Cost of Tour: 10 Euro
Tenants: Bayern Munich, TSV 1860 Munich
Opened: 30 May 2005
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STADIUM HISTORY: (wiki)
The Allianz Arena is a football stadium in the north of Munich, Bavaria, Germany. The two professional Munich football clubs FC Bayern Munich and TSV 1860 München have played their home games at the Allianz Arena since the start of the 2005–06 season. Both clubs had previously played their home games at the Munich Olympic Stadium since 1972, where FC Bayern Munich played all of their games and TSV 1860 München most of their games. The Allianz Arena is the third biggest stadium in Germany behind Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund and the Olympiastadion in Berlin.
The large financial services provider Allianz purchased the rights to name the stadium for 30 years. However this name cannot be used when hosting FIFA and UEFA events, since these governing bodies have policies forbidding corporate sponsorship from companies that are not official tournament partners. During the 2006 World Cup, the stadium was referred to as FIFA World Cup Stadium Munich. In UEFA club matches, it is known as Fußball Arena München, and it hosted the 2012 UEFA Champions League Final. The stadium has been nicknamed "Schlauchboot" (inflatable boot).
The stadium is located at the northern edge of Munich's borough of Schwabing on the Fröttmaning Heath. It is the first stadium in the world that has a full changing color outside. Near the Allianz Arena, Fröttmaning U-Bahn station, on U6 can be seen.
Effective with the city's approval of modifications that was granted 16 January 2006, the legal capacity of the stadium has increased from 66,000 to 69,901 spectators (including standing room). The lower tier can seat up to 20,000, the middle tier up to 24,000, and the upper tier up to 22,000. 10,400 of the seats in the lower tier corners can be converted to standing room to allow an additional 3,120 spectators. The total capacity includes 2,000 business seats, 400 seats for the press, 106 luxury boxes with seating for up to 174, and 165 berths for wheelchairs and the like. From the second half of the 2005–06 Bundesliga season, the arena is able to accommodate 69,901 spectators at league and German Cup games, but because of UEFA regulations, the capacity remains at 66,000 seats for UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup games. Bayern Munich has limited capacity during their league and cup games to 69,000. The partial roof covers all seats, although winds can still blow rain onto some of them.
Allianz Arena also offers three day-care centers and two fan shops, the FC Bayern Munich Megastore and the TSV 1860 München Allianz Arena Megastore. Merchandise is offered at stands all along the inside of the exterior wall inside the area behind the seats. Numerous restaurants and fast-food establishments are also located around the stadium.
There are four team locker rooms (one each for the two home teams and their respective opponents), four coaches' locker rooms, and two locker rooms for referees. Two areas are provided where athletes can warm up (approx. 110 m² each). There are also 550 toilets and 190 monitors in the arena.
The stadium construction began on 21 October 2002 and was officially opened on 30 May 2005. The primary designers are architects Herzog & de Meuron. The stadium is designed so that the main entrance to the stadium would be from an elevated esplanade separated from the parking space consisting of Europe’s biggest underground car park. The roof of the stadium has in-built roller blinds which may be drawn back and forth during games to provide protection from the sun.
Total concrete used during stadium construction: 120,000 m³
Total concrete used for the parking garage: 85,000 m³
Total steel used during stadium construction: 22,000 tonnes
Total steel used for the parking garage: 14,000 tonnes
The arena facade is constructed of 2,874 ETFE-foil air panels that are kept inflated with dry air to a differential pressure of 0.038 hPa. The panels appear white from far away but when examined closely, there are little dots on the panels. When viewed from far away, the eye combines the dots and sees white. When viewed close up however, it is possible to see through the foil. The foil has a thickness of 0.2 mm. Each panel can be independently lit with white, red, or blue light. The intention is to light the panels at each game with the colors of the respective home team, or white if the home team is the German national football team or used as a neutral venue, like the 2012 UEFA Champions League Final. Other colours and / or multicolor and / or interchanging lighting schemes are possible indeed, but Munich Police strongly insists on uni-color only due to several car accidents on the nearby autobahn A9 with drivers being distracted by the changing lights. Allianz arena's innovative stadium-facade lighting concept has been subsequently adopted in other newly built venues, like the MetLife Stadium, in the US, which lights up in blue for the Giants, green for the Jets, and red for a concert.)
With electricity costs for the light of about 50 Euros (75 USD) per hour only, the construction evolved such luminosity that in clear nights the stadium can easily be spotted even from Austrian mountain tops, e.g. from a distance of 50 miles (80 km).
Patrons may park their cars in Europe's largest parking structure, comprising four four-story parking garages with 9,800 parking places. In addition, 1,200 places were built into the first two tiers of the arena, 350 places are available for buses (240 at the north end, and 110 at the south entrance), and 130 more spots are reserved for those with disabilities.
The stadium is located next to the Fröttmaning U-Bahn station. This is on the U6 line of the Munich U-Bahn.
From the subway station just south of the arena, visitors approach the stadium through a park that was designed to disentangle and guide them to the entrance. An esplanade rises gradually from ground level at the subway station entrance, practically building the parking garage's cover, to the entrance level of the stadium. On the other side of the Autobahn, the Fröttmaning Hill with its windmill affords a marvellous view on the stadium. Also the Romanesque Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche, the oldest structure on the area of the City of Munich designed to serve religious purposes, is located there together with its copy, an artwork in concrete as a reminder for the village of Fröttmaning which disappeared with the construction of the Autobahn.
The arena was commissioned by the Allianz Arena München Stadion GmbH, founded in 2001, and was owned in equal parts by the two football clubs that call it home. The GmbH's CEO was Karl-Heinz Wildmoser, Jr. until the unraveling of the stadium corruption affair (see below). Since then, Bernd Rauch, Peter Kerspe, and Walter Leidecker have led the company. In April 2006, FC Bayern Munich bought out TSV 1860 München's 50% share in the arena for a reported 11 million Euros. 1860's managing director Stefan Ziffzer stated that the deal prevented insolvency for the club. The terms of the agreement gave 1860 the right to buy back their 50% share of the arena for the price of sale plus interest anytime before June 2010. In November 2007, TSV 1860 München resigned that right. In advance, the income of two friendly-games both clubs shared equally instead of having that money going to Allianz Arena GmbH. Due to financial turbulences of TSV 1860 München, FC Bayern Munich took over all the shares and now owns 100% of the Allianz Arena.
Allianz paid significant sums for the right to lend its name to the stadium for a duration of 30 years. However, as Allianz wasn't a sponsor of the 2006 World Cup and is not an official UEFA sponsor, the Alllianz logo had to be removed during the World Cup and is covered during Champions League games.
The cost of the construction itself ran to €286 million but financing costs raised that figure to a total of €340 million. In addition, the city and State incurred approximately €210 million for area development and infrastructure improvements.
