Stadion, Malmö
Stadion, Malmö
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Stadion, Malmö

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Stadion, Malmö

Stadion, currently known as Eleda Stadion for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Malmö, Sweden and the home of Allsvenskan club Malmö Fotbollförening, commonly known as Malmö FF. In UEFA competitions, the stadium has also been known as Malmö New Stadium and formerly known as Swedbank Stadion for sponsorship reasons. The stadium was named after Swedish-based banking group Swedbank, which owned its naming rights between 2007 and 2017. Apart from being the home of Malmö FF, Stadion has also hosted senior and youth international matches.

The stadium is the third largest used by a Swedish football club, behind AIK's Strawberry Arena and Djurgårdens IF's and Hammarby IF's Tele2 Arena, both located in Stockholm. In league matches, the stadium has a capacity of 22,500, of which 18,000 are seated, and 4,500 standing. In European matches, the 4,500 standing places are converted to 3,000 seats, making the stadium a 21,000-capacity all-seater. Stadion opened in April 2009, and replaced Malmö Stadion, where Malmö FF had been based since 1958. The new ground was originally budgeted to cost 398 million kronor, but ultimately cost 695 million kronor (€79.7). It is a UEFA category 4-rated stadium, and is thus able to host all UEFA club competition matches, except for finals. The ground's record attendance, 24,148, was set in an Allsvenskan match between Malmö FF and Mjällby AIF on 7 November 2010: in this match, Malmö FF won 2–0 and clinched that year's national championship.

Malmö FF's board of directors initiated the search for a new stadium in the mid-1990s. Malmö Stadion, where Malmö FF had played since its construction in 1958, was starting to deteriorate by this time, and was also too large for the club, which often struggled to fill it for Allsvenskan matches. In 1995, club chairman Bengt Madsen began to raise money for the renovation of Malmö IP, the club's former home between 1910 and 1957, into a modern football stadium. Malmö IP was practical and economical for the club as it was already an extant site, and was smaller than Malmö Stadion, which was expensive to maintain. The renovation of Malmö IP was finished in August 1999, and Malmö FF moved in soon after. However, the renovated ground failed to live up to expectations, proving to be very basic by modern standards; the capacity of 7,600 was also deemed a security issue. The club therefore moved back to Malmö Stadion in 2001.

The club's directors now considered constructing an entirely new stadium in Malmö. Plans for such a ground were first mooted in 2001, but were not fully considered until the end of 2004, when the team won Allsvenskan for the first time since 1989. Malmö Municipality announced on 25 April 2005 its intention to either help the club renovate Malmö Stadion, or build a new stadium in the same area. Four days later, five scenarios were laid out by the City of Malmö: the first proposed the construction of an entirely new, football-specific stadium to the south of Malmö Stadion, while the second suggested the demolition of Malmö Stadion, and the erection of a new ground for football and athletics on the same site. The third, fourth, and fifth ideas all proposed the building of two stadiums, one for football and one for athletics, on various local plots. The municipality chose the first option on 3 December 2005: the new football ground would be built south of Malmö Stadion, with a capacity of 20,000 to 25,000, on a 399 million kronor budget. Malmö Stadion, meanwhile, would be renovated into an athletics stadium for 50 million kronor.

Construction of the new stadium commenced on 23 April 2007, with the first sod being turned by Malmö FF chairman Bengt Madsen, Malmö Municipality chairman Ilmar Reepalu, club captain Daniel Andersson, and two former players: Daniel's brother Patrik, and their father Roy. The ground was designed by FOJAB Arkitekter, in collaboration with Berg Arkitektkontor, which also designed Friends Arena, the Swedish national stadium, which is in Solna. The main constructor for the new Malmö FF stadium was Peab. Its budget was ultimately heavily exceeded: Peab announced in 2009 that it would cost 695 million kronor instead of the original 399 million. The extra amount was explained as being down to miscalculations in the original budget, as well as additions made to the plans since the start of construction, which Peab reasoned made the original budget no longer entirely valid. Malmö FF announced on 12 July 2007 that they had sold the naming rights for the stadium to Swedish bank Swedbank, for a ten-year period, starting on the ground's opening. Between 2009 and 2013 the naming rights to stands inside the stadium were sold to different sponsors. At the start of the 2014 season the sponsor names of the stands were removed and the advertisement placements in front of each stand were sold to the club's largest sponsors. The graphical profile of the advertisement was also given a light blue background with white text to adhere to the club's colours. The ground's inauguration game was played several months before, on 13 April 2009, in Allsvenskan against Örgryte IS. Malmö FF won the game 3–0, and the first goal was scored by midfielder Labinot Harbuzi. All facilities related to football were completed by this time, but the office space and some exterior work was yet to be done. This was finished in late 2009. The completed building was 27 meters tall, 150 meters wide, and 215 meters in length.

On 9 May 2009, weeks after the stadium opened, part of the ground's away section was earmarked for conversion into terracing. This was because of high demand from away supporters, who had previously had to pay for a seating ticket, even though they preferred to stand. Even before this remodelling was complete, Malmö FF lowered the away ticket prices to match the price of a home terracing ticket. This restructuring was completed before the 2010 season. The terracing for the home supporters was also modified to ease mobility, and combat safety issues in the stands. The old pitch was removed and a new one was installed in preparation for the 2015 Allsvenskan season. The new surface was produced from the same Dutch grass producer who provided the pitch for the 2015 UEFA Champions League Final at Olympiastadion Berlin. UEFA had previously criticized the surface at the stadium following the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League group stage.

The naming sponsorship rights deal with Swedish-based banking group Swedbank ran out at the end of 2017. This meant that the club temporarily renamed the stadium "Stadion" until a new sponsorship deal could be reached.

Stadion has a capacity of 22,500 spectators. It comprises four stands: the Western Stand; the Eastern Stand and the Southern Stand, both of which have two tiers; and the Northern Stand, which is terraced. The lower-right part of the Southern Stand also features terracing for away supporters, but the rest of the stand is seated. The lower tier has 10,000 seats, and the upper tier has 8,000 seats. The Northern Stand has a capacity of 4,500 standing supporters, which can be transformed into an all-seated section with a capacity of 3,000 if required. This is done for matches played by Malmö FF in Europe.

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