Venues
The final tournament was played in ten venues located in eight different cities. Lisbon and Porto, the two biggest cities, had two venues each, while Aveiro, Braga, Coimbra, Faro-Loulé, Guimarães, and Leiria had one venue. In order to meet UEFA's requirements on venue capacity and infrastructure, seven new stadiums were built – Estádio Municipal de Aveiro (Aveiro), Estádio Municipal de Braga (Braga), Estádio do Algarve (Faro-Loulé), Estádio Dr. Magalhães Pessoa (Leiria), Estádio da Luz (Lisbon), Estádio José Alvalade (Lisbon), and Estádio do Dragão (Porto) – and three underwent renovation works – Estádio Cidade de Coimbra (Coimbra), Estádio D. Afonso Henriques (Guimarães), and Estádio do Bessa Século XXI (Porto). The Estádio da Luz was the largest stadium with a tournament capacity of 65,000 seats, and served as the venue for the final. The opening ceremony and match took place at the Estádio do Dragão.
This was the first European Championship where matches took place in more than eight venues, since the tournament was expanded to sixteen teams in 1996. As of the Euro 2016, the final tournament will be contested by twenty-four teams and matches will be played in ten venues.
The table below lists stadium capacity for the final tournament, which may not correspond to their effective maximum capacity.
|
Lisbon | Lisbon | Porto | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Estádio da Luz | Estádio José Alvalade | Estádio do Dragão | ||
| Capacity: 65,000 | Capacity: 52,000 | Capacity: 52,000 | ||
| Aveiro | Coimbra | Braga | ||
| Estádio Municipal de Aveiro | Estádio Cidade de Coimbra | Estádio Municipal de Braga | ||
| Capacity: 30,000 | Capacity: 30,000 | Capacity: 30,000 | ||
| Guimarães | Faro/Loulé | Porto | Leiria | |
| Estádio D. Afonso Henriques | Estádio do Algarve | Estádio do Bessa Século XXI | Estádio Dr. Magalhães Pessoa | |
| Capacity: 30,000 | Capacity: 30,000 | Capacity: 30,000 | Capacity: 30,000 | |
Read more about this topic: 2004 UEFA European Football Championship