"If you build it, UEFA will come."

With apologies to Kevin Costner and the rest of those responsible for Field of Dreams, the fantasy Black Sox baseball movie, this looks like a more and more apposite slogan for a venue some 4,000 miles east of Ray Kinsella's ploughed-under Iowa corn-field: Wembley Stadium.

The recent decision by the European football body to stage the semi-finals and final of its revolutionary, continent-wide Euro 2020 tournament in London brings to five the number of showpiece UEFA occasions to be hosted at the venue with the arch in less than a decade. (And I wouldn't bet against the total rising eventually to six through the awarding to Wembley of a third UEFA Champions League final to add to the 2011 and 2013 editions.)

Why has the famous Stadium in North-West London become UEFA President Michel Platini's field of dreams?

Size, frankly, has a lot to do with it.

As a UEFA source confided around the time of that all-German 2013 Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund: "It's obvious that we love the place; we can accommodate 90,000 people."

Wembley Stadium's size, seating 90,000, makes it an attractive proposition ©Getty Images



Yes, the Stadium has other plus-points: "London is easy to access; the viewing experience is wonderful; it keeps everybody happy".

But, "The essential thing is we can conveniently accommodate 35,000 fans from each club."

Or, when it comes to Euro 2020, from each country.

The financial boost that this situation is delivering to the English Football Association (FA), which had hoped to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup and which, at end-July 2013, still had a hefty £274 million ($443 million/€351 million) of bank loans outstanding in relation to the Wembley Stadium funding, is far from negligible.

The FA's 2011 report and financial statements explained that that year's Champions League final between Barcelona and Manchester United generated £16 million ($25 million/€20 million) of additional turnover in the year for the FA, while incurring £11 million ($17 million/€14 million) of costs.

So I make that a profit on the event of some £5 million ($8 million/€6 million).

While I can find no such clear-cut statement of the impact of the 2013 Champions League final in the FA's 2013 accounts (which cover only the period up to July 31 because of a decision to change the group's accounting reference date), there seems little reason to suppose it would have been much different.

The Football Association can aspire to a turnover of £50 million for the three Euro 2020 showpiece matches ©Getty Images for UEFA



Based on that 2011 figure, and without trying to take account of inflation, it seems reasonable to project that the FA can aspire to at least £50 million ($80 million/€64 million) of extra turnover from the three big Euro 2020 matches Wembley was awarded.

Not bad for an organisation whose present annual turnover is around the £300 million ($485 million/€385 million) mark.

What is more, given that the three matches will come in quick succession, you might think that associated costs per match might weigh in at less than the £11 million incurred for a Champions League final that was a true one-off.

The margin made by the FA in 2020 on its £50 million of extra turnover might therefore be even higher than that achieved in 2011.

Such a windfall will probably be very welcome.

In 2011, after all, it seemed that a corner had been turned, as segmental information in the notes to the accounts showed that "stadium and non-FA event management" nudged into profit for the year, against pre-tax losses of more than £12 million ($19 million/€15 million) in 2010.

In 2012, however, the activity fell back into the red to the tune of £7.83 million ($12 million/€10 million) after £21 million ($34 million/€27 million) of interest payable had been taken into account.

And in the latest set of figures, the loss stands at £7.29 million ($11 million/€9 million) over just seven months.

To judge by the 40,000 attendance for the recent friendly victory over Norway, it looks like the England team may struggle to fill Wembley for a time now too, particularly as UEFA's expansion of the number of European Championship finalists to 24 has taken much of the tension out of Euro 2016 qualifying, at least for the bigger countries.

So the FA has cause to be thankful that Wembley has proved so well tailored to UEFA's big match requirements.

And with much of Western Europe still in the economic doldrums, it may take longer than might once have been expected for newer, edgier competitor-stadiums of similar scale to materialise.

"If you build it..."