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Football
stadiums in Europe |
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More than words could do, the picture of the two stadiums in Gelsenkirchen (located in the Ruhr Area, Germany) demonstrates in which direction football stadium design is heading in these days. The round stadium with running track and non-covered terraces is replaced by a rectangular multiuse hall with special features like retractable roof, retractable pitch and large videoscreens. But talking about football stadiums is not only a question of architecture or construction: Following the tradition of big events and projects, football stadiums are nowadays even used to iniate or stimulate urban development. |
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The logistics of masses It's in the nature of stadiums to attract masses of people more
or less simultaneously. For that reason, stadium designer must
find a location which can be easily linked to high-capacity-infrastructures.
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The grass was greener Modern stadiums don't have much in common with the small field
in our hometowns where we used to play football in our childhood.
Sometimes not even the grass. Nowadays the UEFA is experimenting
the use of artificial turf instead of living green. |
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Four stadiums will be objects of a real field study: The Luzhniki
stadium in Moscow (which already has an artificial turf pitch),
the new stadium in Salzburg (first use: march'03), the
Eyravallen stadium in Örebro, Sweden and the Atatürk Stadium
in the Turkish city of Denizli. |
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The UEFA published a manual for the design of artificial turf
pitch: |
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The english way The English stadiums can be seen as the godfathers of modern football stadiums, but due to security restrictions, the spectators in these modern arenas are not allowed to seat or stand so close to the pitch as the English still can do. And they enjoy it. Maybe the best example is the Old Trafford in Manchester: Even in good old England, the traditional stadiums are often
replaced by new ones, and this will happen even to their oldest
football ground: About the new Arsenal stadium: About the new stadium in Liverpool: |
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the glorious ones: only the memory remains In the last years lots of football clubs and towns discussed the construction of completly new stadiums instead of the renovation or extension of existing sites which could not meet the current demands for international football. Sometimes the new stadiums are constructed on the same site, anyway, they will hardly be able to carry on the glory of their predecessors. |
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Even it doesn't exist any more, the old Wembley Stadium is probably still the most famous stadium. It has not only been the spot of the most discussed football goal in history (scored by Geoff Hurst for the winning English team in the final of the FIFA worldcup 1966), but even of many concerts like Bob Geldof's World Aid 1985, Queen 1986 or Oasis 2000. Not to forget the Olympic Games of 1948. The new stadium - due to open in early 2006 - will seat 90,000 people and will have a state-of-the-art sliding roof designed to aid pitch conditions. Planned by a team of architects around Sir Norman Foster. |
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The official site of the Wembley Stadium |
Guardian Unlimited special - dedicated
to Wembley |
Estadio da Luz - Lisbon
It's hardly beauty which turned the Estadio da Luz into one of the most important buildings of Lisbon. It's to be explained by football only, by its history, by its emotions, maybe best displayed by the small and nearly insignificant statue of Eusébio in front of the main entrance. But the Estadio da Luz was even for some time the biggest European stadium, with the highlight of 127,000 spectators attending the final of the 1991 FIFA Under-20 World Championship between Portugal and Brazil, seeing the rise of a new portugese team including players like Luis Figo, João Pinto, Rui Costa, Capucho, Jorge Costa, and Fernando Couto.
The new stadium will be constructed close to the old site with a 65,000 fully-covered seating capacity, including leisure, entertainment and cultural areas. During the construction works, the local team Benfica will play in the Lisbon Estádio Nacional. In 2004, the new Estadio da Luz will host the final match of the Euro 2004.
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"o Gigante de betão" - the story
of the Stadium of Light Sport Lisboa e Benfica - the glorious team of
the Estadio da Luz About the new Estadio da Luz on the Euro2004 site |
 Estadio da Luz (new & old) - Lisbon |
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The big ones... At the moment, there are 8 stadiums in Europe with a capacity of more than 80,000 seats. After a long progress of extensions, the older stadiums already have to look back at the times of their highest capacities (due to safety restrictions and transformation into all-seater-arenas). |
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L'Estadi (Camp Nou) - Barcelona The Camp Nou is the biggest stadium in Europe, offering more than 90,000 people the sensation of watching one of the most important football teams in the history of football. Some lines about the history of Camp Nou |
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This following list is based on the information provided by |
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It's not only size that matters. The UEFA has set up a category system of stadiums, best rating 5 stars, followed by 4 stars. (Unfortunately, the UEFA does not publish the list of excellent stadiums online, so there are only some unofficial sites giving an overwiev, but not always up-to-date). 5 Stars: 4 Stars: |
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Small might be more beautiful |
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Arnold-Schwarzenegger-Stadion - Graz The Arnold-Schwarzenegger-Stadion is the home of Sturm Graz &
Grazer AK, both playing in the first Austrian league. In its short
history since 1997, the Arnold-Schwarzenegger-Stadion saw already
famous victories of Sturm Graz in their sucessful Champions League
season 2000/2001, beating Feyenoord Rotterdam, Galatasaray Istanbul,
Glasgow Rangers, AS Monaco and Panathinaikos. Because of its rather
low capacity (15,400 seats), this stadium will not be used for
the Euro 2008 (hosted by Austria & Switzerland) as UEFA guidelines
forsee at least a capacity of 30,000. |
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The islands within the (sub)urban landscape New stadiums (at least the big ones) are usually located in the suburbs. For these areas, the construction of a stadium is comparable to the landing of an UFO. Something new, something from the future, totally in contrary to the existing surroundings often consisting of traditional working-class buildings. |
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Stade de France - Saint-Denis / Paris The Stade de France might be considered as masterpiece, but mainly in architectural criterion. From urban planner's point of view, things seem quite different. Maybe because of its tremendous size, the stadium is only used for national sport events and concerts, but never for activities with local reference like it could be if a local football club would call it its home arena. Anyway, Stade de France became a national momument in 1998 after France had won the world championship, beating Italy, Croatia and finally Brazil in the Stade de France. |
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The official site of the Stade de France Hugh Pearman about the Stade de France |
The Archictecture of the Stade de France The site of the architects of the Stade de France |
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The islands within the green/landscape Stadion der Freundschaft - Cottbus (Germany) The Stadion der Freundschaft is one of the smallest and certainly one the greenest stadiums used in German first football league. The pitch is close to the terraces (among them 16,000 non-seater), creating a special atmosphere, even on days when none of the players of local team Energie Cottbus has got a German passport. Homepage of Energie Cottbus - about the stadium 360°-Pananoma from inside the stadium Estadio La Victoria - Jaén (Andalusia) Gospin Dolac Stadion - Imotskog
(Croatia) |
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If a stadium is compared to a cake, Olympiastadion - Munich Ernst-Happel-Stadion - Vienna Olympiastadion - Berlin |
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The halls Amsterdam ArenA - Amsterdam The Amsterdam ArenA can be seen as the prototype of the new stadium boom that hit this continent in 1995. The ArenA is even one of the flagships standing for the commercialization of football and football stadiums, as the ArenA was forseen to create an Urban Entertainment Centre together with a cinema, a concert hall and even a theatre. Last but not least, the special feature of the ArenA is the fully retractable roof (within 35 minutes). While one of the most speical events in the ArenA could have been the royal wedding party of Prince Willem Alexander and Maxima Zorreguieta, the most tragic event was certainly the defeat of the national team in penalty kick out against Italy in the semifinal of the Euro 2000, which set an end to all the orange fairy tales. |
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The official site of the Amsterdam ArenA A panorama of the ArenA in a quite artistic way About the construction of the stadium (mainly
pictures) |
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Like the Amsterdam ArenaA, the Arena AufSchalke in Gelsenkirchen
(home ground of Schalke 04) has a fully retractable roof, but
in addition to that, even the pitch is retractable. The official site of the Arena AufSchalke About the construction of the Arena AufSchalke |
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The next generation ?! The new stadium in Munich, the Allianz Arena, will host the opening match of the worldcup 2006. It will be the home ground for both Munich first-league-teams, FC Bayern München & 1860 München. "The Boat", how the stadium is called inofficially, will have a capacity of 66,000 seats. Offical site of the Allianz Arena |
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An alternative stadium design and location: |
The mayor of Munich about the new
stadium: |
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Süddeutsche Zeitung special dedicated to
the new stadium: |
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The architects / the planners Belong some architect teams specialised in sport venue and stadium design (HOK S.V.E., Team A Graz, Wirth+Wirth, etc.), even the top quoted architects have discovered stadiums as potential field of operation, like the New Wembley stadium by Norman Foster. Stadio San Nicola - Bari : by Renzo Piano Olympic Stadium - Athens : by Santiago Calatrava
Generally about stadium design, by Derek Wilson
About the connections between stadiums and urban
planning, by Jochen Becker The "dictionary" of the Stadio degli Alpi in Turin,
by Lorenzo Matteoli
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European Football Stadiums - Link section |
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European Football Stadiums - Book section |
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