Parken Stadium


Parken Stadium, known for sponsorship reasons as Telia Parken, is a football stadium in the Indre Østerbro district of Copenhagen, Denmark, built from 1990–1992. The stadium, which features a retractable roof, currently has a capacity of 38,065 for football games, and is the home of FC Copenhagen and the Denmark national football team. The capacity for concerts exceeds the capacity for matches – the stadium can hold as many as 50,000 people with an end-stage setup and 55,000 with a center-stage setup.
Telia Parken has been announced as one of 12 host venues of the UEFA Euro 2020. It will host three group stage matches, as well as a round of 16 match.
Geranium, a three Michelin star restaurant, is located on the eighth floor of the stadium.

History

Telia Parken, originally named just Parken, was built on the site of former Denmark national stadium, Idrætsparken, from 1990 to 1992. The last national team match in Idrætsparken was a 0–2 Euro 1992 qualification loss to Yugoslavia on 14 November 1990, and on 9 September 1992 Parken was opened with a 1–2 defeat in a friendly game against Germany.
The stadium was rebuilt by investors Baltica Finans A/S in turn of the guarantee from the Danish Football Association, that all national matches would be played at Parken for 15 years. The re-construction, tore down and re-built three of the original four stands, cost 640 million Danish kroner.
In 1998, Baltica Finans sold the stadium to F.C. Copenhagen for 138 million DKK, and the club now owns both the stadium and the adjacent office buildings in the company of Parken Sport & Entertainment.
Parken was included in UEFA's list of 4-star stadiums in the autumn of 1993, making Parken eligible for hosting the finals of the Europa League as well as the now defunct Cup Winners' Cup. Being a 4-star stadium, Parken can not apply for the biggest European club game, the UEFA Champions League final, as that demands 50,000 seats.
On 2 June 2007, Parken was the venue for the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifier fan attack.
On 1 May 2014 a new stadium covering Wi-Fi solution, powered by Telia was published. The deal provides free high speed Wi-Fi for all spectators at any event at the stadium. The agreement includes a 7 year long naming sponsorship, and on 17 July 2014, the stadium name was changed to Telia Parken.

Notable matches

Concert venue

Parken is also used as a concert venue, and hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2001. As a direct consequence of this, and to make Parken a more useful venue in general, a retractable roof was applied to the existing structure in 2000 and 2001.
Musicians like Coldplay, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Whitney Houston, Take That, Pink, Madonna, Britney Spears, AC/DC, Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Celine Dion, Tiësto, Depeche Mode, The Rolling Stones, U2, Bon Jovi, The Black Eyed Peas, Pet Shop Boys, Kashmir, Pharrell, Mew, Robbie Williams, George Michael, R.E.M., Metallica, Bruce Springsteen, Muse, Tina Turner, David Bowie, Elton John, Roger Waters, Paul McCartney, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, One Direction, Guns N' Roses, Volbeat and Michael Jackson have performed at Parken. In 2017 Volbeat became the first Danish band to sell out the venue, and their Let's Boogie DVD is of this concert.
The biggest concert ever held in Parken was a performance by Michael Jackson on 14 August 1997, during his HIStory tour, with 60,000 tickets sold, a second show was held on the 29th in which Michael got a surprise birthday party after the performance of "You Are Not Alone".