Stadion Maksimir


Maksimir Stadium, is a multi-use football stadium based in the Croatian capital, Zagreb. It takes its name from the surrounding neighbourhood of Maksimir. The venue is primarily the home of Dinamo Zagreb, the top club of the country with 20 league titles, but it is also the home venue of the Croatia national football team. First opened in 1912, it has undergone many facelifts, and its current layout dates from a 1997 rebuilding. The stadium also sometimes hosts other events such as rock concerts.

History

The construction and the early years

With the raising popularity of the sport in Zagreb, the local football club HAŠK, which was one of the first multi-sports club in Croatia, decided to build a new stadium for their club. They bought the ground in the Svetice neighbourhood in Zagreb, which lays on the opposite side of the Maksimir Park, from the Archdiocese of Zagreb. HAŠK built a wooden stand with a capacity of 6,000, which was also the first ground with a proper stand in Zagreb at that time. The stadium was oppened on 5th of May, 1912, and at the opening ceremony of the new tadium, HAŠK and their city rival, HŠK Građanski Zagreb, played several friendly matches to commemorate the opening.
Due to the close relationship and alliance of HAŠK and HŠK Građanski Zagreb and the latter one playing at the Stadion Koturaška, which was in a poor state, Građanski also started playing their home matches at the new Stadium Maksimir.
On 26 May 1941, a representative of the Ustashe fascist government of the Independent State of Croatia addressed young Zagreb students at their meeting at the Maksimir Stadium, and at one point ordered the Serbian and Jewish students to be segregated, but the children disobeyed. Soon afterwards, in June 1941, rebel youths burned the stadium down. In 1977, a movie Operation Stadium was made to commemorate the segregation incident.

After World War II and the development

After World War II, HAŠK and Građanski got dissolved by the newly established communist regime of Yugoslavia and a new club, FD Dinamo Zagreb, inherited the clubs' colours, honours and the ground and is, therefore, the direct successor of HAŠK and HŠK Građanski Zagreb.
When the UEFA Euro 1976 final tournament was held in Yugoslavia, Maksimir hosted the Netherlands v. Czechoslovakia semi-final match and the Netherlands v. Yugoslavia third place match.
Maksimir was the central venue for the 1987 Summer Universiade hosted by the city of Zagreb.
In 1990, several events happened at Maksimir. On 13 May, the Dinamo Zagreb–Red Star Belgrade riot took place, an infamous riot involving Dinamo Zagreb and Red Star Belgrade supporters. The last match of the Yugoslavia national football team was hosted at Maksimir on 3 June. On 17 October of the same year, Croatia played the United States in what was Croatia's first match in the modern era.

In modern times

In 1998, plans were made for a massive renovation, and the first phase started the same year. The old northern stand was demolished and a new one built within a year. This renovation increased Maksimir's seating capacity to 38,079.
After 1992, for 16 years the Croatian football team had a proud unbeaten record at this stadium in any competitive match, however on 10 September 2008 England became the first team to beat Croatia in Zagreb, winning 4-1, ending a thirty match undefeated streak.
In the summer of 2011, a little, but much needed "facelifting" was made on the stadium. All seats were replaced, a new drainage system, under-soil heating and automatic watering were installed along with a new turf, the athletic track was covered with blue artificial grass and all brick surfaces were covered in blue cloth.

2020 earthquake

The earthquake, which happened on the morning of 22 March 2020, damaged the structural stability of the stadium. After an inspection by a structural engineer, the Maksimir stadium was deemed "temporarily unusable". The eastern stand, which is also the biggest single stand by capacity, took the most damage and is awaiting the final decision following a detailed building inspection. While waiting, Dinamo is allowed to host matches on the Maksimir stadium, but with the eastern stand being closed for viewers.

Capacity per sector

Four stands contribute to the total seating capacity of 35,423:
DateResultCompetition
25 June 19524–1International friendly
18 October 19533–1International friendly
9 May 19540–2International friendly
17 June 19561–11955–60 Central European International Cup
12 September 19565–2Unofficial friendly
12 May 19576–11955–60 Central European International Cup
5 October 19584–4International friendly
19 November 19612–1International friendly
30 September 19622–3International friendly
3 November 19632–0International friendly
8 May 19662–0International friendly
18 November 19702–0International friendly
21 October 19730–01974 FIFA World Cup qualification
28 September 19741–0International friendly
15 October 19753–0UEFA Euro 1976 qualifying
24 April 19762–0UEFA Euro 1976 quarter-final
16 June 19763–1
UEFA Euro 1976 semi-final
19 June 19763–2
UEFA Euro 1976 third place play-off
8 May 19770–21978 FIFA World Cup qualification
4 October 19781–2UEFA Euro 1980 qualifying
13 June 19794–1International friendly
12 November 19830–0International friendly
6 September 19893–11990 FIFA World Cup qualification
3 June 19900–2International friendly
17 October 19902–1Unofficial friendly
22 October 19923–0International friendly
25 June 19933–1International friendly
4 June 19940–0International friendly
9 October 19942–0UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying
25 March 19954–0UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying
26 April 19952–0UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying
3 September 19957–1UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying
10 November 19961–11998 FIFA World Cup qualification
6 September 19973–21998 FIFA World Cup qualification
29 October 19972–01998 FIFA World Cup qualification play-off
6 June 19987–0International friendly
14 October 19983–2UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying
28 April 19990–0International friendly
21 August 19992–1UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying
4 September 19991–0UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying
9 October 19992–2UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying
29 March 20001–1International friendly
28 May 20000–2International friendly
11 October 20001–12002 FIFA World Cup qualification
6 October 20011–02002 FIFA World Cup qualification
27 March 20020–0International friendly
17 April 20022–0International friendly
29 March 20034–0UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying
11 October 20031–0UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying
15 November 20031–1UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying play-off
31 March 20042–2International friendly
4 September 20043–02006 FIFA World Cup qualification
9 October 20042–22006 FIFA World Cup qualification
26 March 20054–02006 FIFA World Cup qualification
30 March 20053–02006 FIFA World Cup qualification
8 October 20051–02006 FIFA World Cup qualification
7 October 20067–0UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying
11 October 20062–0UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying
24 March 20072–1UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying
6 June 20070–0UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying
8 September 20072–0UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying
13 October 20071–0UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying
6 September 20083–02010 FIFA World Cup qualification
10 September 20081–42010 FIFA World Cup qualification
15 October 20084–02010 FIFA World Cup qualification
6 June 20092–22010 FIFA World Cup qualification
5 September 20091–02010 FIFA World Cup qualification
7 September 20100–0UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying
12 October 20102–1International friendly
17 November 20103–0UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying
6 September 20113–1UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying
15 November 20110–0UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying play-off
29 February 20121–3International friendly
7 September 20121–02014 FIFA World Cup qualification
22 March 20132–02014 FIFA World Cup qualification
7 June 20130–12014 FIFA World Cup qualification
11 October 20131–22014 FIFA World Cup qualification
19 November 20132–02014 FIFA World Cup qualification play-off
9 September 20142–0UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying
28 March 20155–1UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying
10 October 20153–0UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying
5 September 20161–12018 FIFA World Cup qualification
12 November 20162–02018 FIFA World Cup qualification
24 March 20171–02018 FIFA World Cup qualification
3 September 20171–02018 FIFA World Cup qualification
9 November 20174–12018 FIFA World Cup qualification play-off
15 November 20183–22018–19 UEFA Nations League A
21 March 20192–1UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying
11 October 20202020–21 UEFA Nations League A
14 October 20202020–21 UEFA Nations League A

Concerts

The stadium has also been used as the venue for some big concerts, including:
According to the 1998 plans, renovation was to include lowering the lawn and making the "ring" round the pitch in the place of running track and thus gain 16,000 new seats with the annex to the south stand with the final addition of a modern roof structure. Maksimir was to have 60,000 comfortable sitting places and was to be an exclusively football stadium like many others in Europe.
It has additionally been planned to build: new premises for Club's Management, Elegant "Blue Lounge", Big "Trophy room", football school premises, changing room, coach staff room, sports hall with gym, out patient clinic, restaurant, luxury hotel with 46 beds for visiting teams special importance will be given to the building which will connect west stand to the north stand. By this, all the conditions for hosting and organizing big European matches would be fulfilled, including UEFA offices, press club, press center, V.I.P. hospitality, etc. With that, the venue was to be one of the best equipped stadiums in Europe. However, in the beginning of the 2000s, the renovations were suspended.
As of December 2007, the public was awaiting the presentation of new stadium, and in 2008 city government presented two potential stadiums, new Maksimir and Vulkan which is supposed to be built on another location in Zagreb and old Maksimir should then be knocked down, the citizens were to choose which one they want on the referendum predicted to take place somewhere in the near future. However, the city government never made any progress with referendum or these plans and the stadium remains to be a problem to the city for a decade now.
There were talks, again, in 2018, after Croatia's historic success at the World Cup, that the stadium was going to be demolished and a new state of the art stadium would be built on the same place. In 2019, Dinamo Zagreb announced that they will demolish Maksimir and build a completely new stadium on their own, without the help of the Croatian Government, but needed the confirmation from the governing body of Zagreb and its mayor, Milan Bandic. Shortly after, it was announced that Dinamo Zagreb and the City of Zagreb will go in a joint collaboration to build a new stadium. The new stadium was supposed to be build on the ground of the current Maksimir Stadium and it should've had a capacity of 30,000 spectators. The stadium would've had a garage, shopping centre, hotel and several fan corners. After the 2020 Zagreb earthquake, the talks were, once again, put on hold.
Between 1997 and 2015, a total of HRK 800 million has been spent renovating the stadium.

Kajzerica proposal

Stadion Kajzerica was a proposed new football stadium to be built in the Kajzerica neighborhood in Zagreb, intended to replace Stadion Maksimir as the home of the Croatia national football team and Dinamo Zagreb.
The design competition for the new stadium was won by architect Hrvoje Njirić in May 2008. The winning design, nicknamed The Blue Volcano by the press, would have a capacity of 55,000 and would include a blue-coloured polycarbonate dome exterior and a cloud-like structure suspended above the stadium covered in photovoltaic panels.
The project had originally been intended to go ahead after it gained approval in a public referendum in which citizens of Zagreb would vote whether they would rather have the current Stadion Maksimir torn down and re-built in the same location or replaced by an entirely new stadium at Kajzerica.
According to the initial plan the first option would include building a smaller venue at Kajzerica between 2009 and 2011 which would then be used to host Dinamo Zagreb's matches while Maksimir stadium is undergoing rebuilding in the period between 2011 and 2014. The other option would include building the purpose-built 55,000 capacity Blue Volcano at Kajzerica, which would then become the Blues' permanent home.
However, the referendum about the stadium, which had originally been scheduled for June 2008, was postponed several times since and has not been held.
In October 2012, the project was abandoned, to be briefly revived in 2013 with an eye to a possible UEFA Euro 2020 bid, and again in 2018, following Croatia's historic success in the World Cup.