Only the English could build something as excessive and expensive as the new Wembley Stadium and proceed to open and operate it without the slightest regard for the people who will ultimately pay for it, English soccer fans.

Costing over $1.6 billion, with each added overrun and legal skirmish headlined in the media, the laborious building process which began late in the last century finally ended earlier this year. Entire galaxies may have formed quicker and less stressfully than the ordeal which finally gave England it's new 90,000-seat soccer showcase.

It's a spectacular looking building alright, with a soaring arch rising distinctively above the movable 11-acre roof. Unlike it's predecessor, this stadium is clearly built with only one sport in mind - soccer. While the first Wembley stadium had a running track separating the seats from the pitch, this version has stands that are built tight to the sidelines, offering better views and more intimate atmosphere.

The first event of any significance is on May 19 when Chelsea and Manchester United wil play in the venue's inaugural FA Cup final. While clearly proud to be involved in such an historic event, both clubs have expressed their displeasure at how tickets are being distributed to their fans and the prices those fans will have to pay.

Angry that each club were allotted only 25,000 tickets each, with a majority located in the higher price range of seats, supporters groups have announced that they'll pay Wembley back by organizing mass boycotts of all food and souvenir vendors during that event.

It's hardly the ideal circumstance for the stadium's first major event. But it's certainly in keeping with the wooly thinking that pervades much of the management ranks of English soccer.

Stadium officials recently poured cold water on a proposal to allow Tottenham Hotspur temporary tenancy for two seasons while their White Hart Lane stadium is being rebuilt and expanded. It's caused a ruffle among Spurs fans who are eager to see their stadium reconstruction get underway. They can't help but notice that their ardent rivals, Arsenal, were rumored to be moving permanently into Wembley before choosing to build Emirates Stadium.

With only a small number of events scheduled each year for Wembley, such a move offers some interesting benefits.

Spurs are not likely to fill the stadium every game. They might for big matches against local rivals like Arsenal or top clubs like Man U, Liverpool or Chelsea. but there will be many games when a 60,000 crowd would be a good turnout for them, yet Wembley would still be almost one-third empty.

With ticket prices to Premiership games already at extortionate levels, gone are the days when a working-class fan could take his family to watch a game. A generation is growing up these days aware of the Premier league stars only through television.

You wonder why England struggles to win nowadays, when youngsters that should be having their desire to play sparked through an afternoon at a soccer game are continuosly denied by runaway ticket prices.

A club playing for a time at Wembley, particularly so soon after its protracted and embarassing opening, would breathe life, fresh perspective, into a stadium and a management situation grown stuffy and out of touch.

By opening up Wembley to a temporary club tenant, the FA have a great chance to sell off large sections of seats at affordable prices and bring the game back to fans who need see first hand the glory o####reat goal or the roar of a delighted crowd.

Instead, Wembley management prefer to comfort themselves knowing that 15,000 or more Club Wembley members have lined their coffers by snapping up the best seats for every event for years to come.

They say things like they don't want the stadium to be associated with anything but the national team and the FA Cup or it might weaken the brand. They want games scheduled there on a controlled basis so that they can bring in concerts and NFL games and the Race of Champions motorsport event.

Well, now they've got fans - the people who support the very core business of the stadium - upset to the point of boycott about FA Cup ticket distribution and the high-handed dismissal of Tottenham's leasing arrangement.

The last thing Wembley needs is to begin alienating fans. In fact, drawing more of them to the site would be beneficial in helping to encourage the redevelopment of the blighted area around the stadium.

One hopes the new stadium will work to reverse the lengthening series of poor results of the team the place was principally built for, the English national team. Based on the performances we're presently seeing from the team and Wembley management, they look like they were made for each other.