If you’re ever driving on the highway near Munich, Germany (hey, you never know!), you might glance over and see what looks like a giant glowing donut. No, it’s not the world’s biggest Dunkin’ Donuts.

It’s Allianz Arena, which is an extremely large football facility that is located north of Munich, Germany. It was opened in 2005 and continues to be one of the most peculiar looking sports arenas in the whole world.

So what makes it so different than other football stadiums? Let’s take a look at some of the details concerning this crazy building.

As early as 2002, the German city needed to decide if they wanted to reconstruct the old Olympic Stadium located there, or build an entirely new one. After the original stadium architect refused for his design to be tampered with, Munich officials knew that they needed to build a new stadium.

Just to make sure, they let the Munich people in on the decision. A vote was held as to whether a new stadium should be built, and everyone was invited to vote.

The vote was overwhelming, with some two-thirds of the voters voting in favor of the construction of a new stadium. Now that that decision was made, the decision was made of how it was to be designed and built.

A Swiss architecture firm by the name of Herzog & de Meuron was given the blind date propecia task of designing the new playing field. They designed it a little bit differently that most soccer stadiums.

The exterior is made of ETFE foil panels which are see through. The panels can also be lit to different colors and can clean themselves.
The stadium can hold up to 69,901 people in its walls. All the seats are covered by an arching roof, so that fans are protected from the elements such as rain or excessive sun.

The cost of building the new arena was about 340 million Euros. The city of Munich and the state of Bavaria helped in the costs.

There are two professional football teams that call this arena home. The two clubs FC Bayern Munich and TSV 1860 Munchen play all their home games there.

What makes this arena really special is that the exterior of it is lit with a different color whenever a

different team plays there. When FC Bayern Munich hosts their home games there, the whole outside of the building is lit up in a flashing red color.

When TSV 1860 plays, the facility is turned to a strong blue color. The German Brand Levitra national football team also occasionally uses the facility, and when they are playing there the stadium is turned white.

The arena has also been home to the famous FIFA World Cup in 2006. While it was only one of the arenas in the popular tournament, it housed many important games that usually had sold out seats.

Despite it being a popular pastime destination for football fanatics all across Germany, it has had its problems over the years. For several years, the field faced severe criticism from fans and others complaining of some of its features.

At first, many complained that there was an “uncomfortable draft” that blew inside the field. Owners and officials responded courteously by installing closing doors inside the venue, which solved the problem quickly.

The venue also has had other problems that haven’t been solved as quickly. Many extreme fans (dubbed “Ultras”) complained that the venue had too many strict rules about what Tadacip could be brought in.

The rules stated that you could not bring in things such as megaphones and giant banners displaying team or player names. The die-hard fans were furious with this because it dampened their pride that they had for their teams.

The arena responded to some of these complaints but has left many of them on the shelf, refusing to change the rules in response to fan criticism. This had led many people to nickname the place “Arrogance Arena”.

As for now, it continues to be an amazing feat of construction and still houses thousands of fans for awesome games of football. If you’re ever in the Munich area, check it out!

Author Bio: Terry Daniels has been soccer coach for the last 36 years and written hundreds of articles about soccer all over the world especially in developing countries. He recommends buying a good street soccer ball.

Contact Info:
Terry Daniels
terrydaniels@gmail.com
http://store.callerepublic.com/CALLE_Street_Soccer_Balls_s/41.htm

Category: Recreation and Leisure/Travel
Keywords: street soccer ball