St. Jakob-Park

Infobox Stadium
stadium_name = St. Jakob Park
nickname = Joggeli

UEFA
location = Basel, Switzerland
broke_ground = 1998
opened = 15 March 2001
owner = Genossenschaft Stadion St. Jakob-Park
surface = Grass
operator = Basel United AG
construction_cost = CHF 220 million
architect = Herzog & de Meuron
tenants = FC Basel (Super League) (1998-present)
seating_capacity = 42,500

Audio|Sankt Jakob Park.ogg|St. Jakob Park is a Swiss sports stadium. It is the largest football venue in Switzerland and home to FC Basel. "Joggeli", as the venue is nicknamed by the locals, was originally built with a capacity of 38,500 seats. [ [http://www.baselunited.ch/default.aspx?group=sjp&code=0905 www.baselunited.ch] ] The capacity has now been increased to 42,500 for Euro 2008, which is hosted by Switzerland and Austria. [ [http://www.fcb.ch/start.html www.fcb.ch] ]

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. St. Jakob Park is a fairly modern stadium; construction started on 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 CHF 220 million to build (US$132 million, €143 million in March 2001 [Approximate exchange rates sourced from [http://www.oanda.com www.oanda.com] ] ).

Within the stadium, there are 32 shops on three different floors, as well as two restaurants (the "Restaurant UNO" and "Hattrick Sports Bar").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 has been awarded 4 stars by UEFA, which is the highest number of stars that can be awarded to a stadium of that size.

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. Torrential rain during the June 11 match left the pitch in such a poor state that the entire grass surface was re-laid, the first time such a decision was taken at a tournament of this size. [ [http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldFootballNews/idUKL1817831020080618 uk.reuters.com] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.baselunited.ch Basel United Website]
* [http://www.fcb.ch FC Basel Website]