Emirates Stadium
This article or section is still missing important information. Help Wikipedia by researching and adding it.
The Emirates Stadium is the football stadium of the English first division club FC Arsenal.
The stadium was built in Ashburton Grove in north London (Holloway) and opened on 22 July 2006. It offers space for 60,260 spectators. It is the second largest stadium in the Premier League after Manchester United's Old Trafford. After Wembley Stadium and Twickenham Stadium, it is the third largest sports stadium in London, ahead of the former Olympic Stadium, which now has almost the same capacity.
The arena consists of four covered spectator tiers, with the lower tier being large and flat and the second tier consisting of only eight rows of seats. This extends into the airspace above the first tier. A third small tier (called the Club Tier) has boxes in the back, of which there are 150 in total. The fourth tier is called Upper Tier and has a curved design. This design gives the impression that the roof is sagging. There are also two video walls installed.
The stadium was designed by HOK Sports (now Populous), which was previously responsible for the Estádio da Luz in Lisbon, the Olympic Stadium in Sydney and the new Wembley Stadium. It was designed by Sir Robert Mc Alpine. The site is located on the ground of the former Ashburton Grove industrial park, a few hundred meters from the old Arsenal stadium Highbury.
History of the stadium
The construction of this building was supported with about 160 million euros by the Arabian airline Emirates, which previously financially helped the rival Chelsea FC. As announced in October 2004, Emirates is taking a long-term stake in the financing of the project and will receive the naming rights for 15 years in return. This sum also includes eight years of shirt advertising for Emirates, starting with the 2006/07 season.
Worth knowing
Many also call the new stadium Ashburton Grove, after the place where it is located. This discrepancy between the official and occasionally unofficial name also existed with the name of Arsenal FC's previous venue, which was often referred to as Highbury, although it was actually called Arsenal Stadium. Opposing fans also jokingly refer to the Emirates as The Library (the Library). The term had already become established at the Highbury because, in their opinion, Arsenal home games were much quieter than other English first division stadiums.
The Emirates Stadium is the most expensive stadium in the English Premier League, costing around €600 million in total.
In order to obtain the license required for the opening, three events had to be held at the stadium without full capacity. First, a meeting of investors was initiated, later a public training for 20,000 selected club members on 20 July 2006. The third event was Dennis Bergkamp's farewell match against his former club Ajax Amsterdam, which took place on 22 July 2006 in front of a crowd of 54,000. The first league match was played on 19 August 2006 against Aston Villa.
