Background and History Kenilworth Road stadium in Luton, England was opened in 1905. This quirky stadium has a capacity of 10,226 making it one of the smallest in the south of England in terms of professional football stadiums.
Luton Town FC have called Kenilworth Road home since it opened in 1905 which makes the facilities in spirit over 100 years old. The club nearly moved to a new 20,000 seater stadium in 1995 but plans were rejected in 1998 when they were deemed unfeasible due to the inadequate capacity of the M1 motorway. The Daily Mail published an article in 2013 which named Kenilworth Road in a list of the world's worst football stadiums. The main reason for this being that it is in major need of refurbishment.
See video below with Nick Owen who gives you a tour of the famous Kenilworth Road stadium.
Unique Factor What makes Kenilworth Road unique is the Oak Road Stand. After going down a rather small alleyway at the side of the stadium (or
down the cordoned off Oak Road), the impression is of queuing to go into
someone's house and then through their back garden and into the stand!
Just over 1,500 supporters can be accommodated in this stand, however as
this stand is now a shared stand with both home and away fans, visiting supporters are
allocated around half this number of tickets. This stand was for home fans only until the early 90's when they reverted to the arrangements above.
Located within the Oak Road Stand between the away turnstiles and the entrance to the ground is the Luton Bobbler's Bar which adds to the features of this unique stadium. Th bar which costs just 50p for entrance is one of the most popular gathering spots for fans pre-match due to it's obvious unbeatable location.
Unique Rating - 7/10 I have given Kenilworth Road a unique rating of 7/10. In complete contrast with my last post on the Allianz Arena this stadium lacks many modern features but more than makes up with it with its quirkyness and character. The entrance through a group of terraced housing epitomises the history and character at the ground. Please look out for my next blog post which will look at another old stadium but this time in South America!
Allianz Arena Website FC Bayern Munich Website TSV 1860 Munich Website History and Description The Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany was built in 2005 to replace the old Olympiastadion. Construction of the new stadium started in 2002 and it cost an estimated 340 million euros. This spectacular stadium has a capacity of 75,024. This makes it the third largest stadium in Germany behind the Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund and the Olympiastadion in Berlin. The two professional Munich football clubs FC Bayern Munich and TSV 1860 Munich have played their home games at the Allianz Arena since the start of the 2005-2006 season. TSV 1860 Munich previously had a 50% share in the stadium but FC Bayern Munich
purchased their shares for 11 million euros in April, 2006. The
arrangement allows TSV 1860 Munich to play at the stadium while
retaining no ownership. The stadium is also used as a home for the German national team.
The stadium has hosted some key matches since opening in 2005 including 2012 UEFA Champions League final between Chelsea and FC Bayern Munich and 2006 FIFA World Cup semi final between France and Portugal. Unique Factor The Allianz Arena's unique feature is its luminous exterior which has the facility to change colour. It is the first stadium in the world to have a full colour changing exterior. The stadium exterior is constructed of 2874 ETFE foil aired panels which are lit accordingly depending on which team is playing that day. The stadium is lit red for FC Bayern Munich games, blue for TSV 1860 Munich games, and white for German national games. The picture below illustrates this.
It is possible for other colour schemes that can interchange to be adopted as shown in the pictures below but interestingly the Munich police now insists on one colour only due to several accidents in the nearby A9 Autobahn with drivers being distracted by the changing lights.
Unique rating - 5/10 I have given the Allianz Arena a unique rating of 5/10 which is relatively low. The reason for this is that from the inside it is just like any other modern day huge all seater stadium. The justification for its inclusion in this inclusion in this blogis the spectacular lighting effects that the exterior of the stadium has. Future blog posts will include more obscure stadiums with much higher unique ratings...
