996 | Sports Council decision to select Wembley as the preferred site for the National Stadium, and to award, in principle (subject to receipt and appraisal of a satisfactory grant application) £120 million Lottery grant.
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| Stage Three (January-November 1997)
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| June 1997 | Sports Council Project Plan published, to provide further guidance to the Wembley bid, based upon an assessment of their bid documentation.
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| September 1997 | Grant Application received from the English National Stadium Trust.
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| October 1997 | Sports Council decision to award £21.5 million, subject to successful progress as the first tranche of grant against three key milestones under the first of three Lottery Funding Agreements related to the project (signed November 1997):—
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| — By 30 April 1998, to negotiate a lease for the site from Wembley plc, and to tender for and appoint the design team—£0.9 million awarded;
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| — By November 1998, for further design development work—£8.6 million awarded (not subsequently released);
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| — By 31 March 1999, to develop the project to the point where it could start on site—£12.0 million awarded (not subsequently released).
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| Stage Four "A" (November 1997-April 1998)
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| March 1998 | ENST failed to achieve milestone one, writing to the Policy Unit at No. 10 Downing Street emphasising that they had been incapable of making progress in securing a lease for the site—the start of the much reported "Board room battles" at Wembley plc. Wembley plc were also considering at that time a rival bid from Arsenal FC.
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| March 1998 | ENST, now co-joined in the application with the FA, made a new grant application to take the project forward, the grant released to that date being £0.96 million.
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| April 1998 | The Sports Council decided to award a further £1.38 million to negotiate, amongst other things, the acquisition of the site from Wembley plc by 12 June 1998.
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| May 1998 | Lottery Funding Agreement for next stage of project was signed.
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| Stage Four "B" (April 1998-January 1999)
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| June 1998 | Milestone date for completion of issues related to site acquisition. However, delays occured on three fronts:—
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| Wembley plc—continuing board room wrangles over the sale of the site to the project, finally resolved with the signing of the Sale Agreement on 12 January 1999, and the completion of the sale on 15 March 1999. During this period, following initial consideration of design options, the Design Team were effectively stood down pending the resolution of these issues;
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| Grant conditions—extended discussions with the FA to negotiate the terms of the funding agreement, resolved with the signing of the funding agreement on 12 January 1999; and
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| Financial Directions—discussions between Sport England and DCMS re changes required to the Directions, resulting in new Directions being issued by the Secretary of State on 11 November 1998.
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| 9-10 July 1998 | WNSL held the first design workshop with the design team to discuss the brief, budget and design options (at the workshop, the design team proposed the deck approach for the first time). The need to ensure that the stadium capacity (when in athletics mode) could be increased from 65,000 to 80,000 should a bid for the Olympic Games prove successful, was also discussed.
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| 27 July 1998 | Sport England made a presentation to the Secretary of State on the design approach (including the issues related to Olympic capacity), and on key terms and conditions of grant.
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| 30 July 1998 | Discussions commenced between DCMS and Sport England on the Financial Directions, a series of discussion papers being presented to DCMS as background on the project (29 July 1998, and 5 August 1998)
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| 2 November 1998 | Sport England considered the grant application for the balance of the £120 million grant, subject to satisfactory progress, and agreed to award the grant.
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| 11 November 1998 | The Secretary of State issued new Financial Directions for the project.
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| 12 January 1999 | The Lottery Funding Agreement (committing the balance of the £120 million grant), the FA Event Staging Agreement (committing their events to the stadium for 20 years) and the Sale and Purchase Agreement for the site were signed.
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| 11 March 1999 | Wembley plc shareholders vote by a large majority to sell the stadium to the stadium development company, rejecting rival bids from ENIC and SFX in the process
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| 15 March 1999 | Acquisition of the site completed.
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| Stage Five (March 1999-August 2000) (Projected)
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| March 1999 | The Lottery Funding Agreement of 12 January 1999 established a series of milestones for WNSL and the FA to meet, as described in the paper. They related to progress on design, planning, funding commitments and a range of other issues.
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| March-July 1999 | The design approach began again in earnest, and was discussed and agreed by all organisations involved, including the Government, UK Athletics, the BOA, the FA, WNSL and Sport England.
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| 29 July 1999 | The design was launched at Wembley Stadium.
The Wembley Task Force was formally established by DETR and DCMS to lead a programme of work related to infrastructure requirements, planning issues and regeneration opportunities around the stadium (the Task Force have evaluated proposals for stadium warm-up facilities, presenting four costed options for consideration).
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| 6 October 1999 | WNSL and their Design Team made a presentation to DCMS, Sport England and the BOA, reporting on progress to take forward in detail the proposals related to increasing the capacity in athletics mode to 80,000 at a later date (as agreed prior to the 29 July 1999 launch). WNSL's proposals were based upon reconfiguring the lower tier of seating in connection with the construction of the athletics deck. A number of issues were identified for further work by WNSL, in relation to providing more detail on the design and cost of this approach.
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| 19 October 1999 | At a meeting chaired by the Minister for Sport, it was agreed further work would be undertaken to verify the viability and costs of two approaches (the WNSL lower tier proposals, and the option of adding additional seats at the outset). UK Sport were asked to commission an independent technical audit of the two options.
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| 28 October 1999 | Sport England presented to DCMS its appraisal of the cost and viability of the Olympic options put forward by WNSL.
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| 15 November 1999 | WNSL submitted the stadium planning application to the London Borough of Brent. A press conference was held by WNSL to provide an update on the design.
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| 30 November 1999 | Following detailed discussions between UK Athletics technical team and WNSL/Design Team since March 1999, final design details were agreed for inclusion in the 2005 World Athletics Championships.
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| 1 December 1999 | The Secretary of State made a statement to the House of Commons on the project, calling into question the ability of the stadium to host athletics on the basis of a report from Ellerbe Becket, independent consultants commissioned by UK Sport. Other than UK Sport and the DCMS, no other organisation had access to the report until the afternoon of the Commons statement, providing little opportunity to address any issues raised by it. He requested Sport England and WNSL to respond to the report by 15 December 1999.
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| By 15 December 1999 | WNSL submitted a report to DCMS rebutting the issues raised by Ellerbe Becket.
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| Sport England submitted a report to DCMS assessing the availability and costs of alternative stadia for athletics.
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| 14 December 1999 | The Secretary of State requested that Sport England should consider Twickenham as a possible alternative for athletics, and DCMS began to explore ways of securing a grant repayment from the FA.
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| 20 December 1999 | The RFU presented their proposals to DCMS officials, the BOA, and Sport England.
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| 21 December 1999 | Sport England provided initial comments to DCMS on the suitability of Twickenham for athletics.
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| 22 December 1999 | The Secretary of State made a statement to the effect that athletics would no longer form part of the Wembley project, alternatives would need to be found for athletics (Twickenham being a possible option), and that the FA would repay £20 million of the Sport England grant.
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| As at 12 January 2000 |
Sport England has begun discussions with the FA regarding repayment of grant following the Secretary of State's statement.
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| At the time of writing, a viable alternative for athletics has not yet been identified although discussions regarding Twickenham and a range of other possibilities are continuing.
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| By 31 January 2000 | UK Athletics must submit a bid to the IAAF for the 2005 World Athletics Championships.
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