Kadıköy Stadium

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Lore & Background

Kadıköy was known in classical antiquity and during the Roman and Byzantine eras as Chalcedon. Chalcedon was known as the 'city of the blind'. The settlement has been under control of many empires, finally being taken by the Ottomans before the fall of Constantinople. At first, Chalcedon was rural, but with time it urbanized. Kadıköy separated from the Üsküdar district in 1930.

In Their Own Story

The Union Club Field was used by many teams in İstanbul, including the owner, Union Club (which changed its name to İttihatspor after World War I), Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray, and Beşiktaş. However, it lost its importance when a bigger venue, the Taksim Stadium, was built in 1922. İttihatspor was forced to sell it to the state, in which Şükrü Saracoğlu was a member of the CHP government. Thus, the ownership of the stadium passed to the state, but the field was immediately leased to Fenerbahçe. Later, on 27 May 1933, Fenerbahçe purchased the stadium from the government when Şükrü Saracoğlu was the President of Fenerbahçe, for either the symbolic amount of ₺1 or the worth of the stadium which was ₺9,000. The name of the field was changed to Fenerbahçe Stadium, making Fenerbahçe SK the first football club in Turkey to own their stadium. By the year 1949, Fenerbahçe Stadium was the largest football venue in Turkey, with a seating capacity of 25,000. The field was closed to matches in 1964 and demolished in 1965. After 18 years of construction, it was officially opened for service on September 19, 1982, with the Fenerbahçe-Altay match. The name was changed once more on 22 July 1998, becoming Fenerbahçe Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium. In 1999, the latest round of renovations started, and the entire renewal and construction project was finalised in 2006. On 4 October 2006, after numerous inspections by UEFA, the stadium was selected to host the 2009 UEFA Cup Final, which went down in history as the last Final of the UEFA Cup football tournament. As of 3 August 2015, Ülker secured naming rights in a 10-year deal worth $90 million. Chobani secured naming rights on 30 July 2025, starting from the 2025–26 season, for 5+5 seasons, a total of 10 years, with a payment of €10 million per season.

Reader's Guide

Kadıköy is a residential and commercial area that, with its numerous bars, cinemas and bookshops, is the liberal cultural centre of the Anatolian side of Istanbul. Kadıköy contains the Bağdat Avenue, which is one of the most significant shopping streets in Turkey and it spans through the entirety of the district. Some main transportation routes connecting various districts of Istanbul pass through Kadıköy. The centre of Kadıköy today is the transportation hub for people commuting between the Asian side of the city and the European side across the Bosphorus. There is a large bus and minibus terminal next to the ferry quay. Ferries are the most dominantly visible form of transport in Kadıköy, and the central market area is adjacent to the ferry quay.

Did You Know?

• Kadıköy is often cited as one of the most developed districts in Turkey, though official Human Development Index rankings are not calculated at the district level.
• Chalcedon was the first settlement that the Greeks from Megara established on the Bosphorus, in 685 BC.
• Kadıköy has the oldest mosque in Istanbul, built almost a century before the conquest of Constantinople in 1453.
• The fourth ecumenical church council, Council of Chalcedon, was held there in 451 AD.