Estadio Mestalla is a football stadium in Valencia, Spain. The stadium is the home ground of Valencia C.F. With a capacity of 55,000 seats, it ranks as the fifth largest stadium in Spain. It is also renowned for its steep terracing and being one of the most intimidating atmospheres in all of Europe to play at.

In 2009, the team is expected to move into the Nou Mestalla, a state of the art stadium with a seat capacity of 75,000, located in Valencia.

On 20 May 1923, the Mestalla pitch was inaugurated with a friendly match that brought Valencia CF and Levante UD face to face. It was the beginning of a new era that meant farewell to the old place, Algirós, which will always remain in the memories of the Valencians as first home of the club. A long history has treaded on the Mestalla field since its very beginning, when the Valencia team was not yet in the Primera División. Back then, this stadium could hold 17,000 spectators, and in that time the club started to show its potential in regional championships, which led the managers of that time to carry out the first alterations of Mestalla in 1927. The stadium’s total capacity increased to 25,000 before it became severely damaged during the Civil War.

Mestalla was used as concentration camp and junk warehouse. It would only keep its structure, since the rest was a lonely plot of land with no terraces and a stand broken during the war. Once the Valencian pitch was renovated, Mestalla saw how the team managed to bring home their first title, the 1941 Cup. An overwhelming team was playing on the grass of the redesigned Valencian stadium in that decade, team that conquered three League titles and two Cups with the legendary ?electric forwards? of Epi, Amadeo, Mundo, Asensi and Guillermo Gorostiza. Those years of sporting success also served as support to recover little by little the Mestalla ground.

During the decade of the fifties, the Valencia ground experienced the deepest change in its whole history. That project resulted in a stadium with a capacity of 45,500 spectators. It was a dream that was destroyed by the flood that flooded Valencia in October 1957 after the overflowing of the Turia River. Nevertheless, Mestalla not only returned to normality, but also some more improvements were added, like artificial light, which was inaugurated during the 1959 Fallas festivities. This was the beginning of a new change for the Mestalla.

During the sixties, the stadium kept the same appearance, whilst the urban view around it was quickly being transformed. Moreover, the Valencian domain became from that moment on, the setting of big European feats. Nottingham Forest was the first foreign team that played an official match in Mestalla with the “Che” club. They played on the 15th of September of 1961 and it was the first clash of a golden age full of continental successes, reinforced with the Fairs Cup won in 1962 and 1963. Mestalla had just entered the European competitions as a stadium where the most important events were taking place.

From 1969, the expression “Anem a Mestalla” (Let?s go to Mestalla), so common among the supporters, started to fall into oblivion. The reason was the change of name that meant a big tribute that the club paid to his most symbolic president that lasted for a quarter of a century. Luis Casanova Giner admitted that he was completely overwhelmed by such honour, and the president himself requested in 1994 that his name was again replaced by the name of Mestalla, as it happened. At the beginning of the seventies, the local bench of the back-then-called Luis Casanova stadium was occupied by Alfredo Di Stéfano, whose results were the winning of one League competition, one second place in the League and two Cup finals lost by the minimum difference. Moreover, Valencia participated for the first time in the European Cup and made their debut in the UEFA Cup. It all was a series of events that made that every match in the stadium located in Suecia Avenue turned into a big party.

In 1972 the head office of the club, located in the back of the numbered terraces, was inaugurated. It consisted of an office of avant-garde style with a worth mentioning trophy hall, which held the foundation flag of the club. In the summer of 1973 there was another new thing, the goal seats, which meant the elimination of fourteen rows of standing terraces providing more comfort and an adjustment to the new times. Valencia’s management started to consider the possibility of moving Mestalla from its present location to some land in the outskirts of the town, but finally the project was turned down and some years later.

At that time, Mario Kempes was the best footballer in the world and was playing for Valencia. With the Matador in its team, Valencia won the Copa del Rey, the Cup Winners Cup and European Super Cup in consecutive years. The “Che” team became continental superchampion in the last European final played in Mestalla. It was in 1980 against Nottingham Forest, which oddly enough was the first foreign team that had played an official match in the Valencian stadium.

Mestalla, which in 1925 had held the first match of the Spain national football team in Valencia, was chosen as the perfect setting for the debut of Spain in the 1982 World Cup, although the performance of the combined national team was not finally what was expected. Ten years later, the Olympic team would look for support in the Valencian stadium, this time with a very different result, since the selected young footballers finally got the gold medal in the 1992 Summer Olympics held in Barcelona.

Mestalla has been the setting for important international matches, has held several Cup finals, has been seat for Levante UD, home of the Spanish national team and exile for Castellón and Real Madrid in the European Cup; it has seen important footballers like Mario Kempes, Maradona or Pelé himself running on its grass and above all, it has lived the most important feats of Valencia Club de Fútbol.

Celtic Park is a football stadium in the Parkhead area of Glasgow in Scotland. It is the home ground of Celtic Football Club. The all-seater stadium is also known as ‘Parkhead’ (due to location) and nicknamed ‘Paradise’ by Celtic fans, an ironic tag used to denote its close proximity to Janefield Cemetery. It is the second-largest sporting arena in Scotland (after Murrayfield) and the second largest club football stadium in the UK after Old Trafford.

Celtic moved from the original Celtic Park to the present ground in 1892. The main stand was designed by Archibald Leitch, the architect who also designed stadiums for Rangers, Hearts, Sunderland, Fulham and Everton, amongst others. The stadium has undergone numerous redevelopments; in 1988, Celtic’s centenary year, the red-bricked exterior to the main stand was added and in the mid-1990s, further development was undertaken to make the stadium comply with the Taylor report. Now the stands completely encircle the pitch and the stadium consists of a large double-tiered stand which extends around three-quarters of the pitch and a lower double-tier main stand, which contains the Celtic museum. There are two large screens inside the ground for showing highlights and replays on matchdays. In 2004, Celtic announced they were making improvements which were “part of the Club?s Five Year Stadium Refurbishment Plan and will ensure that we remain on track to achieve UEFA’s five star stadium status”.

The Jock Stein Stand [capacity 13,006], at the west end of the stadium, is the traditional ‘Celtic End’. Away fans are normally accommodated in part of the Lisbon Lions Stand [13,006]. The North Stand, which is the largest stand in British football, is situated on the site of the old enclosure known as “The Jungle” and can house a further 26,970 fans. The South, or Main Stand holds 7,850. The North Stand alone has a greater capacity than 10 of the stadiums used in the Scottish Premier League and, in 2006-2007, five of those in the English Premiership. Of the seven flagpoles flying from this stand, there are always two flags flying at any time, the Scottish Saltire and the Irish Tricolour, reflecting the club’s roots.

Celtic have investigated the possibility of increasing the capacity of Celtic Park. Peter Lawell the Chief Executive said in April 2007 that the site of the Main Stand could be redeveloped to increase the capacity by 8,000, but at the moment it was considered too expensive.

In 1938 Celtic Park saw its largest attendance of 92,000 when Celtic played a First Division match against Rangers. During the 1990s, while the National Stadium at Hampden Park was undergoing redevelopment, Celtic Park hosted a number of cup finals, most recently hosting the Scottish Cup final of 1998, and Scotland internationals.

In 2002 Celtic Park took 59.9% of the votes in a BBC Radio Five Live poll to find the UK’s favourite sporting venue, out-polling the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff and Lord’s Cricket Ground in London. The stadium is located a few miles east of the city centre in the east end of Glasgow.

Celtic Park will host the opening ceremony of the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

The Estadio Alberto J. Armando (formerly the Estadio Camilo Cichero) is a stadium located in the La Boca district of Buenos Aires. Affectionately known as La Bombonera (the Chocolate Box) due to its rectangular shape, it is home to Boca Juniors, one of Argentina’s most famous football clubs.

The stadium was first used for a friendly match between Boca and San Lorenzo on May 25, 1940. (Archrivals River Plate also inaugurated their stadium on 25 May, but two years earlier, on 1938).

It underwent a major renovation in 1995?96, raising its capacity to 57,395, and was given its current official name on 27 December 2000. The stadium is named after a former club president who promised a major renovation of La Bombonera upon his election in 1975, but his plans were delayed by the country’s political and economic situation.

Visiting teams are said to be intimidated by the stadium’s acoustics. This was noted by Estudiantes de La Plata, which hosted its major Copa Libertadores matches there.

Of its 57,395 capacity, there are 37,538 seats, 2780 boxes and the other 17,077 are standing room only. Both its interior and exterior are lined with many murals painted by artist Pérez Célis depicting many of the club’s legendary players and many aspects of the district’s culture. The stadium also contains a museum celebrating the club’s history, opened in 2001.

The stadium was featured in the film Mike Bassett England Manager during which England lose 4-0 to Mexico. However this is a rather obvious goof the film is supposed to have the world cup based in Brazil, the stadium is of course based in Argentina.

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is a large outdoor sports stadium in the University Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California at Exposition Park that has hosted two Olympics and is home to the University of Southern California Trojans football team. It is located next to the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena adjacent to the campus of the University of Southern California (USC). The stadium is owned by the State of California and is currently being leased (and managed) by the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission.

The Coliseum was declared a National Historic Landmark on July 27, 1984, the day before the opening ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games.

The Coliseum is now primarily the home of the USC Trojan football team. During the recent stretch of its success in football, most of USC’s regular home games, especially the alternating games with rivals UCLA and Notre Dame, attract a capacity 92,000 person crowd, although they regularly drew far less during the 1990s. The current official capacity of the Coliseum is 92,516. The Coliseum Commission also rents the Coliseum to various events, including international soccer games, musical concerts and other large outdoor events. Concurrently, the commission is negotiating a new lease with the state after the 48-year lease expired in December 2005.

The Olympic Cauldron (also known as the Olympic Torch) was built for the stadium’s two Olympic games. It is still lit during the fourth quarter of USC football games, and other special occasions (e.g., when the Olympics are being held in another city). In 2004, the cauldron was lit non-stop for seven days in tribute to Ronald Reagan, who had died; and it was lit again in April 2005 following the death of Pope John Paul II, who had celebrated Mass at the Coliseum during his visit to Los Angeles in 1987. The torch was also lit for over a week following the September 11, 2001 attacks.