Great Stadiums Part 2

People seemed to like my other great stadium blog, so I have returned with a second edition. This summer in Europe, I got to visit a few cool stadiums. Including: Emirates Stadium (home of Arsenal), Wembley Stadium (home of the England National team), the Allianz Arena (home of FC Bayern Munich, and AC Siena's stadium! The Emirates and the Allianz were featured in my last great stadium blog so it was cool to see them in person!

Signal Iduna Park is the home of Borussia Dortmund. Dortmund have been pretty successful in the last few years, although last season they did not win a single trophy. The stadium is usually called Westfalenstadion, but because of the club partnering with a company, the name is changed for now. Signal Iduna is said to be one of the nicest stadiums in Germany and is known for its great atmosphere every game day. The official capacity of the stadium is around 80,700, but the numbers are never exact. It also boasts a standing area that lets 25,000 fans
 stand and cheer on the black yellows. Signal Iduna Park has many cool features, including one of the first stadiums to have an under-pitch heating system. This makes sure the pitch is in perfect condition, even in the freezing German winter. The Westfalenstadion has been a part of two World Cups. When when it was fresh and new, in 1974 and the World Cup in 2006.

The biggest stadiums are not always the coolest or most interesting. Lyon's stadium, Stade de Gerland, is an example of that statement. It only holds 40,500 fans, but it has always been cool looking to me! It is one of the oldest stadiums ever featured on my blog and was built all the way back in 1926! Lyon was not even a team until created in 1950, so before their time, the stadium was used for multiple sports. The stadium takes a more rectangular shape then most stadiums and has a historical monument inside it. The arches, designed to look like they came from Roman theaters, became historical monuments in 1967. I thought that was pretty cool, because most stadiums can not put a historical monument on their resume. The stadium has been a host to a couple of important matches including games at the 1984 European Championships and several matches in the 1998 World Cup. Sadly, Lyon is building a new stadium that should be ready by the summer of  2014, so they will move out of the Stade de Gerland.

I hope you enjoyed this second edition of great stadiums. Come back to my blog often for more interesting topics.