FC Basel - Stadium

Stadium

FC Basel play their home games at the 37,500 capacity St. Jakob-Park which translates into English as St. Jacob's Park)
. UEFA have awarded the stadium a 4-star rating, the highest rating that could be given to a stadium of that capacity. St. Jakob-Park was opened in 2001, holding an attendance of 33,433, originally, but the stadium was upgraded to 42,500 due to Switzerland being co-hosts of UEFA Euro 2008. After the Euro 2008 a number of seats were removed, thus creating more space between them, and the capacity is now 37,500 seats. The stadium is nicknamed "Joggeli" by the fans and has 2 restaurants called "Restaurant UNO" and "Hattrick's Sports Bar" and a shopping centre which opened on 1 November 2001. It also has parking space for 680 cars and has its own train station. St. Jakob-Park hosted 6 games during EURO 2008, including the opening game between Switzerland and Czech Republic and a semi-final between Germany and Turkey. The most interesting feature of the stadium is the translucent outer layer, which can be illuminated in different colours for impressive effects much like Bayern Munich's Allianz Arena.

Before the St. Jakob-Park stadium was built FC Basel played home games in the Landhof (in the Quarter Kleinbasel) and, following the 1954 World Cup, in the newly built St. Jakob Stadium which was on the same site as the current stadium. During the construction period of the St. Jacob-Park the FC Basel home games were played in Stadion Schützenmatte.