Stadiums topic

[Gerrit]

I am a groundhopper myself for 9 years now. Groundhopping means: visiting stadiums (preferably with a game going on, though not necessarily) as a hobby, collecting pictures of grounds, ... In other words: visiting as many stadiums as you can, regardless of the teams that play in it

I have done this for 9 years and have visited about 1200 grounds, about half of them can be seen as just pitches with canteen, and the other half are actual stadiums. I have seen many not very famous ones, but also a few really famous ones: I have been in all Belgian top-flight stadiums (including the ones of Standard, RSC Anderlecht, FC Bruges, ...), I visited Amsterdam ArenA (Ajax), I've been at Old Trafford (Man United), Upton Park (West Ham), Goodison Park (Everton), Celtic Park (Celtic), Nou Camp (Barcelona) and the grounds of Udinese, SV Salzburg, FC Utrecht, Roda JC, Allemannia Aachen, Fortuna Sittard, Aalborg AB, Randers Freja and Aarhus GF.

My big loves are the really old stadiums that look a bit delapedated but very authentic, the sort of grounds with old terraces and wooden seats, as if time stood still...

Here's a few of my favourites:

1. My favourite stadium in Europe: Dudenpark by Union St-Gilles (Brussels), built in 1897 and hardly changed ever since!!






More beauties here on the island of Ireland:

The Oval (Glentoran)




Solitude (Cliftonville FC)




Dalymount Park (Bohemians FC Dublin)



All photos thanks to my friend and fellow groundhopper Joris, his site is www.freewebs.com/doingthe116



Stadiums on my desire list include mainly stadiums in very idyllic surreal destinations. I love stadiums on a remote island where you wouldn't expect football would be played, or stadiums surrounded by a fjord or glacier like the ones in Iceland or like Tromsø's ground.

Apart from that, famous stadiums I'd love to visit include San Siro (AC Milan), Inonu (Besiktas, situated next to the Bosphorus and with sight on the opposite Asian side of the city!), Alfheim (Tromsø), the ground of Inverness CT (situated next to a lake and inlet) and of course a game at Lerkendal (all my Rosenborg games I've attended happened to be away games, which is okay in itself but I would love to see an actual game at the holy grass in Tromdheim)

And my ultimate groundhopping dream is a tour along the stadiums of the former USSR, where all those really old authentic grounds are all over the cities...



Which are your favourite grounds, and which ones would you love to visit?
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Rosenborg, forever pride of the North!

[Skotten]

[Jon Irenicus]

Why does British soccer appeal so much to Norway's disembrained?

[Gerrit]

It appeals to lot of people worldwide. I don't get it neither. The French and Spanish league are the best quality-wise in my opinion. But honestly, and this is not to try to make a good impression, I honestly mean this: the Tippeligaen to me is the most interesting world in the league. The beautiful landscapes around the grounds, the dark snow-covered stadiums during late autumn, clubs from the edge of the world such as Tromsø and Rosenborg, decent enough football, fanatic colourful fans... The Tippeligaen is the best!
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Rosenborg, forever pride of the North!

[Green Apes]

Can I post some pictures too? in 19.10 I will be in Bloomfield and might wanna take a few pics from there, also might go to Israel vs England in Ramat Gan. Nice shots I always like looking at stadiums
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~GA

[Gerrit]

Sure, feel free to post pictures from your favourite stadiums (including Israeli stadiums)!
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Rosenborg, forever pride of the North!

[attach]

He has posted some Israeli stadiums here.

[Green Apes]

[iauk]

i have a few photos of Akranesvollur in Iceland at www.freewebs.com/iauk the home of IA

[Gerrit]

I love Akranesvollur! Right on the shore, with the waves almost crashing against the back of the stand, how beautiful is that?

Lot of Icelandic grounds have very idyllic locations. Akranes is right on the bach, Vestmaennaeyjar's ground is next to a series of cliffs, and Leiftur's ground is right next to a fjord... The Faroe Islands have a few grounds like that as well, one is very famously located at the bottom of a cliff and next to an inlet.
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Rosenborg, forever pride of the North!

[iauk]

IBV home ground, Hasteinsvollur is in a beautiful location

[Gerrit]

Does anyone have any good picture of HamKam's ground?

While watching the TV report of HamKam-Rosenborg last week, I saw something weird in their terrace behind the goal, almost looked like a sort of circle-shaped stairway I must have seen something wrongly or so, cause that would be too weird for a football stadium?
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Rosenborg, forever pride of the North!

[Skotten]

[Henging]

Ham-Kam's VIP-Area is on the terrace to the club-house

[Gerrit]

I have visited hundreds of grounds, but never saw a stair like that ever before
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Rosenborg, forever pride of the North!

[attach]

It's probably the emergency exit.

[Gerrit]

It's highly bizarre anyway... I also noticed HamKam's goals are quite weird, their nets are not attached to a pole but to a sort of iron stick in the shape or a bow...

Weird stadium. But the weird ones are the most interesting to visit of course Sign me up for next season's HamKam-RBK!
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Rosenborg, forever pride of the North!

[attach]

You're right. They are by the way planning to build a new stadium within a couple of years, so you have to hurry

Another link. But you probably knew this.

[Gerrit]

Sandefjord are also building a new stadium, isn't it?

When I visited Oslo two weeks ago, I visited the "Bislett Stadion". I am not sure who plays there, I was told Valerenga used to play there before moving to Ullevaal, but apparently there's still a division 2 team playing home games at Bislett. I wanted to visit Ullevaal as well, but there was no way in. Maybe better try when there's a game being played.
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Rosenborg, forever pride of the North!

[attach]

Yes, Sandefjord are building a new stadium.

VÃ¥lerenga played on Bislett before it was re-built. I don't know who plays there now. Bislett is one of the most famous athletic stadiums in the world.

[attach]

Here you can "read" about all the stadium plans in the Tippeliga.

Video of Fredrikstad's new stadium.

[Svendsea]

I know that Manglerud star have played some games at Bislett this year.
Manglerud star plays in the bottom of the Adecco league (1 division).
More info on Bislett: http://www.n3sport.no/06/...enueId=120
and http://no.wikipedia.org/w...tt_stadion

[Green Apes]

I dont understand building stadiums near houses, it looks bad near a place with full of trees like Litex does, it looks like playing in the jungle...A NEW stadium these days should look like this ::



Ofcourse that this is a computer view, Netanya's new stadium in 2 years. Their old stadium is just..old.
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~GA

[Svendsea]

This is a good if you want to check out stadiums. http://www.worldstadiums....rope.shtml

[Gerrit]

A few nice ones there...


(Puerto Rico Islanders)



(Cubaans nationaal stadion, mind Che Guevara at the back)


(Caymand Islands)



(St Helena, lijkt op een soort golfbaan in een dal)
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Rosenborg, forever pride of the North!