Arsenal stadium london name. Emirates Stadium. Choosing a name for the arena

The Emirates Stadium (Ashburton Grove) is the arena where the English football club Arsenal plays their home matches. The structure was built as a replacement for the former Highbury Arena.

Emirates Stadium: address

The stadium is located at: Homsey Rd, London N7 7AJ, UK. Opening date: July 22, 2006. Capacity - 60,360 spectators. Height - 42 meters. The cost of the project is 400 million euros. The owner is the Arsenal club (London). The dimensions of the football field are 105x68 meters. Architect firm - Populous.

Reference

Currently, the Emirates Stadium (capacity of 60 thousand people) is the third largest arena (after Wembley and Old Trafford) in England. It got its second name ("Ashburton Grove") as a result of the eponymous name of an industrial building that was the site for the construction of a new arena. According to the construction timeframe, the facility was supposed to be built in 2003. Later, the construction deadlines were significantly delayed due to the latest financial crisis that gripped Europe.

Story

In the 90s of the last century, the London club Arsenal showed impressive results in domestic and international competitions. The old Highbury Stadium, built back in 1913, had a capacity of 38 thousand spectators. It was no longer able to accommodate everyone who wanted to watch their favorite team play. As a result, the club's coffers could not be fully filled (due to an insufficient number of tickets sold), and the team itself began to lose income. Initially, they tried to expand the stadium at the expense of the territory located nearby. But the city authorities did not approve this idea. The case ended in petty lawsuits and damaged nerves on both sides.

As a result, the club's management decided to build a new arena. By the summer of 2004, the construction of the stadium bowl was completed. In addition, two bridges for vehicle traffic were put into operation. At the end of the summer of 2005, the installation of the roof was completed, and a month later, individual seats were installed. On July 22, 2006, the Emirates Stadium (photo in the article) was inaugurated.

The last match at the Highbury Arena took place on May 7, 2006. Later, an auction was held where parts of the stadium, corner flag stands, coaches' table, etc. were sold. The old chairs were not sold. They were scrapped because they contained environmentally polluting materials.

Description of the stadium

Structurally, Emirates Stadium consists of four stands. Each includes four tiers:

upper tier, designed for 26,600 people;
lower tier, accommodating 24,400 spectators;
medium (club) level, capable of receiving 7140 spectators;
level equipped with boxes for honored guests (2220 people).

The upper and lower tiers are equipped with regular individual chairs. The middle tier is a zone of increased comfort. This is the place where the club's fans are. Above this level there are 150 boxes. They have a capacity of ten to fifteen people. The annual cost of a subscription to one lodge is about 70 thousand pounds.

A season ticket to watch matches from the top and bottom tier costs £1,000-1,500. Fans occupying seats in the middle level of the arena have the opportunity to purchase the right to attend fights for a period of one to four years. One place of this type will cost £3,000 per year.

The comfort of watching matches is ensured by the roof of the structure, which covers all spectator seats. The premises under the stands are equipped with restaurants, shops, toilets, and storage rooms. Under the roof of the stadium there are two scoreboards, as well as a clock, structurally similar to those at Highbury.

Since in English football a significant portion of the match is spent fighting within the penalty areas of the opposing teams, intensive trampling of the lawn occurs in these very places. The Emirates Stadium dealt with this problem brilliantly. There is an opportunity to replace the grass in these areas.

"Arsenalization" of the arena

In 2009, a program was developed and later implemented to equip the stadium, in accordance with the spirit of Highbury. To preserve the former atmosphere of the club, the same white chairs were installed and various creative and artistic means were used. The façade of the arena itself was decorated with huge canvases depicting the 32 best Arsenal players who played for the team in different years. Among the most prominent players who played for the club in recent years were:

Robert Pires.
David Seaman.

And of course, it was impossible to do without a drawing of the famous “Arsenal” cannon - the club’s emblem, first used in 1930 and restored in 2003.

Sponsor

Emirates Stadium bears a name directly related to the club's main sponsor, Arsenal. It is Airline. A fifteen-year agreement (contract) worth £100 million was signed with her in 2004. Part of the deal was covered by advertising (the image of the sponsor's name on the T-shirts of the team's players). In 2012, a new agreement was signed, as a result the name of the stadium will remain as such until 2028. The airline itself undertakes to sponsor the club until 2019. It is important to note that since Emirates Airline is an unofficial sponsor of UEFA, during European Cup matches the arena is called Arsenal Stadium.

In conclusion, I would like to say that since the Arsenal team moved to the new stadium, the club’s competitive performance has noticeably deteriorated. For almost 10 years now, the Gunners have not been able to win the national championship or take at least second place. The results in European competitions were also mediocre.

For almost a hundred years, London's Arsenal hosted home matches at Highbury Stadium. The story of the Gunners' move to a new arena is quite interesting and not entirely typical for English clubs. It all started with the fact that in London they planned to build a modern stadium with a design capacity of 40 thousand people. The Arsenal football club acted as the initiator of construction. But there was a significant problem: the Gunners were based in the south-eastern part of the city, and the land for the stadium was located in the north! I didn’t really want to abandon my family fans, who had become accustomed to their team for thirty years.

And then the club economists took the floor. They calculated that it was absolutely unprofitable for the “gunners” to stay in the old area, because few people go to matches here. This means that the revenue does not allow us to cover expenses that are growing every year. And not all clubs wanted to go to this wilderness.

To understand the difficulty of the situation at that time, the fact that Arsenal did not have its own stadium is important. The team was forced to huddle in various buildings, the condition of which was sometimes quite unsightly due to dilapidation. And there’s nothing to say about the local playing fields: according to the recollections of contemporaries, the Arsenal lawn was always in disgusting condition. There were cases when the “Reds” hosted opponents in nearby wastelands or on the territory of a pig farm! This means that there was only one way out: to cross the Thames in a northerly direction, relocating to Highbury.

Discovery and flourishing

The stadium, which became Arsenal's home for decades to come, was opened in 1913. The first match took place on September 6 - the opponent was the Leicester Foss club. The hosts won 2:1, and this was a good sign, indicating the notorious luck of the arena. Indeed, the statistics of Arsenal's performances at Highbury look very impressive. In the period from 1913 to 2006, the “gunners” achieved a total of 1,196 victories in 2010 matches (68%) here!

If we look at the list of devastating scores that took place at this stadium, we will see interesting results. The greatest victory of the “gunners” at Highbury dates back to January 1932. Then Arsenal beat Darwen with a score of 11:1. The Gunners had two biggest defeats here. Arsenal lost to both Huddersfield in January 1925 and Chelsea in November 1998 0:5.

During its operation, the stadium hosted many significant competitions. Thus, the England national team has played here several times. Competitions as part of the 1948 Summer Olympics were held at Highbury. The arena was often used for boxing, cricket, baseball and other sports.

Highbury Sunset

At the turn of the century, Arsenal management faced two serious problems regarding the operation of the stadium. Firstly, it deteriorated every year and a lot of money was required for reconstruction. Secondly, due to its small capacity by modern standards, the stadium was physically unable to accommodate everyone. As a result, Arsenal did not receive a significant portion of the profit, which it could have used to develop the club’s infrastructure and transfer activities. In the early 2000s, a fateful decision was made: the Gunners began building a new, much more spacious and functional stadium. Highbury's days were numbered: it was facing closure and partial dismantling.

Arsenal played their last match at this arena on May 7, 2006. The Gunners hosted Wigan and confidently defeated them with a score of 4:2. The legendary captain of the “gunners” Thierry Henry scored a hat-trick. Shortly after that match, most of the stadium's property was auctioned off. Fans and collectors from different countries had the opportunity to purchase fragments of the lawn and goals, corner flags, locker room contents and much more. Arsenal fans also wanted to buy seats, but a special commission prohibited them from being put up for sale. The fact is that in the process of manufacturing the chairs, a poisonous drug was used - cadmium.

Now on the site of Highbury there is a residential complex with more than 700 apartments. What Highbury has become these days is clearly shown in the video:

House No. 2. Emirates

Initially, the brand new Arsenal stadium, which was put into operation in 2006, was named Ashburton Grove. Soon, the Gunners' title partner Fly Emirates decided to buy the rights to the arena's name. Now it is called succinctly and sonorously - “Emirates”. The renaming contract is valid until 2028. At the same time, UEFA representatives steadfastly ignore various commercial names and officially refuse to name the home arena in honor of the main club sponsor.

This is the third largest stadium in England after the legendary Wembley and Old Trafford. Emirates accommodates many more people than Highbury. More than sixty thousand people can fit here. Accordingly, revenue from ticket sales has grown dramatically over the past ten years, significantly filling the club's budget. The construction of the stadium was not cheap: the total estimate was 390 million pounds. Therefore, the increased profit was a good help in covering expenses.

Emirates is a stadium consisting of four stands, each of which is divided into four tiers. The spectator seats are completely protected by the roof from precipitation and scorching sun. In the very core of the arena there are two multimedia scoreboards, and in the sub-tribune areas there are shops, restaurants and a museum room. In the museum you can see photographs of players who played for Arsenal throughout the club's existence, as well as see club trophies. When moving to the Emirates, Reds fans insisted that the famous clock that had hung at Highbury for decades be installed at the new stadium. They were placed in the South Stand.
In addition to Arsenal, the England national team played several home matches in this arena. Brazil also came here and hosted their opponents here as part of a friendly tour. Leasing the arena to the Pentacampeons for temporary use also allowed the Gunners to receive additional profit.

Emirates Stadium or Ashburton Grove has been Arsenal's home ground since 2006. The maximum capacity of the stadium is 60,361 people. This is the most modern arena in the English Premier League.

Name

On October 5, 2004, it became known that Emirates Airways had signed a 15-year contract worth £100 million with Arsenal, according to which the Gunners' new stadium would be called Emirates Stadium. In addition to the name of the arena itself, this amount included an agreement for title sponsorship of game uniforms for 8 years, starting with the 2006/07 season.

The name of the stadium is usually used in its abbreviated form - "Emirates". However, a large number of the team's fans still prefer to call the successor "Ashburton Grove" or "Grove", due to the geographical location of the stadium.

Due to the fact that Fly Emirates is not an official sponsor of UEFA, during the European Cup matches the arena is simply called Arsenal Stadium.

A little history

The club began to think about the need to build a new stadium already at the end of the 90s, since it could only accommodate 38.419 people. Of course, it was possible to slightly expand the old field at the expense of the sidewalk and residential buildings around the stadium. But neither the local population nor the city council were enthusiastic about this idea. With each passing day, the number of people wishing to purchase an annual subscription to the Gunners' home games only increased. The leadership of Arsenal was well aware that they were losing a big piece of the pie and decided not to waste any more time.

It all started with finding the required piece of land. The club seriously considered the option of building a stadium near the M25 motorway, although it was preferable to remain in North London, in the Islington area and as close to Highbury as possible. It is worth noting that at one time the idea of renting the legendary Wembley, where Arsenal had already played their home matches in the Champions League in the 1998/99 and 1999/00 seasons, was seriously considered. Ultimately this option was rejected. In addition, in 2002, when the Wembley redevelopment was given the green light, there were rumors that Arsenal and Tottenham would move to the new stadium together when it was completed. As it turned out, these were just backup options, since at the same time the club was already working on the Ashburton Grove project.

In the end, the choice fell on industrial buildings on Ashburton Grove, located just 500 yards from the good old one. The work plan was announced in November 1999, with the opening date of the new stadium in August 2003. But due to financial and construction difficulties, the opening date was later postponed to the summer of 2006. This small plot of land in north London had many tenants and owners, the largest of which were the Islington waste treatment plant and the Royal Mail office. In order to put the plan into effect, it was necessary to buy the properties from their owners, as well as significantly facilitate their relocation to another place. To locate the processing plant, Arsenal bought a 40,000 m2 plot of land that once belonged to the railway. The mail was moved to Hamilton.

local resistance

Despite the fact that Arsenal have been based in Islington for more than 80 years, there were residents and businesses who opposed the construction of a new stadium. The case even went to court, but Arsenal won it. The stadium also became a major issue during the 2006 elections. The district police department required fans to park near the Sobel sports center and not in underground parking lots. There were also restrictions on access to 14 streets during games.

Construction

In February 2004, the final stage of construction of the arena began. The stadium bowl and two bridges over the Northern Railway Line were completed before the summer of 2004. The roof was completed in August 2005, earlier than expected and within budget. In February 2006, 90% of season tickets had already been sold, the remaining 10% were sold out before June. The first seat in the stadium was inaugurated on March 13, 2006 by an Arsenal player. The arena lighting was tested on June 25, and the gates were installed a day later.

Stadium structure

The stadium is a four-tiered dish with a roof over the seats, but not over the field. The design team included architects from Populus, construction consultants from Arcadis and engineering firm Buro Happold. The chief architect of the arena is Sir Robert McAlpin.

The upper (26,646 people) and lower (24,425 people) levels of Ashburton Grove are equipped with regular seating. In the 2006/07 season, adult ticket prices ranged from £32 to £66 on average, while children's tickets averaged £13. Season tickets cost between £885 and £1,825.

The middle level of the arena is called the “club” level and provides a greater level of comfort. It has 7,139 seats, the rights to which are also sold for a period of one to four years. In the first season at Ashburton, an annual subscription for this type of seat cost from 2,500 to 4,750 pounds. These costs include all home Premier League games, as well as League Cup, FA Cup and European Cup matches.

Above the club level there are 150 boxes with a capacity of 10, 12 and 15 seats. The total number of people who can simultaneously watch the game from this level is 2,222 people. The price of one box for one year is 65,000 pounds.

The VIP level and, accordingly, the best seats in the stadium are at the so-called “diamond level”. These seats are available by invitation only.

The high demand for tickets, coupled with the high income of London fans, allows the club to receive similar income from the club and diamond levels alone as it did in full.

The field measuring 105*68 m is located exactly the same as on - from north to south. Away fans are located in the southeast corner of the lower level. The number of seats for foreign fans can be increased from 1,500 to 4,500 people by placing them behind the south gate. In special cases, it is possible to allocate up to 9,000 seats for visiting fans by placing them on the upper tier.

The new stadium pays tribute. The combination of all the club's offices is called "Highbury House" and is located in the north-eastern part of the complex. A bust was also placed there, the same one that stood in the marble hall. Three other busts that were also on the site, namely Claude Ferrier (architect of the East Stand), Denis Hill-Wood (former chairman of the club's board of directors) were moved to Ashburton and are located at the entrance to the "diamond" tier of the stadium. By the way, the two bridges that stretch over the railway tracks and connect the stadium with Drayton Park are called the Clock End and North Bank bridges, as are the legendary stands on.

By the way, the famous symbol that any “gunner” knows about, namely the clock from the South Stand, is also now on Grove.

In the structure of the stadium there is a club museum, where, among other things, there are marble figures from the hall. The museum is located in the northern part of the arena.

Official opening

The new stadium was officially opened by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh on Thursday 26 October 2006. It was previously reported that Queen Elizabeth II would open the stadium, but due to back problems she was unable to personally attend the ceremony. Truly it was a great event, historians even drew a parallel with the event in 1936, when Elizabeth's uncle the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) opened the Western Stand at . Unable to attend Ashburton's opening, the Queen gave the team manager, chairman and first team the honor of joining her at Buckingham Palace for tea on 15 February 2007. Arsenal became the first team in history to be invited to the palace for such a purpose.

Interesting Facts

To obtain the necessary license to open, it was necessary to hold 3 events with a non-maximum number of visitors. The first event was an open day for the club's shareholders on July 18, 2006, the second was a demonstration training session for 20,000 people. On July 22, the first match was held at the stadium, which became the third event.
The first match ever played at Ashburton was a game between Arsenal and Ajax to mark the end of his football career. In this game, 4 different teams collided: the first squads of Arsenal and Ajax, who played the first half. In the second half, the teams of the Gunners and Amsterdam legends took to the field. Arsenal won with a score of 2:1. Klaas Jan Huntelaar and .

The first competitive match at Ashburton was the Premier League game between Arsenal and Aston Villa, which ended in a 1-1 draw. The Gunners had to wait for their first victory at the new arena until September 23, 2006, when Sheffield United were defeated 3:0.
The first European Cup match at the Grove took place on August 23, 2006 - Arsenal hosted Dinamo Zagreb.
On September 3, 2006, the first game between national teams was played at the stadium. Argentina met with Brazil. The game ended with a score of 3:0 in favor of the Pentacampeons.
The first hat-trick was recorded on February 19, 2007. He was credited to Jay Simpson, a player in the Arsenal reserve team, who scored 3 goals against Cardiff City. The game ended with the score 3:2.
Arsenal suffered their first defeat on the new field on April 7, 2007 in a match with West Ham United. By the way, the Hammers also became the last team to beat Arsenal at .
Before the start of the 2010/11 season, a large copy of the legendary clock was installed in the south stand of the stadium. In order to recreate the former atmosphere, the stands were also renamed. Now they are called the same as on - East End, West End, North Bank and Clock End. The new watch was unveiled at a ceremony ahead of Arsenal's first home game of the season, which saw them beat Blackpool 6-0.
On 23 October 2011, Arsenal played their 150th match at Ashburton against Stoke City. became the author of the 200th goal scored at the Grove.
On 23 November 2011, he became the first player to score 50 goals at Ashburton (50 and 51 goals were scored in a Champions League match against Borussia Dortmund).

"Arsenalization"

In response to criticism from fans that the stadium was just a commercial project without even a hint of the Gunners' great historical heritage, the club's management introduced the Arsenalization program under the leadership of Ivan Gazidis.

A short list of changes made since 2009:

Installation of white cannon-shaped seats on the lower tier of the East Stand.

The "Spirit of Highbury" room has been created, featuring all the players who played for Arsenal for 93 years at the previous stadium.
8 large murals were installed around the stadium. Each depicts 4 club legends. They all stand with their backs, hugging each other. It seems as if 32 legends have embraced the stadium. The frescoes depict:

The stadium of FC Arsenal was opened on August 29, 1959, then it was called “Tula Luzhniki”, then the arena was renamed the stadium “im. 50th anniversary of the Lenin Komsomol".

First football match— 08.29.59 “Shakhtar” (Stalinogorsk) — “Fili” (Moscow) — 1:1. Previously it was indicated that Trud played as the home team, but Tula football statisticians, who studied newspaper archives from 1959, established that it was Shakhtar Stalinogorsk that played in the opening match.

First international match— 08/30/59 “Trud” (Tula) — “Ahli Istiklal” (Syrian region of the United Arab Republic) — 1:1.

The first matchin national championships- 09/06/59 Trud (Tula) - Lokomotiv (Gomel) - 1:1.

First official meeting with a major league club— 1970 “Metallurg” — “Pakhtakor” (Tashkent) — 0:0

First international meeting with a professional club- 07.30.71 Metallurg - Southend United (England) - 2:1.

The first official match of national teams under the auspices of UEFA- 10/30/97 Russia - Yugoslavia (youth) - 2:2.

On March 31, 2015, the RFU licensing commission assigned the stadium the first category.

Stadium characteristics

Tentative diagram of the stadium

Layout of columns on the East Stand:

Capacity - 20048 (before reconstruction in the summer of 2014). After reconstruction - 19241.
The heating was installed by Motomatic, Switzerland in August 1996. Special drainage system.
The stadium is located in the center of Tula. 4 trolleybus routes, 5 trams, many buses and minibuses.
Parking lots near the stadium are intended for both honored guests and ordinary fans. Public toilets inside the stadium.

The Tula Central Stadium "Arsenal" celebrated its 55th anniversary in 2014. The first stone of its foundation was laid on June 8, 1958. They built, as they say, the whole world, holding Saturdays and Sundays. Construction lasted about a year - August 29, 1959, the day of the grand opening of the stadium, and is considered to be the birthday of the arena. Already in the sixties, sports fame came to the stadium: the competitions of track and field athletes of the Soviet Union and Poland held in Tula in 1960 brought several world and national records. But the oldest Tula track in the country remained more famous. The best cyclists of that time from all over the world shone on it: world and Olympic champions French Trantin and Morelon, German Geschke, Danish Fredbor...

Gradually, the sports complex expanded: a figure skating school was opened, a swimming pool and an athletics arena were built. In the 70-80s, the stadium named after the 50th anniversary of the Komsomol was famous for its sports and recreational work. Many Tula residents remember the summer and winter camps that hosted up to 3,000 young athletes at the stadium at the same time, the swimming training program for all city schoolchildren, health groups...

The new life of the stadium began in the nineties. Thanks to the active participation and support of the General Director of Tsentrgaz JSC, President of Arsenal FC Viktor Sokolovsky, the complex is being systematically reconstructed and new sports facilities are being built. The central stadium gets a new owner and a new name. The sports core of the complex has been completely transformed, now it is able to compete with the best stadiums not only in Russia and host competitions of the highest rank. The perfectly flat football pitch, made by the Swiss company Motomatic, is equipped with heating and an artificial irrigation system. The rubber covering of the treadmills has been replaced with a modern, faster one - recortan. The stadium was decorated with a scoreboard capable of operating in both digital and television modes. During breaks and before competitions, fans can watch clips, commercials... Lighting masts have been installed, equipped with state-of-the-art spotlights, which allow clear broadcasting of color images from the stadium even at night. Wooden benches have given way to individual seating.

The Emirates Stadium is called the main shrine to the players of the Arsenal football team. All home matches of this club are held here, and if you are a fan, be sure to visit here.

The site of today's Emirates Stadium was originally the site of Highbury Stadium. In the 1990s, the municipality thought about modernizing it, but decided that it would be more expedient to build a new building. The project was presented in January 2002 by the architectural bureau HOK Sport, whose employees had by that time created the Australia Stadium in Sydney and the Ascot Racecourse in Ascot, England.

Actual construction started in February 2004. The official opening of the site took place on October 26, 2006. It was planned that Elizabeth II would cut the red ribbon, but due to a back injury, she could not attend this event. The responsibility for the grand opening was entrusted to her husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

Renowned architect Christopher Lee called the resulting building "beautiful and scary at the same time." The façade of the round stadium is covered with transparent polycarbonate and is surrounded by banners depicting famous ex-Arsenal players. Pay attention to the poster with Cliff Bastin, who is included in the list of “100 legendary football players of the world”, to the banner with the famous Arsenal goalkeeper David Seaman, and there is also an image of Tony Adams, one of the best players in the history of the club.

All spectators are accommodated on 4 levels of the stadium. The upper one can accommodate more than 26,500 people, the lower one - over 24,000. Tickets for these places are considered the cheapest. The middle or “club” level is designed for 7,000 people and is the most comfortable. This is followed by 150 boxes, each of which can accommodate 15 spectators, and finally the VIP level, which can only be accessed by special invitation. The football field has dimensions of 113x76 meters.

In addition to matches, concerts are held here and official meetings of top government officials are organized. For example, in 2008, negotiations between British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy took place at Emirates. Well, among the first to give a concert here are Bruce Springsteen and the rock group E Street Band. Coldplay, Muse and Green Day have performed at the arena many times. All in all, Emirates is an amazing place where sport, culture and politics come together.