The advantage of every good football team is its stadium. Names like Camp Nou, Santiago Bernabeu, Stamford Bridge say something even to people who are poorly versed in football. The stadium is the home for the team that plays there, you can call this place sacred to every club.
This article will be about the Arsenal Stadium - Emirates. This is one of the most comfortable stadiums in Europe, which is probably why regular houses from football fans of the “Gunners” regularly gather here.
Arsenal Stadium - name
It is generally accepted that the official name of the London team football stadium is Emirates, but not everything is as simple as it seems at first glance. After UEFA introduced the rule of financial fair play (the rule whereby teams must spend exactly as much as they earn), they also forbade the use of any commercial names on the football club's infrastructure. Otherwise, they may be disqualified from European competition.
Based on this rule, we can say that the Arsenal stadium is constantly changing its name. In the Angdian Premier League championship, the stadium is called Emirates, and in matches of the Champions League or other European-level tournament - Ashburton Grove or Arsenal Stadium. Thus, Arsenal is still tricky with the system, receiving money from sponsors and without violating the rules of financial fair play. But, most likely, this vein will be blocked by the governing football authorities, because they began to seriously deal with this issue.
Stadium performance
The stadium itself was built in 2006, when Arsenal was at the peak of its capabilities. The amount that was spent during construction, according to various sources, ranges from 370 to 400 million pounds. And at that time it was one of the most expensive stadiums on the planet, although even now it belongs to those.
The color scheme of the stadium is naturally, in the colors of the club - red and white. About 60 thousand fans can simultaneously be accommodated in its stands, while all safety measures are provided for on it. The stadium also takes into account the needs of people with disabilities - there are places and even special personnel for the disabled. This approach is explained by the fact that the club president is a football fan himself and it is very important for him that everyone who supports his team feels comfortable and does not need anything. The Arsenal Stadium (we offer a photo of it in our article) is a work of football art.
Arsenalization
The Arsenal stadium was not always the way we have the opportunity to see it now. In the first years of its existence, it was a good stadium, but its design caused a lot of protests among fans of the club from London, who demanded that the stadium demonstrate in design who exactly it plays and who is the boss here. And in 2009, the so-called "arsenalization" of the stadium began.
For this, various designers were invited to try to recreate the Highbury atmosphere, decorating the club with eight canvases depicting ex-Arsenal footballers who managed to make the greatest contribution to the development of the club. In addition, a club museum was created inside the stadium, where all the trophies were in the original, and in general it totaled more than 60,000 exhibits.
We can say that the "arsenalization" was successful, because even the walls smelled of the spirit of the "gunner" movement. What is noteworthy, after this, according to statistics, more people started going to Arsenal.
Arsenal Stadium - Old Highbury
Although Emirates is very comfortable and roomy, Highbury is almost a 100-year history. This Arsenal stadium lasted from 1913 to 2006. It held boxing fights, the 1948 Summer Olympics, the FA Cup final and many other sports events.
The fans took the dismantling of the stadium with understanding, but there was bitterness in their hearts. One of the fans did not miss a single match of his team for 30 years, and for him it was really a shock, although he admitted that the construction of a new building was brewing. Of course, everything old should be left in the past, not looking back, and look with confidence to the future, but do not forget the place where the victories of the great by all standards football club Arsenal, which won the English Premier League and Champions League, began.