Allianz Arena

Lore & Background

Bayern Munich have played their home games at the Allianz Arena since the start of the 2005–06 season. The club had previously played their home games at the Munich Olympic Stadium since 1972. 1860 Munich previously had a 50 per cent share in the stadium, but, in 2006, sold this to Bayern for €11m to help resolve a serious financial crisis that saw 1860 facing bankruptcy. The arrangement allowed 1860 Munich to play at the stadium while retaining no ownership until 2025. However, in July 2017 Bayern terminated the rental contract with 1860, making themselves the sole tenants of the stadium. The large locally based financial services provider Allianz purchased the naming rights to the stadium for 30 years. However, this name cannot be used when hosting FIFA and UEFA events, since these governing bodies have policies forbidding corporate sponsorship from companies that are not official tournament partners. During the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the stadium was referred to as FIFA WM-Stadion München (FIFA World Cup Stadium, Munich). In UEFA club, Nations League and international matches, it is known as the Fußball Arena München (Football Arena Munich), and it hosted the 2012 and the 2025 Champions League Finals, moved from 2023 as well as matches during UEFA Euro 2024. Since 2012, the museum of Bayern Munich, FC Bayern Erlebniswelt, has been located inside the Allianz Arena. In 2022, it hosted a first regular season National Football League (NFL) American football game played in Germany as part of the NFL International Series.

In Their Own Story

The floodlights had not yet cut through the Munich twilight, but the sound was already building—a low, rhythmic hum rising from the lower tier where thousands of scarves had been draped over seats in a single, unbroken wave of red and white. A young boy pressed his face against the glass of the east stand, watching a lone groundsman rake the last few blades of grass from the penalty spot. Somewhere above, the ETFE pillows flickered to life, the whole bowl of the stadium exhaling a soft, warm glow that turned the night sky into a pale amber. The boy's father, a veteran of a hundred matchdays at this ground, placed a hand on his shoulder and said nothing. He didn't need to. The anthem was starting, and the boy was already singing, off-key, with his whole chest, while the stadium around them hummed in answer like a vast, breathing instrument.

Reader's Guide

The stadium construction began on 21 October 2002 and it was officially opened on 30 May 2005. The primary designers are architects Herzog & de Meuron. The stadium is designed so that the main entrance to the stadium would be from an elevated esplanade separated from the parking space consisting of Europe's biggest underground car park. The roof of the stadium has built-in roller blinds which may be drawn back and forth during games to provide protection from the sun. Total concrete used during stadium construction: 120,000 m3. Total concrete used for the parking garage: 85,000 m3. Total steel used during stadium construction: 22,000 tonnes. Total steel used for the parking garage: 14,000 tonnes. The arena facade is constructed of 2,760 ETFE-foil air panels that are kept inflated with dry air to a differential pressure of 3.5 Pa. The panels appear white from far away but when examined closely, there are little dots on the panels. When viewed from far away, the eye combines the dots and sees white. When viewed close up however, it is possible to see through the foil. The foil has a thickness of 0.2 mm. Each panel can be independently lit with white, red, or blue light. The panels are lit for each game with the colours of the respective home team—red for Bayern Munich, blue for TSV and white for the Germany national team. White is also used when the stadium is a neutral venue, like the 2012 UEFA Champions League final. Other colours or multicolour or interchanging lighting schemes are theoretically possible, but the Munich Police strongly insists on using a single-colour lighting scheme due to several car accidents on the nearby A9 Autobahn with drivers being distracted by the changing lights. Allianz Arena's innovative stadium-facade lighting concept has been subsequently adopted in other recently built venues, like MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, which lights up in blue for the National Football League's Giants and green for the Jets. With electricity costs for the light of about €50 (US$75) per hour, the construction emits enough light that, on clear nights, the stadium can easily be spotted from Austrian mountain tops, e.g. from a distance of 50 miles (80 km). Patrons may park their cars in Europe's largest parking structure, comprising four four-storey parking garages with 9,800 parking places. In addition, 1,200 places were built into the first two tiers

Did You Know?

• The Allianz Arena is the first stadium in the world with a full colour changing exterior.
• The stadium's facade is made of 2,760 ETFE-foil air panels, each 0.2 mm thick.
• On clear nights, the stadium can be spotted from Austrian mountain tops up to 50 miles (80 km) away.
• The stadium has 550 toilets and 190 monitors.
• Europe's largest parking structure, with 9,800 parking places, is located at the Allianz Arena.