Aside from the main dome, the complex includes a gym, an ice rink, a hotel and three large car parks. It is the largest indoor venue of its kind in Poland. It hosts many important cultural and business events. Music concerts are especially common non-sport events. Spodek can hold 11,500 people, although this number is in practice limited to 10,000 or even 8,000 due to stage set-ups obscuring the view. Its name is “saucer” in Polish as it resembles a tilted flying saucer. Spodek is a major contribution to the cultural significance of Katowice in Poland, especially for the younger generations.

It has played host to many up-and-coming bands, such as Chumbawumba in 1997, as well as dozens of world-famous bands including Boney M., The Cure, Delirious?, Deep Purple, Depeche Mode, Dream Theater, Elton John, Genesis, Eric Clapton, Gary Moore, Green Day, Iron Maiden, Jean-Michel Jarre, Mike Oldfield, Megadeth, Napalm Death, Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath, Metallica, Pearl Jam, Rammstein, Robbie Williams, Slipknot, Sting, The Prodigy, Overkill, Tina Turner, Avril Lavigne.

The idea of building a large venue originated in 1955, while Katowice was temporarily renamed Stalinogród. A contest was held to select the best design. Initially, it was to be constructed on the outskirts of town, but the Voivodeship National Council decided it should be built near the city center. A mining waste dump site classified “2A” was chosen for construction.

The classification “2A” indicated medium mining damage with a possibility of local cave-ins. While excavating the foundations, the workers dug through coal instead of soil. Soon after construction began, rumors of design flaws in the new building spread, including the rumour that the dome would collapse when the scaffolding was removed. Because of this, in 1964, construction was halted for 18 months. Spodek’s architects and chief engineers entered the dome when the supports were dismantled as a response to those rumors; clearly they survived. Before opening the building to the public, endurance tests were conducted - 3,500 soldiers marched into the hall and vibration of the building was measured. The outcome was positive.

Throughout Spodek’s history, rumors have circulated concerning the extent of disrepair at the structure, concealed cracks or even its “falling apart”. However, these rumours are unsupported by any evidence.

The stadium is bowl-shaped, with two tiers all the way around the ground and a third tier along the two side stands. As of 1 July 2009, it is the fourth-largest stadium in the FA Premier League and the 12th-largest in the United Kingdom, with a seating capacity of 47,726. On 14 May 2008, it hosted the UEFA Cup Final.

Plans to build a stadium in east Manchester were formulated around 1990 as part of the city’s bid to host the 2000 Summer Olympics; Manchester City Council commissioned a design for an 80,000 capacity stadium on a brownfield site known colloquially as Eastlands. However, in October 1993 the games were awarded to Sydney, Australia. Manchester subsequently made a successful bid to host the 2002 Commonwealth Games, using the stadium plans from the Olympic bid. In 1996, the planned stadium competed with Wembley Stadium to gain funding to become the national stadium, but the money was used to redevelop Wembley. The stadium’s foundation stone was laid by Prime Minister, Tony Blair, in December 1999, and construction began in January 2000. The stadium was designed by Arup and constructed by John Laing at a cost of approximately ?110 million, ?77 million of which was provided by Sport England, with the remainder funded by Manchester City Council. For the Commonwealth Games, the stadium featured a single lower tier running around three sides of the athletics track, and second tiers to the two sides, with an open-air temporary stand at one end. The first public event at the stadium was the opening ceremony of the 2002 Commonwealth Games on 25 July 2002. Among the dignitaries present at the ceremony was Queen Elizabeth II. During the ten days of competition, the stadium hosted all athletics events and the rugby sevens. Four Commonwealth records were set at the stadium, including the women’s triple jump and the women’s 5000 m.

Capacity at completion: 64,000. Maximum capacity: 69,000 (1949). Present day capacity: 51,177.

It is the home stadium of football club Feyenoord, one of the traditional top teams in the Netherlands. It has also long been one of the home grounds of the Dutch national team, having hosted over 150 international matches, with the first one being a match against Belgium on May 2, 1937. Also, a record number of ten European finals has taken place in the Feijenoord stadium. The last one was the 2002 UEFA Cup final in which Feyenoord defeated Borussia Dortmund 3-2.

In 2000, the Feyenoord stadium hosted the final of Euro 2000, played in the Netherlands and Belgium, with France beating Italy in extra time.

Leen van Zandvliet, Feyenoord’s president in the 1930s came up with the idea of building an entirely new stadium, unlike any other on the continent, with two free hanging tiers and no obstacles blocking the view. The great examples at that time were Highbury, where the West and East stands had been recently built as a double deck, and Yankee Stadium in New York City. Johannes Brinkman and Leendert van der Vlugt, the famous designers of the van Nelle factories in Rotterdam were asked to design a stadium out of glass, concrete and steel, cheap materials at that time. They came up with a design that is modern even in this era. In fact, “de Kuip” acted as an example for many of the greatest stadia we know today, eg Nou Camp. The stadium was co-financed by the billionaire Daniël George van Beuningen, who made his fortune in World War I, exporting coal from Germany to England through neutral Netherlands.

In World War II, the stadium nearly got torn down, because the German occupiers needed the materials. Fortunately it didn’t come to that. After the war the stadium got extra seats (1949) and stadium lights (1958).

On 29 October 1991 De Kuip was named as being one of Rotterdam’s monuments. In 1994 the stadium was extensively renovated to its present form. It became an all seater and the roof was extended to cover all the seats. An extra building was constructed for commercial use by Feyenoord, it also houses a restaurant and a museum, The Home of History. The stadium has hosted concerts since 1978. The first ones were Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton. Others who have played there include Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, U2, Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Dido, Guns N’ Roses, Genesis and Dire Straits. Since 1996 the stadium didn’t host many concerts anymore, because of the competition of the Amsterdam ArenA. As of January 2007 the stadium can be found in 3D format on Google Earth.

The Ernst Happel Stadium is the largest football stadium in Austria. It is the home of the Austrian national football team. Club football matches are generally limited to the domestic cup and international competitions featuring one of Vienna’s top clubs, FK Austria Wien and SK Rapid Wien, as their regular stadiums are too small to host UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup matches. Local derbies between FK Austria and SK Rapid have also been played in the stadium.

Although its current capacity is only 49,825, the stadium is rated one of UEFA’s Five Star Stadiums (normally 50,000+ capacity), permitting it to host the UEFA Champions League final. The seating capacity is being expanded to 53,008 for the 2008 European Football Championship, with the final to be held in the stadium. The stadium will also host 3 group games, 2 quarter final matches and a semifinal. The attendance record of 92,706 for a match against the USSR was in 1960. The capacity has since been reduced.

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 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 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 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.

It has the highest seating capacity of any stadium in Japan, with a total of 72,327 seats.

It hosted three first-round games during the 2002 FIFA World Cup, and the final game between Germany and Brazil was played there on June 30, 2002 (the game was won by Brazil, 2?0).

The stadium, which opened in 1996, is one of the first in the world to combine a retractable roof with a grass surface. This caused some problems in the beginning: the grass rolls would not grow in the shade of the open roof and had to be replaced up to four times a year. Its all-seated capacity is 51,628. The estimated cost of the stadium is around ? 96 million. The inaugural match was between the home team Ajax and AC Milan which ended in a 0-3 win by Milan. The first goal was scored by Dejan Savićević. Tina Turner was the first singer who gave a concert in the ArenA during her Wildest Dreams World Tour, with more than 150,000 people attending the three sold-out concerts in September 1996.

After the death of Rinus Michels in 2005, Ajax fans tried to convince the stadium’s board to rebrand the stadium as the Rinus Michels Stadium. The board refused, however at every Ajax home game Ajax fans bring a large banner displaying the words ‘Rinus Michels Stadion’.