Parken Stadion

Parken Stadium (Danish: the Park) is a football stadium in the Indre Østerbro (Inner Østerbro) district of Copenhagen, Denmark, built from 1990-1992.

It currently has a capacity of 41,752 at football games, and is the home ground of FC København and also the Danish national football team.

In the autumn 2006, the Coca-Cola stand will be demolished and replaced by a new one. This will make the capacity raise to 42,765 seats. When the work will go on, only about 35,000 spectators will be able to see the national team play their 2008 Euro qualifiers.

Parken is 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 November 14, 1990, and on September 9, 1992 Parken was opened with a 1-2 defeat, in a friendly game, by 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 FC København 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 fall of 1993, making Parken eligible for hosting the finals of the 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.

Parken is also used as a concert venue, and hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2001 at which occasion a retractable roof was applied to the existing structure.

Musicians like Depeche Mode, U2 and Michael Jackson have performed at Parken. Eminem was scheduled to perform at Parken in 2005, but he cancelled his Europe-tour. In 2006, George Michael will perform at Parken.

Every year, TV 2 Zulu arrange a big concert, Zulu Rocks, and in 2006 The Black Eyed Peas, Pet Shop Boys, Kashmir, Pharrell and Mew performed.

Travel Directions

* By Train and Foot: Take the S-tog (surface train) from Copenhagen Central Station (“Kbh H”) to Østerport Station, and then walk approximately one mile distance from the Østerport Station to the Parken: Click here for Mapquest walking directions from Østerport Station

* By foot: Parken is about a 2.3 mile walk from Rådhuspladsen/Strøget/Tivoli to Parken following these directions.

(source .. wikipedia) reproduced under GFDL

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FC København official website
Parken Stadion website
Parken Stadion wikipedia entry
FIFA
UEFA

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