5 Things You Didn’t Know About Allianz Arena

Allianz Arena is one of the most modern soccer stadiums in the whole world, featuring an impressive façade. It’s being used (and paid for) by the 2 biggest Munich soccer teams, FC Bayern München and TSV 1860 München.

With a capacity of 75,000, it’s the 2nd largest football stadium in Germany, behind Borussia Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion. On a global scale, that makes it the 32nd biggest soccer stadium in the whole world, with a capacity half of the May Day Stadium in Pyongyang which tops the list. But it’s not all about capacity. You will struggle to find a more striking and futuristic looking venue than the Allianz Arena.

How did it all start?

The two Munich clubs achieved some remarkable successes this year. FC Bayern München won the championship again, and TSV 1860 München took part in the UEFA Cup. According to Franz Beckenbauer, “Watching football should be fun and a great experience for everyone.” And that is precisely why the fans are demanding a new stadium designed for football. But the city doesn’t want to build an entirely new facility, but rather to restructure the Olympic stadium.

There was even a referendum with the citizens of Munich, to make sure the majority of the people wanted the new stadium.

A new stadium in Fröttmaning – yes or no?

An overwhelming majority of the citizens of Munich vote for the new stadium. Now nothing stands in the way of a modern football arena!

By February 2002 everything is set. The highest evaluation committee for the stadium construction project in Munich has made its recommendation, and the developers – the FC Bayern München and TSV 1860 München – have selected the model submitted by the Herzog/de Meuron architects. It was announced at the same time that the new home stadium of the two long-standing Munich clubs will be called the Allianz Arena.

Do you fancy taking  your understanding to the next step?

Take the 360 degree virtual tour of the Allianz Arena!

Allianz Arena Lighting Concepts

The Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron developed the curatorial concepts for the new lighting. They were also responsible for the architecture of the Allianz Arena. The colour dynamics put emphasis on stillness and elegance and awaken, in addition to the static illuminations, a direct association with football.

On non-match days, elegant colour dynamics in red, white and blue are planned. To this end, Herzog & de Meuron has designed twelve dynamic transition scenarios that can be classified into four categories: form-based waves, pixel-based clouds, column-based gradients as well as line-based rounds.

Different lighting scenarios are possible and can be changed depending on the activity in the stadium: on non-match evenings standard dynamic lighting is planned whereas for home and away matches a concept of static illuminations is used and for special events the lighting is a custom designed program.

The architecture of the Allianz Arena is unique worldwide. Its facade consists of the largest membrane shell in the world. It is about 35 metres high and has an outside surface area of 29,000 m². The Allianz Arena celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2015.

Allianz Arena LIVE Webcam

You can also watch live what is going on at the moment in the Allianz Arena, with 2 different cameras.

One for inside the stadium, and one for outside.

Allianz Arena Service for Handicapped persons

130 parking spaces for people with disabilities are located on level 3 of garage P1. (Approaching P1 from the public roads is signed) and these parking spaces are closest to the Arena. From this point wheelchair users have unhindered access to their viewing position

With the relevant organisers permission wheelchair users may make use of disabled access to staircases TK 2 and TK 3 (access via S0/S1). Lifts available here for Promenade level 2. Special buses available for the return journey.

People with severe disabilities are transferred to elevators on level 0 (taking them to their seats) by special-purpose vehicles.

Whether a disabled person ID is sufficient and whether people with disabilities can park free of charge has yet to be resolved

There is also an unhindered route from the underground station to the Arena. A shuttle service from the the Fröttmaning underground station to the stadium will not be in place at the start of the season in August 2005. Approximately 400 superior seats have been allocated for about 200 wheelchair users and their companions on the long sides of the Arena on the top rows of the lower tier, allowing room for manoeuvring wheelchairs.

The entire level 2 can also be declared as “barrier-less” for people with disabilities. This level includes kiosks, support services for handicapped people and specially equipped toilets. Specially reserved lifts are available for changing levels in the North and South stands

Since the start of the 2005/2006 Bundesliga season mobile headsets with play comments for blind persons are available

20 pairs of subtitle glasses available to people with impaired hearing. A specially developed smartphone app uses Bluetooth to transmit the stadium commentary to the augmented reality glasses as live subtitles. The text appears in the lower visual field of the glasses.

The Allianz Arena has more than 25 disabled toilets, including 16 on Level 2, and one toilet for the severely disabled, equipped with a special lifter.

Disabled Tours for individual visitors start at 14.00 (2 pm) on Thursdays and Sundays when there is no match.

Allianz Arena Pitch

Size: 68 m x 105 m net and 72 m x 111 m gross – Total height: 8,000 m² – Pitch: 0.5% incline towards the middle

Natural grass: approx. 650 rolls of 1.20 m x 10 m; 38 mm dicksode; 800 kg per piece of lawn

Building area: 4,500 m³ of antifreeze gravel was piled up for leveling out the area

Base: 10 cm drainage layer (sand) – heating pipes – 13 cm lower turf support layer – 9 cm upper turf support layer

Drainage: 14 drainage pipes each 111 m, 100 mm diameter, 2 km length

Heating: Hoses 3.2 cm height and 27 km length, 3 insulated pipes attached to a distributor, temperature can be manually and automatically controlled (35 to max 50 degrees Celsius), 1 bar pressure

Source: Allianz Arena