Amsterdam Johan Cruijff Arena
Johan Cruijff Arena (English: Johan Cruyff Arena, stylised as Johan Cruijff ArenA) and formerly known as Amsterdam Arena (stylised as Amsterdam ArenA) is a stadium in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The arena was renamed in honour of Johan Cruijff, a legendary Dutch football player, who died in 2016. The arena was built on the site of Ajax's former club, De Meer, and was opened in 1996 by Queen Beatrix (the ceremony featured the world's largest painintg called De Zee) with plans of building the arena dating back to 1986 when Amsterdam was one of the six cities that bid to host the 1992 Olympic Games. It is owned by Gemeente Amsterdam and Stadion Amsterdam N.V. and is the home stadium to AFC Ajax, the Netherlands national team and former home to Amsterdam Admirals American Football team of NFL Europe.
It is the largest stadium in the country and is used for association football, American football, concerts, and other events. For concerts, the capacity is 68,000 (with the stage in the middle of the pitch),50,000 (with end-stage concerts), or 35,000 (with stage located in the east side of the stadium). The stadium features 76 executive boxes, and The Ajax Museum, showing the club's history. It also features a transparent retractable roof, allowing natural light to come through.[1]
Events that took place in the arena include the Euro 2000 games between Netherlands vs Czech Republic, Slovenia vs Spain, France vs Netherlands, Turkey vs Portugal and Netherlands vs Italy. The stadium is also set to host the Euro 2021 group stage matches, including the planned Netherlands and Ukraine and Netherlands and Austria matches. The Johan Cruyff Arena also hosted the 2001 World Bowl IX, a match between Berlin Thunder and Barcelona Dragons. It's also hosted several kickboxing events. Musical artists who performed in the arena include Tina Turner, The Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, U2, David Bowie, Armin van Buuren, Coldplay, André Rieu and more. The arena was also listed as a potential venue to host the 65th Eurovision Song Contest in 2020, however the city withdrew the bid as all venues were fully booked. The contest was later set to be held at Rotterdam Ahoy instead, but the event had to be cancelled due to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic of 2020.
Muse appearances
Venue address
Johan Cruijff Arena
ArenA Boulevard 1
Amsterdam-Zuidoost
1100 DL Amsterdam
Netherlands
References
- ↑ Amsterdam Arena on Wikipedia. Wikipedia. Retrieved 2015-01-03 from wikipedia.org.