The Juventus Stadium turns 7 today

juventus-stadium

On September 11th, 2011 Juventus played the first official game in the brand new Stadium. The Bianconeri faced Parma and defeated them 4-1: the first goal was scored by Stephan Lichtsteiner, fed by Andrea Pirlo, then Simone Pepe, Arturo Vidal and Claudio Marchisio joined the party, with Sebastian Giovinco netting the consolation one for the Ducali. Antonio Conte was making his debut at the helm and led the squad to glory, recapturing the Scudetto that had eluded them for a few seasons and remaining undefeated at home that year.

The €155M, 41k-seater built over the old Delle Alpi was extremely instrumental in the Old Lady’s sustained run of success in Serie A. They lost only five times in seven years, against Inter, Sampdoria, Udinese, Lazio and Napoli, the fewest of any European team at home in that span. They won 84% of the matches here (113 out of 134), a percentage that only trails to Barcelona and slightly edges Bayern Munich in the same category. Every season ended with a domestic title. The defeats were rare in Europe as well: only two, against the Bavarians in 2012/2013 and Real Madrid last season.

The Juventus Stadium, now called Allianz since the insurance company bought the naming right in July of 2017, was the first club-owned arena in Italy, later joined on that regard by Sassuolo’s Mapei Stadium, Udinese’s Dacia Arena and Frosinone’s Benito Stirpe. It was the first eco-friendly stadium in the world and the first without architectural barriers in Italy. It won the Stadium Innovation Trophy at the 2012 Global Sports Forum. It is one of the four Italian stadium that belong to UEFA’s fourth category, the highest one. It hosted the Europa League final in 2014. It was inaugurated on September 8th, 2011 in a game with Notts County, the oldest professional club in the world. Juventus cashed in between €40 and €50M per year for stadium-related activities, which, besides the ticket sales, include the museum, the tour and more.

Giorgio Chiellini and Andrea Barzagli are the only player still on the roster compared to the opening match. Last week some interesting reports emerged about the club being interested in building another smaller arena nearby to host the recently founded U-23 and women’s team, which currently play their home games other cities in Piedmont, Alessandria and Novara.

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