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Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Top 10 stadiums in the world

You will see that only 2 out of the top 10 are in Europe. I'm sure that when reading the title you would have thought the rest of the world doesn't have 100k or over stadiums. Or at least, not that many.

(Click on the small pictures to see them bigger)

1. Rungrado May Day Stadium 150,000 Pyongyang, North Korea, clearly a communist monument. Home ground of the national football team. Opened on the 1st May 1989 (for a communist celebration of the labors day) hence the name.



2. Salt Lake Stadium 120,000 Calcutta, India, you would expect a country with population over the billion to have big stadiums, India has a big one, China doesn't. Home ground of East Bengal Club, Mohun Bagan Athletic Club and Mohammedan Sporting. Opened in 1984.




3. Azteca 105,000 Mexico City, Mexico. The place where the World cup final Brazil 4-1 Italy took place in 1970. Home ground of Club America. Opened in 1966 but renovated in 1985



4. Bukit Jalil National Stadium 100,000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Opened in 1998 for the Commonwealth games.



5. Melbourne Cricket Ground 100,000 Melbourne, Australia. Opened in 1854, of course not exactly in today's form. Mostly used for cricket and Australian football but also the home ground of the national football team. I have to wonder, is it sold out when they play Fiji, Togo and all the other teams from the Pacific area for the world cup qualifications?



6. Camp Nou 98,772 Barcelona, Spain. Opened 1957 and home ground for FC Barcelona, not much to add about it really, it's pretty well known around the world.



7. Maracana 96,000 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Another famous stadium, renovated in 2007 and home ground of Fluminense and Flamengo, it's estimated that in 1950 a match between Brazil and Uruaguy gathered an incredible 210,000 people.



8. Wembley 90,000 London, England. Opened in 2007 to replace the old Wembley (a real legend in the world of football stadiums) for the national side. The only question I have regarding this stadium is what the hell was so expensive?

1 billion euros???!?!?! That's 3 times the price of the Allianz Arena from Munich!



9. Azadi Stadium 90,000 Tehran, Iran, built in 1971, home ground for Persepolis F.C. , Esteghlal F.C. and the Iranian national football team



10. Estadio Monumental Isidro Romero Carbo 89,930 Guayaquil, Ecuador. Built in 1987 and renovated in 1994. That really makes me think about the quality of the construction if they had to renovate it after only 7 year... Home ground of Barcelona SC

35 comments:

  1. All amazing places. Can't even begin to imagine how good it must feel to score a goal in front of a packed house at any of these stadiums. The Nou Camp for me is fantastic - one of the best in the world.

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  2. estadio monumental isidro romero carbo was not renovated, it was finished and inaugurated again in 1994

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  3. @ Thomas Rooney

    I'm sure adrenaline would be flowing through your body like crazy.

    @ Anonymous

    Sorry mate, that's what it written on wikipedia...

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  4. im almost positive that there are much bigger stadiums. ohio states horshoe stadium, penn states stadium in happy valley, tennessees stadium and the big house at michigan are all larger than 100,000.

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  5. Soccer is rarely played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

    There is a smaller 50000 seat Australian Rules Football stadium at the other end of town for the big soccer matches.

    The MCG is continually growing in capacity to meet the demand for Australian Rules Football.

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  6. azadi actally has 100'000 seats, at one point it had 105'000 seats

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  7. What about the allianz arena and the birdsnest?

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  8. @ Anonymous

    I am really talking about stadiums where football is played.

    @ Paul

    Thanks for the info! I didn't know that!

    @ Allianz Arena is a great stadium and I really enjoyed watching football in it, but the idea of the article is the capacity!

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  9. Just out of interest, where did La Luz come on the list? I thought that sat around 100,000 but maybe that was pre-redevelopment?

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  10. Matthew,

    The Old Stadio Da Luz had even more than 100,000. It had around 130,000 was built in 1954 and was home of the great Eusebio. It was demolished and the new stadium is one of the most impressive stadiums in the world at this time, but it is only about 65,000 places big.

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  11. Actually, all the biggest 'soccer' games in Melbourne are played at the MCG. Lesser international games and A-League games are played at Telstra Dome, but all the best ones (like the upcoming World Cup qualifier between Australia and Japan) are at the 'G.

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  12. Some of the bigger stadiums here only have such a huge capacity because most places are standing, whereas in Europe and possibly USA, there are much bigger ones, but all or almost all seats. So many of the 80'000 or 90'000 stadiums with full seating are quite a bit bigger than the 100'000+ stadiums with mostly standing places. You can pack a hell of a lot more people in when they're standing...

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  13. Azadi Stadium's capacity was over 120,000 before they put seats in it! and there is a record for that with 147,000 viewr in some football matches!

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  14. The american College Stadiums don't have standart soccer seats(single seat) and the FIFA regulations that shrinks the size of attendance.So many of these soccer stadiums are larger in size as a structure,if they would take away single seats and put regular row seats oh man most of these footbal(soccer) stadiums will have capacities over 120.000 so dear Americans don't you worry much....

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  15. el estadio azteca is the best

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  16. semue...stadium ini akan saye lukis...x kenal...saye...saye ade..myspace.email....adli_wanted92@yahoo.com

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  17. apna India stadium is big. And it is all seating no standing. Please ....

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  18. You can add Soccer City in South Africa to that list at 95000

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  19. what about old trafford in manchester......its also one the worlds best stadium,some one can dream of scoring a goal in old trafford

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  20. i thought that camp nou had 100,00 seats in the stadium.

    :)

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  21. eden gardens in kolkata....also has 90,000 capacity!!!!! Also add that!!!

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  22. MCG has the most extravagant look. Would also like to mention Arena AufSchalke (Veltins-Arena) stadium which is one among the spectacular stadiums in Europe. Well you can have a look at some of the coolest top ten stadiums in the world which are unique and sets them apart from others in this world. do check out this site to gain more knowledge.
    Top 10 Stadiums

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  23. he pratik, old trafford has only about 75,000 seats

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  24. san siro milan or giuseppe meazza also have big capacities, in my country (indonesia) have a big stadium namely gelora bung karno, its have 100.000 seats

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  25. you gotta be kiddin me>>where's the signal iduna park

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  26. Where is Santiago Bernabeau.!!!!!!!!
    Proud to have an Indian stadium on the list..:)

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  27. national stadium bukit jalil amazing!

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  28. Camp Nou, a dream to be there, but still proud to be able to go to St. James' Park every couple of weekends, oops sorry Mike Ashley, i meant Sports Direct Arena!

    @Geordie-Mark97

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  29. maracana stadium.... So cool...

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  30. Mcg is a round stadium for aussie football and cricket then we have another ground for most big soccer matches only the very biggest are played at the mcg and it's never filled for them we also have a smaller ground for our two league teams to play in that's around 50 000 I think

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  31. What about Strachov in Prague? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strahov_Stadium much bigger than any other

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  32. your right i wonder why a country like China with billions of ppl dont have the biggest one .... they build everything else in the world...it would cost them literally 10% of what Wembley is worth

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  33. MALAYSIA!!.. BUKIT JALIL DERR.. haha

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