Basel St. Jakob Park Stadium – EURO 2008

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Basel, Switzerland, is located on the River Rhine in north-west Switzerland and is the location for the St. Jakob Park Stadium. It is the largest football venue in Switzerland and home to FC Basel . It will host Group A matches between joint-hosts Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Turkey and Portugal, as well as two quarter-finals and a semi-final. “Joggeli”, as the venue is nicknamed by the locals, was originally built with a capacity of 38,500 seats. The capacity has now been increased to 42,500 for the Euro 2008.

The St. Jakob Park Stadium was completed in 2001, replacing the old Joggeli stadium. The stadium is divided into four main blocks, A, B, C and D, each block covering one side of the stadium, and block G, consisting of the upper balcony added later. The stadium was designed by Basel-based architects Herzog & De Meuron, who also designed London’s Tate Modern Gallery, the Olympic Stadium in Beijing, China and Munich’s Allianz Arena. St. Jakob Park is a fairly new stadium; construction started on the 13 December 1998, replacing the former St. Jakob Stadium . The re-opening game took place 15 March 2001. The “Genossenschaft S.J.P” officially owns the stadium, while the stadium itself is managed by “Basel United”.

The stadium cost around 220 million Swiss Francs to build. Within the stadium, there are 32 shops on three different floors, as well as two restaurants (the “Restaurant UNO” and “Hattrick Sports Bar”), a fitness centre, and even a 107-apartment old person’s home. The stadium has parking spaces for 680 cars on two different floors. The stadium can be reached either by bus, tram or train (the stadium has its own train station).The stadium is extremely environmentally friendly, using a solar power unit on the roof to handle almost all of the stadium’s power needs.

The stadium has been awarded 4 stars by UEFA , which is the highest amount of stars that can be awarded to a stadium of that size. Apart from football St. Jakob Park is also used for pop concerts and other large events. Adding to the spectacle, the stadium’s outer skin is translucent and can be lit-up at night in a similar fashion to Munich’s Allianz Arena. The stadium is the home ground of FC Basel who play in the Swiss First Division. FC Basel have become one of the most successful clubs in Swiss football since their formation in 1893, having won the Swiss Championship 11 times and defeating numerous big name clubs in Europe over the years, including Celtic, Deportivo La Coruna and Juventus.

In 2006, there was a riot after a match between FC Basel and FC Zürich . See 2006 Basel Hooligan Incident for more details.

For Euro 2008, the St. Jakob Park will host 6 games – 3 group games (including the opening match), two quarter-finals and one semi-final.