Top 10 Most Attractive Soccer Stadiums
Allianz Arena, Munich - Germany
Although it’s pretty hard to create a top of most attractive soccer stadiums, we present ten of the most representative ones, stadiums which host week by week world’s biggest teams. From the Netherlands to Japan and from Italy to Brazil or South Africa, one can find stadiums which use latest-technology, beautiful designs or simply arenas which might gather tens of thousands of people. Of course, it is also very hard to make a ten stadium-list which cannot be easily turned up-side down and to remain available as well as the first one. So, here there are just ten of world’s thousands stadiums, hundreds of which might compete as well for this top.
The San Siro Stadium name is inspired from San Siro district in Milano, Italy. This arena hosts both European champions AC Milan and their main rivals Internazionale. The stadium is called depending on which of the two sides is expected to play home. Thus, the stadium is called San Siro when AC Milan is the one who plays home, and Giuseppe Meazza when Inter faces visitors.
The name of Giuseppe Meazza comes from Inter’s World cup winner in 1934 and 1938, the player serving AC Milan, too but not for long. However, the stadium is owned by Milano Municipality and has a capacity of more than 80,000 seats. It was inaugurated in 1926, the pitch measuring 105 meters length and 68 meters width. One of the most important matches the stadium hosted was 1956’s confrontation between Italy and Brazil, game that finished 3-0 to Italy, victory which was celebrated in front of 100,000 spectators. The capacity was reduced with 20,000 seats after the Heysel Stadium disaster in the mid 80s.
The Dutch arena is the place where Holland’s and European champions Ajax Amsterdam activates. The stadium belongs to Gemeente Amsterdam and is one of the newest stadiums in Europe.
Amsterdam Arena was built between 1993-1996 and cost almost 140 million euros, being officially inaugurated on August 14 1996. Just like almost every big stadium, this one hosts vary events, including concerts or other sport games. The capacity of the arena is of 51,000 seats, being in the same time featured with a retractable roof. It measures 105 meters length and 68 width.
Situated in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis, Stade de France is one of the well-known arenas world-wide. Built in 1995, the French stadium hosted plenty of soccer finals and music concerts. Thus, Stade de France was the place where 1998 World Cup and 2007 Rugby World Cup finals took place.
In this way, the French stadium became the only one in the world to host two such events. Meanwhile, artists like Madonna, Rolling Stones, George Michael and U2 had concerts here. The stadium has a 80,000 seat-capacity and measures 105 meters length and 70 meters width. The owner of the stadium is the Consortium Stade de France.
The retractable-roof Yokohama Stadium was built in 1998 and hosted 2002 World Cup final between Brazil and Germany, year when the big event took place in both Japan and South Korea. The capacity of the stadium is of 72,000 seats, being the biggest stadium in Japan on its seating capacity, and is the home of Yokohama F Marinos of the Japanese League.
It is also owned by Yokohama City which invested more than 60 billion yen in order to build it twelve years ago. Finally, Nissan Motors are expected to renew their contract for the name rights of the stadium. It hosted in the same time FIFA’s Club World Cup.
The Catalan stadium is the home of the most successful soccer teams in the recent years, FC Barcelona. Situated in the west part of the city, Camp Nou is not only the largest one in Spain, but also in Europe. Its capacity reaches 98,000 seats and measures 105 meters length and 68 meters width.
The 12th largest in the world stadium was built between 1954-1957 and gathers every week tens of thousands of Catalan fans. The Camp Nou stadium is owned by FC Barcelona, but does not have a retractable roof.
