Stožice Stadium


Stožice Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in Ljubljana, Slovenia. It was designed by Slovenian Sadar Vuga d.o.o. architects and is the biggest football stadium in the country. It is one of two main stadiums in the city and lies in the Bežigrad district, north of the city centre. The stadium is part of the Stožice Sports Park sports complex.
The stadium is the home ground of the football club Olimpija Ljubljana and is the main venue of the Slovenia national football team. Besides football, the stadium is designed to host cultural events as well.

History

The stadium was named after the area in which it is located, and the change of the name is possible in the future due to sponsorship rights. Together with an indoor arena, it is a part of the Stožice Sports Park. The stadium building area measures 24.614 square metres. It was constructed in 14 months and was opened on 11 August 2010 in a football friendly match between the national teams of Slovenia and Australia, won by Slovenia 2–0.
The stadium has a capacity of 16,038 seats and is laid out under the plateau of the park. The stadium also has 558 VIP seats and 97 spots for people with disabilities. The stadium's press area can accommodate 210 journalists. As a structure, the stadium is ‘sunk’ into the park. Only the roof over the stands rises above the plane of the park as a monolithic crater.
For cultural purposes such as music concerts, the stadium capacity is increased to over 20,000.

Football

The stadium is mainly used for football and is the home ground of football club Olimpija Ljubljana. Besides being the home ground of Olimpija the stadium is also the home venue of the Slovenia national football team.

National team matches

Culture

Although the stadium was primarily build for football it is also planned to host many cultural events. The first was a joint project of two comedians, Lado Bizovičar and Jurij Zrnec, that was titled Notpadu lajv?!, on 20 September 2010. Over 20,000 people gathered on this event.

Records

The stadium is a record holder for most spectators on a home football match of the Slovenia national football team. This was achieved on 11 August 2010 on the opening match, when Slovenia played against Australia. 16,135 people gathered to see that match. That is also the highest attendance on any football match in Slovenia after the independence of the country in 1991.

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