Thursday, May 12, 2011

Olympiastadion München Tour

Olympiastadion München, München, Germany

Cost of Tour: 2 Euro

Tenants: 1972 Summer Olympics
               FC Bayern München (1972-2005)
               TSV 1860 München (1972-2005)
Opened: 26 May 1972




The ticket booths

The entrance gates

Olympiastadion.....................Yes it is!

The unique acrylic glass canopies

View of the playing surface, currently concrete

In the standing section

One of 2 electronic scoreboards

The corporate boxes

The press seats have seen better days

Munich Olympia Tower

Looking across at the main covered stand

The 1972 Olympic Flame was here

Stadium History: (wiki)
Olympiastadion is a stadium located in Munich, Germany. Situated at the heart of the Olympiapark München in northern Munich, the stadium was built as the main venue for the 1972 Summer Olympics.With an original capacity of 80,000, the stadium also hosted many major football matches including the 1974 World Cup Final and the Euro '88 Final. It hosted the European Cup Finals of 1979, 1993 and 1997.

Until the construction of the Allianz Arena for the 2006 World Cup, the stadium was home to Bayern München and TSV 1860 München. Today, the Olympiastadion holds 69,250.

Designed by the German architect Günther Behnisch and the engineer Frei Otto, the Olympiastadion was considered revolutionary for its time. This included large sweeping canopies of acrylic glass stabilized by steel cables that were used for the first time in a large scale. The idea was to imitate the Alps and to set a counterpart to the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, held during the Nazi-Regime. The sweeping and transparent canopy was to symbolize the new, democratic and optimistic Germany. This is reflected in the official motto: "The Happy Games" ("Die Heiteren Spiele").

The stadium was built by Bilfinger Berger between 1968 to 1972 in a pit made by bombings that Munich suffered during World War II made construction easy.

Following the Olympics, the stadium became the home of FC Bayern München, with their rival TSV 1860 München moving in during the 1990s. These two teams coexisted in the Olympiastadion until 2005, when both clubs moved to the purpose built Allianz Arena.

Since 2005, it is the host of the yearly air and style snowboard event.

On December 31, 2006, the stadium made history as being the first venue to host the Tour de Ski cross country skiing competition. The individual sprint events, held at 1100 m, were won by Norway's Marit Bjorgen (women) and Switzerland's Christoph Eigenmann (men). The snow was made in the stadium by combining the hot air with the cold refrigerated water that causes the snow to act like the icy type you would see in the Alps.

It went unused in the 2006 FIFA World Cup due to the Allianz Arena being the host stadium in Munich.

On June 23 to June 24, 2007, the stadium played host to the Spar European Cup 2007, a yearly athletics event featuring the top 8 countries from around Europe.

In 2010, it was announced that a round of the DTM touring car series will hold a stadium event in 2011. The Race of Champions-style event will be a non-championship scoring round, but the entire 2011 grid will take part over a two-day period.

GERMAN AND WEST GERMAN NATIONAL TEAM MATCHES HELD AT THE STADIUM
  • 26 May 1972 West Germany - USSR 4–1 (Friendly, stadium opener)
  • 9 May 1973 West Germany – Yugoslavia 0–1 (Friendly)
  • 7 July 1974 West Germany – Netherlands 2–1 (1974 World Cup Final)
  • 22 May 1976 West Germany - Spain 2–0 (Euro 1976 Qualifier)
  • 22 February 1978 West Germany – England 2–1 (Friendly)
  • 2 April 1980 West Germany – Austria 1–0 Friendly)
  • 22 September 1982 West Germany – Belgium 0–0 (Friendly)
  • 17 November 1985 West Germany – Czechoslovakia 2–2 (1986 World Cup Qualifier)
  • 17 June 1988 West Germany – Spain 2–0 (Euro 1988 Group match)
  • 19 October 1988 West Germany – Netherlands 0–0 (1990 World Cup qualifier)
  • 26 March 1996 Germany - Denmark 2–0 (Friendly)
  • 9 October 1999 Germany – Turkey 0–0 (Euro 2000 qualifier)
  • 1 September 2001 Germany – England 1-5 (2002 World Cup qualifier)

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