Parken Stadium

Parken Stadium, also known simply as Parken and as Telia Parken (2014–2020), is a football stadium in the Indre Østerbro (Inner Østerbro) district of Copenhagen, Denmark, built from 1990 to 1992. The stadium, which features a retractable roof, currently has a capacity of 38,065 for football games, and is the home of FC Copenhagen and the Denmark national football team. The capacity for concerts exceeds the capacity for matches – the stadium can hold as many as 50,000 people with an end-stage setup and 55,000 with a center-stage setup.

History

Parken was built on the site of former Denmark national stadium, Idrætsparken, from 1990 to 1992. The last national team match in Idrætsparken was a 0–2 Euro 1992 qualification loss to Yugoslavia on 14 November 1990, and on 9 September 1992 Parken was opened with a 1–2 defeat in a friendly game against Germany.

The stadium was rebuilt by investors Baltica Finans A/S in turn of the guarantee from the Danish Football Association, that all national matches would be played at Parken for 15 years. The re-construction, tore down and re-built three of the original four stands, cost 640 million Danish kroner.

In 1998, Baltica Finans sold the stadium to F.C. Copenhagen for 138 million DKK, and the club now owns both the stadium and the adjacent office buildings in the company of Parken Sport & Entertainment.

Parken was included in UEFA's list of 4-star stadiums in the autumn of 1993, making Parken eligible for hosting the finals of the Europa League (then named UEFA Cup) as well as the now defunct Cup Winners' Cup. Being a 4-star stadium, Parken can not apply for the biggest European club game, the UEFA Champions League final, as that demands 50,000 seats.

On 2 June 2007, Parken was the venue for the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifier fan attack.

On 1 May 2014 a new stadium covering Wi-Fi solution, powered by Telia was published. The deal provides free high speed Wi-Fi for all spectators at any event at the stadium. The agreement includes a 7 year long naming sponsorship, and on 17 July 2014, the stadium name was changed to Telia Parken.

On 26 August 2020, it was announced that the stadiums name would be reverted to the original name, Parken, five days later on 31 August.

Text imported from Wikipedia article "Parken Stadium" and modified on 12 June 2021 according to the CC-BY-SA 3.0 license.