Compared to the other Nordic countries and indeed any other nation it’s reasonable to compare with, the stadia in the Norwegian top flight really are shiny and impressive. Within the last ten years, most teams in the Tippeliga have either built a new ground or had theirs heavily refurbished. And it shows.
From the glossy Sør Arena, Aker Stadion and Viking Stadion to the more atmospheric Fredrikstad Stadion, clubs all over the country used the unprecedented influx of money in the Tippeliga these last years to invest in new homes. While most Tippeliga grounds are now shiny and modern, most of them have a rather modest capacity. Ullevaal, the national stadium currently used by both Vålerenga and Lyn, has a capacity of 25,572, while Rosenborg can theoretically pack 21,166 souls into Lerkendal. Apart from those two, the grounds in the Norwegian top-flight have a capacity somewhere between 17,000 and 6,000. Today however it’s being reported in Norwegian media that there are expansions afoot that might make a few people sit up and take notice.
Norway and Sweden are in the process of launching a joint bid to host the 2016 UEFA European Football Championships, and if that bid is successful then obviously a bunch of new stadiums will have to be built. Even if it isn’t, the Swedes are working a on a new 50,000-capacity stadium in Solna, and the Norwegian federation have voiced their intentions of keeping up with the Joneses and building something similar in Oslo.
Today news broke that two Norwegian club sides are also looking to make a serious expansion, namely Viking and Rosenborg. The two already have two of the largest grounds in the Tippeliga, but they reckon that regardless of the success of failure of the 2016-bid they’ll be looking to build.
Viking Stadium is regarded by many (including yours truly) as one of the best places in Norway to watch football, the modern 16,000-seater attracts a large (if fickle) crowd, brings the punters close to the pitch and usually generates a good noise. Now the ambitious Stavanger-based outfit are looking to expand it to a capacity of 22,000, and the drawings look very pretty indeed. They also intend to make it possible for the ground to hold 35,000 on a temporary basis should the Norway/Sweden bid for 2016 be successful.
Rosenborg’s Lerkendal is already the biggest club-owned ground in the Tippeliga (Lyn and Vålerenga are just borrowing Ullevaal on matchdays), and for a period it seemed to be in an almost permanent state of expansion. With Rosenborg faced Real Madrid in 2006, then Real-manager Fabio Capello is rumored to have remarked that Norwegians must be a meticulous folk, because when he was there ten years ago with Milan Rosenborg were expanding Lerkendal and now ten years later they still hadn’t finished. It’s a flippant point of course, Rosenborg carefully and patiently expanded Lerkendal to suit their needs and there’s nothing wrong with that, but the plans they announced this week are rather more ambitious. Rosenborg intend to up their capacity to some 26,000 people, whilst adding office-space and a hotel and all manner of things to their stadium. Also, should Norway/Sweden get Euro 2016, Lerkendal would probably have to house as many as 40,000 people, something that would be entirely temporarily but it would still be very interesting to see it built.
Thu, Apr 23, 2009
Norway, Tippeliga