Letzigrund

Audio|Letzigrund.ogg|Letzigrund is a stadium in Zürich, Switzerland, and the home of the football club FC Zürich. It is also temporarily home to the football club Grasshopper-Club Zürich while their stadium (Stadion Zürich) is under construction. The annual athletics meet Weltklasse Zürich—part of the IAAF Golden League—takes place at the Letzigrund, as well as frequent open air concerts.

It opened February 22, 1925 owned by the FC Zürich football club. During the Great Depression, ownership changed to the city of Zürich in 1937 which has operated it since. It underwent extensive remodelling in 1947, 1958, 1973, and 1984. Lighting was added in 1973. The first open air concert was in 1996.

Of the 23,605 places, 11,605 have seats (9,167 covered) and 12,000 are covered standing area. The main pitch is 105 by 68 metres with athletics facilities. There are also three other playing fields: 2 lawns, 1 artificial turf and a small packed sand field. A bar and a restaurant are within the stadium.

In January 2005, UEFA approved plans to rebuild the stadium for use as a EURO 2008 venue. It hosted 3 matches in the 2008 European Football Championship.

Tina Turner performed 2 sold-out performances at the stadium during her highly successful Twenty Four Seven Tour.

The new stadium was opened on August 30th 2007. The first sport event there was the annual Weltklasse Zürich on September 7th with 26500 spectators, the first football game was FC Zürich vs. Grasshopper Club Zürich on September 23rd. It hosted three games during the 2008 European championships, with a capacity of up to 30,000.

External links

* [http://www.stadionletzigrund.ch Official Website]