Allianz Arena Bayern Munich Stadium is in Bavaria, Germany with a 69,901 seating capacity. Widely known for its exterior of inflated ETFE plastic panels, it is the first stadium in the world with a full color-changing color exterior. Located at the northern edge of Munich's Schwabing-Freimann borough on the Fröttmaning Heath, it is the third largest arena in Germany. The two professional Munich football clubs FC Bayern Munich and TSV 1860 München have played their home games at the Allianz Arena since the start of the 2005--06 season. The clubs had previously played their home games at the Munich Olympic Stadium since 1972. The primary designers are architects Herzog & de Meuron. The stadium is designed so that the main entrance to the stadium would be from an elevated esplanade separated from the parking space consisting of Europe's biggest underground car park. The roof of the stadium has in-built roller blinds which may be drawn back and forth during games to provide protection from the sun. Trivia: Total concrete used during stadium construction: 120,000 m³ Total concrete used for the parking garage: 85,000 m³ Total steel used during stadium construction: 22,000 tonnes Total steel used for the parking garage: 14,000 tonnes Luminous exterior - The arena facade is constructed of 2,874 ETFE-foil air panels that are kept inflated with dry air to a differential pressure of 3.5 Pa. The panels appear white from far away but when examined closely, there are little dots on the panels. When viewed from far away, the eye combines the dots and sees white. When viewed close up however, it is possible to see through the foil. The foil has a thickness of 0.2 mm. Each panel can be independently lit with white, red, or blue light. The panels are lit for each game with the colors of the respective home team—red for Bayern Munich, blue for TSV and white for the German national football team. White is also used when the stadium is a neutral venue, like the 2012 UEFA Champions League Final. Other colours or multicolor or interchanging lighting schemes are theoretically possible, but Munich Police strongly insists on uni-color only due to several car accidents on the nearby A9 Autobahn with drivers being distracted by the changing lights. On clear nights the stadium can easily be spotted even from Austrian mountain tops, e.g. from a distance of 50 miles (80 km). Allianz Arena's innovative stadium-facade lighting concept has been subsequently adopted in other newly built venues, like MetLife Stadium near New York City, which lights up in blue for the NFL's Giants, green for the Jets, and red for a concert. Transport - Patrons may park their cars in Europe's largest parking structure, comprising four four-story parking garages with 9,800 parking places. In addition, 1,200 places were built into the first two tiers of the arena, 350 places are available for buses (240 at the north end, and 110 at the south entrance), and 130 more spots are reserved for those with disabilities. The stadium is located next to the Fröttmaning U-Bahn station. This is on the U6 line of the Munich U-Bahn. Surroundings - From the subway station just south of the arena, visitors approach the stadium through a park that was designed to disentangle and guide them to the entrance. An esplanade rises gradually from ground level at the subway station entrance, practically building the parking garage's cover, to the entrance level of the stadium. On the other side of the Autobahn, the Fröttmaning Hill with its windmill affords a marvellous view on the stadium. Also the Romanesque Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche, the oldest structure on the area of the City of Munich designed to serve religious purposes, is located there together with its copy, an artwork in concrete as a reminder for the village of Fröttmaning which disappeared with the construction of the Autobahn. Allianz is a Premium Partner of FC Bayern München.

• published: 30 Apr 2012
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