Top 10 stadiums in the world
Wednesday, July 30, 2008

You will see that only 2 out of the top 10 are in Europe. I'm sure that when reading the title you would have thought the rest of the world doesn't have 100k or over stadiums. Or at least, not that many.

(Click on the small pictures to see them bigger)

1. Rungrado May Day Stadium 150,000 Pyongyang, North Korea, clearly a communist monument. Home ground of the national football team. Opened on the 1st May 1989 (for a communist celebration of the labors day) hence the name.

2. Salt Lake Stadium 120,000 Calcutta, India, you would expect a country with population over the billion to have big stadiums, India has a big one, China doesn't. Home ground of East Bengal Club, Mohun Bagan Athletic Club and Mohammedan Sporting. Opened in 1984.




3. Azteca 105,000 Mexico City, Mexico. The place where the World cup final Brazil 4-1 Italy took place in 1970. Home ground of Club America. Opened in 1966 but renovated in 1985



4. Bukit Jalil National Stadium 100,000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Opened in 1998 for the Commonwealth games.



5. Melbourne Cricket Ground 100,000 Melbourne, Australia. Opened in 1854, of course not exactly in today's form. Mostly used for cricket and Australian football but also the home ground of the national football team. I have to wonder, is it sold out when they play Fiji, Togo and all the other teams from the Pacific area for the world cup qualifications?



6. Camp Nou 98,772 Barcelona, Spain. Opened 1957 and home ground for FC Barcelona, not much to add about it really, it's pretty well known around the world.



7. Maracana 96,000 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Another famous stadium, renovated in 2007 and home ground of Fluminense and Flamengo, it's estimated that in 1950 a match between Brazil and Uruaguy gathered an incredible 210,000 people.



8. Wembley 90,000 London, England. Opened in 2007 to replace the old Wembley (a real legend in the world of football stadiums) for the national side. The only question I have regarding this stadium is what the fuck was so expensive?

1 billion euros???!?!?! That's 3 times the price of the Allianz Arena from Munich!



9. Azadi Stadium 90,000 Tehran, Iran, built in 1971, home ground for Persepolis F.C. , Esteghlal F.C. and the Iranian national football team



10. Estadio Monumental Isidro Romero Carbo 89,930 Guayaquil, Ecuador. Built in 1987 and renovated in 1994. That really makes me think about the quality of the construction if they had to renovate it after only 7 year... Home ground of Barcelona SC

Posted by The Big Football 7:15 AM    

Labels: Articles, stadiums

12 comments:

At July 31, 2008 7:02 AM Thomas Rooney said...

All amazing places. Can't even begin to imagine how good it must feel to score a goal in front of a packed house at any of these stadiums. The Nou Camp for me is fantastic - one of the best in the world.

 

At August 8, 2008 7:29 PM Anonymous said...

estadio monumental isidro romero carbo was not renovated, it was finished and inaugurated again in 1994

 

At August 9, 2008 8:12 AM The Big Football said...

@ Thomas Rooney

I'm sure adrenaline would be flowing through your body like crazy.

@ Anonymous

Sorry mate, that's what it written on wikipedia...

 

At August 16, 2008 5:21 PM Anonymous said...

im almost positive that there are much bigger stadiums. ohio states horshoe stadium, penn states stadium in happy valley, tennessees stadium and the big house at michigan are all larger than 100,000.

 

At September 22, 2008 10:38 PM paul said...

Soccer is rarely played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

There is a smaller 50000 seat Australian Rules Football stadium at the other end of town for the big soccer matches.

The MCG is continually growing in capacity to meet the demand for Australian Rules Football.

 

At January 2, 2009 11:02 AM Anonymous said...

azadi actally has 100'000 seats, at one point it had 105'000 seats

 

At April 7, 2009 2:39 PM Anonymous said...

What about the allianz arena and the birdsnest?

 

At April 9, 2009 9:56 AM The Big Football said...

@ Anonymous

I am really talking about stadiums where football is played.

@ Paul

Thanks for the info! I didn't know that!

@ Allianz Arena is a great stadium and I really enjoyed watching football in it, but the idea of the article is the capacity!

 

At April 14, 2009 2:51 AM Matthew said...

Just out of interest, where did La Luz come on the list? I thought that sat around 100,000 but maybe that was pre-redevelopment?

 

At April 14, 2009 3:24 AM The Big Football said...

Matthew,

The Old Stadio Da Luz had even more than 100,000. It had around 130,000 was built in 1954 and was home of the great Eusebio. It was demolished and the new stadium is one of the most impressive stadiums in the world at this time, but it is only about 65,000 places big.

 

At April 20, 2009 9:21 PM mike said...

Actually, all the biggest 'soccer' games in Melbourne are played at the MCG. Lesser international games and A-League games are played at Telstra Dome, but all the best ones (like the upcoming World Cup qualifier between Australia and Japan) are at the 'G.

 

At May 18, 2009 2:59 PM Anonymous said...

Some of the bigger stadiums here only have such a huge capacity because most places are standing, whereas in Europe and possibly USA, there are much bigger ones, but all or almost all seats. So many of the 80'000 or 90'000 stadiums with full seating are quite a bit bigger than the 100'000+ stadiums with mostly standing places. You can pack a hell of a lot more people in when they're standing...

 

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