Parken Stadium

55°42′08.89″N 12°34′19.93″E

Parken

Løvernes hule (The lion cave)
Location	Øster Allé 50 DK-2100 København Ø
Owner	Parken Sport & Entertainment
Operator	Parken Sport & Entertainment
Capacity	42,305 (allseater)[1] (future: 42,765)
Surface	Grass
Construction
Broke ground	1990
Opened	9 September 1992
Renovated	200x
Construction cost	640,000,000 DKK (85,300,000 €)
Architect	Gert Andersson
Tenants
F.C. Copenhagen Denmark

Parken Stadium (English: the Park) is a football stadium in the Indre Østerbro (Inner Østerbro) district of Copenhagen, Denmark, built from 1990-1992.

It currently has a capacity of 42,305 for football games, and is the home ground of F.C. Copenhagen and also the Danish national football team.

In the future, the so-called "Coca-Cola stands" will be demolished and replaced by new ones. This will raise the capacity to 42,765 seats. During the construction phase only about 35,000 spectators will be able to see the national team play their 2008 Euro qualifiers. On 2006-11-11 chairman of Parken Sport & Entertainment, Flemming Østergaard, told about the good dialog with Copenhagen Municipality about the construction permit, and the possibility about building a multiarena at Parken.

History

Parken Stadium field

Parken is 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 November 14 1990, and on September 9 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 fall of 1993, making Parken eligible for hosting the finals of the UEFA Cup 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 June 2 2007, Parken was the venue for the 2008 UEFA qualifier fan attack.

Notable matches

Date	Team #1	Res.	Team #2	Competition	Spectators
1994-05-04	Arsenal	1-0	Parma	Cup Winners' Cup 1993-94 final	33,765
2000-05-17	Galatasaray	0-0 (p4-1)	Arsenal	UEFA Cup 1999-00 final	38,919
2005-10-08	Denmark	1-0	Greece	2006 FIFA World Cup Qual. group 2	42,099 (stadium record)
2006-04-06	F.C. Copenhagen	1-0	Lillestrøm	Royal League 2005-06 final	13,617
2006-04-30	F.C. Copenhagen	0-0	Brøndby	Danish Superliga 2005-06	41,201 (league record)

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.

Musicians like Depeche Mode, U2, George Michael, Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, Metallica and Michael Jackson have performed at Parken. Eminem was scheduled to perform at Parken in 2005, but he cancelled his Europe-tour. Robbie Williams has performed there several times, in 2006 he was the first artist to perform two concerts in a row at Parken.

Once every year the TV network TV 2 Zulu organize a big concert, Zulu Rocks, and in 2006 The Black Eyed Peas, Pet Shop Boys, Kashmir, Pharrell and Mew performed.

Location

The stadium is located at coordiantes 55°42′08.89″N 12°34′19.93″E.

See also

• Speedway Grand Prix of Denmark

Notes

1. ^ Historien om PARKEN, Parken history

External links

• Official website
• Tourist info from copenhagen.com
• Listing on stadiumguide.com
• WorldStadiums.com entry