FC Bayern Munich - Stadiums

Stadiums

Bayern played its first training games at the Schyrenplatz in the center of Munich. The first official games were held on the Theresienwiese. In 1901 Bayern moved to its first own field, which was located in Schwabing at the Clemensstraße. After joining the Münchner Sport-Club (MSC) in 1906, Bayern moved in May 1907 to MSC's ground at the Leopoldstraße. As the crowds gathering for Bayern's home games increased at the beginning of the 1920s, Bayern had to switch to various premises in Munich.

From 1925 Bayern shared the Grünwalder Stadion with 1860 Munich. Until World War II the stadium was owned by 1860 Munich, and is still colloquially known as Sechz'ger ("Sixties") Stadium nowadays. It was destroyed during the war, and efforts to rebuild it resulted in a patchwork. Bayern's record crowd at the Grünwalder Stadion is reported as more than 50,000 in the home game against 1. FC Nuremberg in the 1961–62 season. In the Bundesliga era the stadium had a maximum capacity of 44,000 which was reached on several occasions, but the capacity has since been reduced to 21,272. As was the case at most of this period's stadiums, the vast majority of the stadium was given over to terracing. Today the second teams of both clubs play in the stadium.

For the 1972 Summer Olympics the city of Munich built the Olympic Stadium. The stadium, renowned for its architecture, was inaugurated in the last Bundesliga match of the 1971–72 season. The match drew a capacity crowd of 79,000, a total which was reached again on numerous occasions. The stadium was, in its early days, considered to be one of the foremost stadia in the world and played host to numerous major finals, such as that of 1974 FIFA World Cup. In the following years the stadium underwent several modifications, such as an increase in seating space from approximately 50% to ca. 66%. Eventually the stadium had a capacity of 63,000 for national matches, and 59,000 for international occasions such as European Cup competitions. Many people, however, began to feel that the stadium was too cold in winter, with half the audience exposed to the weather due to lack of cover. A further complaint was the distance between the spectators and the pitch, the stadium betraying its track and field heritage. Modification of the stadium proved impossible as the architect Günther Behnisch vetoed major modifications of the stadium.

After much discussion the city, the state of Bavaria, FC Bayern, and TSV 1860 jointly decided at the end of 2000 to build a new stadium. While Bayern had wanted to build a purpose-built football stadium for several years, the awarding of the 2006 FIFA World Cup to Germany stimulated the discussion as the Olympic Stadium no longer met the FIFA criteria to host a World Cup game. Located on the northern outskirts of Munich the Allianz Arena has been in use since the beginning of the 2005–06 season. Its initial capacity of 66,000 fully covered seats has since been increased for matches on national level to 69,901 by transforming 3,000 seats to terracing in a 2:1 ratio. Since August 2012 2,000 more seats were added in the last row of the top tier increasing the capacity to 71,000

The most prominent feature of the stadium is the translucent outer layer, which can be illuminated in different colours for impressive effects. Usually red lighting is used for Bayern home games, blue for 1860 home games and white for German national team home games.