Football stadiums

[footballff 0]

Who has pictures or videos of football stadiums, like

 

http://www.stadiumzone.weebly.com

 

My favourite foreign venues are:

 

1 San Siro

2 Camp Nou

3 Estadio Azteca

 

Massive venues are great

[manc-mag 1]

Santiago Bernabeu

 

Kudos on using the correct plural 'stadiums' rather than the ubiquitous, incorrect 'stadia' btw.

[Guest WDP]

The Nou Camp is falling to bits, everyone I've spoken to who has been always says they're disappointed. My favourite current grounds I've been to are New Wembley - I fell in love with it been twice now, PSV's ground - loved it, Ibrox and the San Memes in Bilbao. Been to a lot of stadiums that people go mental over Hampden, Old Trafford, Amsterdam Arena, Marseille etc.. none of them come close to the four I mentioned.

[manc-mag 1]

Love the way it's grown up over time aswell:

 

82 World Cup:

 

 

1990's:

 

 

Building again:

 

 

 

Present:

 

 

Awesome.

 

Despise everything the club stands for, like.

[manc-mag 1]

The Nou Camp is falling to bits, everyone I've spoken to who has been always says they're disappointed. My favourite current grounds I've been to are New Wembley - I fell in love with it been twice now, PSV's ground - loved it, Ibrox and the San Memes in Bilbao. Been to a lot of stadiums that people go mental over Hampden, Old Trafford, Amsterdam Arena, Marseille etc.. none of them come close to the four I mentioned.

 

fucking Hampden indeed!

[Guest WDP]

This is the best stadium I've never been to that I know of:

 

[manc-mag 1]

This is the best stadium I've never been to that I know of:

 

 

Mint. Jimbo's new local if I'm not mistaken?

 

Agree about San Memes too btw Stevie. Proper ground, hemmed in to fuck, close to the pitch, cauldron. Surreal too with the Tyne Bridge suspending the main stand roof. Always hurt that defeat there, getting beat off a team playing in red and white stripes to top it off.

[Jimbo 174]

This is the best stadium I've never been to that I know of:

 

 

It's mightily impressive from the outside too, Mrs Jimbo works just around the corner from it, I wish the Dynamo played there instead of the Robertson stadium, seems daft that they don't use the old Houston Astrodome which is right next to the Reliant.

[Guest WDP]

This is the best stadium I've never been to that I know of:

 

 

Mint. Jimbo's new local if I'm not mistaken?

 

Agree about San Memes too btw Stevie. Proper ground, hemmed in to fuck, close to the pitch, cauldron. Surreal too with the Tyne Bridge suspending the main stand roof. Always hurt that defeat there, getting beat off a team playing in red and white stripes to top it off.

Aye I loved it steeped in history, felt more like an English ground than a foreign one. I'll never forget the noise when they scored stand shaking like fuck 40,000 of them singing ole ole ole ole ole ole ole. Tell you what though the people were absolutely brilliant probably the best I've ever met, when we played there it was some sort of festival and everyone was off work, streets absolutely packed and the basques buying our sangria all day, fuck me that was some session. After the game we all swapped shirts they were class, and I think they would've been if we'd have won, I didn't notice till I got home though, it was their third shirt that I'd got a class Kappa effort, but I later learned it was banned by the Spanish FA, because woven in to the shirt it said ETA ETA ETA ETA. Class ground though, Peter nearly equalised in stoppage time that would've put us through, our own fault though we were 3-0 up at home crowd doing mexican waves, and they scored fuckin two late on.

[Meenzer 15430]

New Wembley is impressive once you get out into the ground itself, but being taken up to your seat by escalator? It's like it's the Eldon Leisure Stadium or something.

[Jimbo 174]

I've not had the pleasure yet but The Cowboys stadium in Dallas looks redonkulously good, I know its not football, I wanted to see Pacquiao Vs Margarito there last month but couldn't get a ticket.

 

[paddy 17]

I've not had the pleasure yet but The Cowboys stadium in Dallas looks redonkulously good, I know its not football, I wanted to see Pacquiao Vs Margarito there last month but couldn't get a ticket.

 

that is friggin awesome!!! love the way the players walk through the fans to the pitch

[Dolly Potter MD 0]

Dortmund's Westfalenstadion: not many more intimidating sights than it's South Stand. It's deep, it's elevated as a single tier stand, and it's non-seated. A horror setting for opposition keepers & their defensive rearguards when the masses are in full voice behind them.

 

 

 

Edited December 1, 2010 by Year Zero

[Dolly Potter MD 0]

This is the best stadium I've never been to that I know of:

 

 

Probably the only NFL stadium that translates well to our code tbh.

[Dolly Potter MD 0]

Stadio Luigi Ferraris [sampdoria]

 

 

[Dolly Potter MD 0]

I've visited a few college football venues, while travelling around the States a few years back.

 

Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, Florida - home of Florida State. Beautiful external architecture, a removal from the modern-day steel, concrete & glass laden NFL counterparts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 1, 2010 by Year Zero

[Dolly Potter MD 0]

Autzen Stadium in Oregon: the one venue i would like go to, if i ever head to the North West. Smaller seating capacity than some of the larger venues [i've heard it's nigh on impossible to get a seat, if you're a visitor to the region, even during a so-so season for the Ducks] but arguably the loudest in the nation.

 

 

Edited December 1, 2010 by Year Zero

[Howmanheyman 32824]

I've always thought Dortmunds ground looks fucking superb when you see it on the telly, That home end is what we should have at SJP, safe standing one tier end that goes up to the heavens.

 

I went to the Mestalla, Valencia once while we were in the city for a day and I popped in during the afternoon, the stand I went in really reminded me of the East Stand from the outside, all concrete like Charles de Gaulle airport. Once inside it was hard to believe that it held virtually the same as SJP, it seemed a lot smaller although that was maybe because there wasn't anyone there. Valencia was a beautiful city, pity I didn't have much time to look about more.

[Barney 0]

Valencia trying to build a new stadium and having huge difficulties. Sid Lowe did a good piece on it a while back, I can't find it though.

 

Nice pics, Year Zero.

[Howmanheyman 32824]

Valencia trying to build a new stadium and having huge difficulties. Sid Lowe did a good piece on it a while back, I can't find it though.

 

Nice pics, Year Zero.

I'm sure I was told they built a new one a few years ago but their supporters didn't like and wouldn't go so they stayed put.

[Barney 0]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/20...-bluff-pays-off

 

Every morning at 8am, four men with toolboxes set off for work, potter about a bit, and toddle off home again. They slope off for coffee at ten, cigarettes at twelve and a long lunch at two. When they get back to work, there's just time to have a break for coffee and cigarettes before wrapping up for the day, job done. Mostly, they sit about scratching, reading the paper and playing cards, keeping an ear open in case anyone drops by – when they try to look busy. A bit of sweeping here, some "arranging" there, before returning to what they were doing. Nothing in particular.

 

It could be any workplace anywhere, but this time their boss knows all about their antics. In fact, it's his idea. It is a cunning ruse, the embodiment of Valencia's modus operandi over the last year: pretend everything's OK, perfectly normal, and in a funny sort of way it will be. Ignore it and it really will go away. A poll in the Valencian paper Super Deporte this morning asks fans to rate the year. The options are "good", "very good" and "excellent". It's quite a turnaround. Twelve months ago, they would have expected to choose between "bad", "very bad" and "after you with the noose". Better still, there's a chance they'll be able to carry on regardless next year too.

 

For over a year now, the four workers have "worked" on the second greatest white elephant in Spanish football after Dmytro Chygrynskiy: Valencia's €320m (£278m), 75,000-seater new Mestalla stadium. Alongside, a spattering of new bars opened with imaginative names like "Stadium Bar". But, four workmen apart, there's no one to drink there, or in the "New Mestalla" or the "The Corner Flag". They're still drinking at Manolo's with its ropey sausages and football memorabilia – and its prime location. Right outside the old Mestalla. Where Valencia still play.

 

Valencia's new stadium should have opened by now; instead, it's a 12-storey, 89,000 square metre building site. With no building going on. Work began in August 2007; with Valencia €547m in debt, owing more than €50m to construction companies Bertolín and FCC, it stopped again over a year ago. The only people who turn up now are the four workmen and they only pretend. Their job is to make sure Valencia don't get punished for abandonment of a building site. After all, they can hardly afford a massive fine on top of everything else.

 

Nou Mestalla was a symbol of Valencia's failure, the millstone that was going to drag them under. Useless former president Juan Soler had lumbered the club with a colossal debt and two stadiums – one they couldn't sell and one they couldn't afford to build. When Vicente Soriano took over, he said he had a buyer, an investor and cash but he didn't. His investor, a company called Delporte, took their logo from a colouring-in book and didn't pay for their shares.

 

Valencia would have to sell all their players. They were heading for the Second Division B. Or out of business.

 

They didn't. In fact, the symbol of their failure became the symbol splashed on the back of their shirts. And although that might have been pretty bloody cheeky, and the stadium remains unsold, Valencia are still standing. David Villa, David Silva and Juan Mata are still there, and far from ending up in the eight-team, four-group Second Division B they now find themselves in very different league: the Champions League after defeating Espanyol 2-0 on Saturday night with two from Nikola Zigic, virtually securing third place, their best position in four years. With three games left, they have a six-point lead over Mallorca and an eight-point lead over Sevilla, plus better head-to-head goal difference. A solitary point in three matches – against Xérez, Tenerife and Villarreal – will guarantee them a return to the Champions League. With the money it brings, it may even guarantee their future.

 

The question is how did they do it? The answer is those workers. And a little help from friends in very high places. Sometimes even a rubbish hand can be a winning hand if you know how to ride it out – and when it comes to poker faces and playing hardball, few beat Valencia president Manolo Llorente.

 

When he took over in the summer, invited in by the club's creditors, Bancaja – which is owed over €200m by Valencia and had obliged the club to let it on to the board – Llorente decided that the worst thing Valencia could do was bang on about being doomed and fret over the stadium: it would only bring fatalism upon them and prices tumbling. Few things excite other clubs and weaken your hand like a fire sale, so he pretended there wasn't a fire at all. Besides, he reasoned, what's the point of selling a €40m footballer to cover a €547m debt? You might as well fix the Titanic with a puncture repair kit. So, he cancelled the sales of Villa, Silva and Mata, insisting that he would only accept a "scandalously scandalous" offer, quietly downscaled stadium plans, refused to be rushed back into constructing it, handed the job of silently selling Mestalla to an Englishman called Richard Ellis, and, with sleight of hand and a tug on the heart, kept the club's creditors and its other "owners" at bay.

 

First came the share issue, with €92m worth of shares new shares created. 3,981 fans were persuaded to buy shares at €720 each share, raising €18.7m. Essentially they bought a blank piece of paper, a certificate of how much they loved Valencia with no real, tangible value. But it had a huge symbolic value, the perfect leverage for a spot of emotional blackmail – enough to allow Llorente to show the Valencian government, the Generalitat, the strength of support and lay bare the risk implicit in allowing Valencia to go to the wall. Bancaja, owned by the Generalitat, was persuaded not to call in its debt and the Valencia Fundación, also a governmental concern, stumped up the remaining €73.3m to complete the share issue.

 

Suddenly, Soriano and Delporte's shares were diluted to irrelevance, reduced to just 4.6%. Llorente and the Generalitat were in control. All Valencia had to do was raise €44m a season in cuts, sales or income to cover their annual deficit. The €547m could wait until the stadium was sold; work at the new stadium could too. The fundamental problem remains but the desperation had dissipated; psychologically, this is a different club now. The assumption has been that next summer Valencia will sell – this week, there have been reports of Villa joining Barcelona and, unlike last year, he'd be prepared to move abroad too – but Valencia believe they can withstand bids for him and Silva. Unless they are scandalously scandalous. With the Champions League money, they might be able to stay on budget with a solitary, and smaller, sale, such as Mata.

 

Llorente's gamble has, in the short term at least, paid off. He has also changed the terms of the debate. This hasn't been an easy season. Unai Emery has clashed with Joaquín Sánchez, Miguel Brito, Banega and Chori Domínguez and may not continue as coach, the cup exits stung, and many think Valencia have been too conservative and worryingly weak against the bigger sides. Valladolid, Almería, Osasuna, Athletic and Espanyol account for more than half their points, while they were beaten in Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla and Mallorca, and lie 24 points off second place. Some think they should have achieved more with the players they've got. The point, though, is that they have those players at all, and may even have them next season too. Last summer, that was unthinkable. Now at least the complaints are all about the football. No one cares about the empty stadium on the other side of town any more. Except the four men whose job it is to pretend they do.

[Dr Gloom 21846]

Valencia trying to build a new stadium and having huge difficulties. Sid Lowe did a good piece on it a while back, I can't find it though.

 

Nice pics, Year Zero.

 

i'm personally a big fan of their current stadium, the mestalla. nice steep stands right on top of the pitch

 

 

 

[Dolly Potter MD 0]

[

 

 

Never been a fan of the Del Alpi, at least from what you see on television - the distance between the pitch and the doesn't help. Sometimes the television experience [as to what the cameras can actually pick up, without reverting to pan shots between play] can be a harsh judge on a stadiums atmosphere, or lack of to put it better.

 

 

Juve's new stadium [the bottom pic], with a capacity of just over 40k. I think they move in there next season. Looks alot more intimate, or football friendly. And i think they've got the capacity just right, as i've seen alot of empty sections in the upper tiers when i've seen them on the television, although i've never watched the Turin derby.

 

Edited December 2, 2010 by Year Zero

[Dolly Potter MD 0]

Chivas' [Mexico] volcano inspired stadium.

 

 

Edited December 2, 2010 by Year Zero

[Dolly Potter MD 0]

Braga's Estadio Municipal.