Brøndby Stadium

About

Brøndby Stadium (Danish: Brøndby Stadion, pronounced [ˈpʁɶnpy stɛˈtjʌn]) is a football stadium in Brøndbyvester, Denmark. It is the home ground of the Danish Superliga club Brøndby IF. The venue is the second-largest stadium in Denmark. Built in 1965 and inaugurated on 31 July 1966 where it had no stands, it saw a major redevelopment in 2000 which increased capacity to 31,500 spectators, of which 19,700 were seated. Continuous adjustments to the spectator facilities have since resulted in the stadium having a total capacity of 28,000 spectators, of which 23,400 are seated. Record attendance dates to 18 June 2003, where a crowd of 31,508 were present in a Copenhagen Derby against F.C. Copenhagen. When hosting the UEFA competitions Champions League and Europa League, seats are installed on the South End terraces (Danish: Sydsiden) in accordance with UEFA regulations, which reduces the total capacity to 26,000. The stadium has also hosted the Denmark national football team in five matches. Their first game at Brøndby Stadium was a friendly against Portugal on 1 September 2006 which ended in a 4–2 win.

The idea of constructing a centrally located, municipal sports facility was presented by erstwhile mayor Jens Christian Jensen in 1945, but at the time the sports clubs of the municipality could not agree on a common stadium.

When a merger of the municipality's three largest sports clubs was considered in the 1950s, much suggests that these plans were fostered on a political as well as executive level. Having only one club in the municipality would enable a more rational use of a future Brøndby Stadium. The idea of a merger gained support in Brøndbyøster Idrætsforening, and at the general assembly in 1962 a majority of the board voted their approval of merging Brøndbyvester Idrætsforening and Brøndby Strands Idrætsforeninger. The latter, however, immediately disapproved of the idea, while a vote in Brøndbyvester ended up with the same result: a 'no' to merging into a municipal superstructure.

Only a few years would pass before plans of merging Brøndbyøster Idrætsforening and Brøndbyvester Idrætsforening would resurface. Financial benefit was one of the main arguments for uniting the two clubs in order to play at a future municipal stadium, and mayor of Brøndby in the period 1966–2005, as well as chairman of Brøndby IF board in 1971–71, Kjeld Rasmussen, has since stated that he and Brøndby's mayor at the time had decided to construct a stadium, provided that the two clubs would merge.

The closer we came to a completion of Brøndby Stadium, the stronger grew the support of forming one big club. Its proponents saw obvious advantages in a merger, which would mean that administrative personnel and athletes would have better physical surroundings to exercise and compete, and finally it would benefit both horizontally and vertically that all energy would become gathered in one club. Eventually, it was suggested that a merger would mean avoiding a reciprocal competitiveness especially in the area of municipal subsidies

On 3 December 1964 in Kirkebjerg Salen in Brøndbyvester, the boards of Brøndbyvester Idrætsforening and Brøndbyøster Idrætsforening adopted an agreement to merge into one club: Brøndbyernes Idrætsforening (Brøndby IF).

When the stadium reached its completion in 1965, the ground consisted of nothing more than a grass pitch surrounded by an athletics track and a spectator rail circling the field of play, a training complex featuring four grass pitches, and a gravel pitch. Behind one of the goals various athletics facilities were established, as the club shared the stadium with Brøndby Atletik. In addition, a changing room with four separate compartments was constructed, featuring showers and toilet facilities.

The official inauguration of the pitch was officially planned for late summer 1965, but issues with making the grass grow postponed the launch to 31 July 1966.

In the following years, the area around Brøndby Stadium continuously developed and expanded; in 1969–70 the municipality constructed additional training pitches south of the ground, close to the Holbæk Motorway, and even more training complexes were built south of the motorway in 1972–74.

Conditions around the main playing pitch were also improved; in 1966 two turnstiles were set up at the stadium entrance, and in 1969 a clock was added, courtesy of local watchmaker Bent Henriksen from Brøndbyøster Torv. In 1973 the municipality allocated DKK 20,000 to set up a modern loudspeaker system consisting of four folded horn loudspeakers suspended on four-metre steel trusses.

As Brøndby IF moved up the ranks, a need arose for a more contemporary stadium. In 1975, the municipality allowed the club to improve spectator facilities by installing two-step terraces around the running track. This happened despite the club's wishes to install a covered grandstand.

Only in 1977, when the club reached promotion to the third highest football league in Denmark, the Danish 2nd Division, did the municipality decide that a covered grandstand should be erected. The DKK 4 million project broke ground during the summer of 1978, and in early 1979 the grandstand was ready for use. The stand, which could hold 1,335 seated spectators, and included a speaker booth, media facilities and a TV plateau, was placed facing West towards Gildhøjskolen. Beneath the stand were constructed four dressing rooms, a kiosk, an office, toilet facilities, a storage room as well as the club room of Brøndby Atletik. In the spring of 1980, the municipality installed the first floodlights with a brightness of 4 x 24 kW. With the new stand, spectator capacity increased to 5,000.

As Brøndby IF had reached promotion to the highest football league in Denmark in the fall of 1981, then known as the 1st Division, mayor Kjeld Rasmussen proclaimed that a covered stand would be constructed. Prior to the 1982 season – Brøndby's first on the highest level – concrete terraces were installed opposite the existing grandstand, consisting of 13 rows of terraces the length of the pitch in open air. This allowed a crowd of 5,000 additional people, bringing the total capacity to 10,000.

After the club had established itself in the top of Danish football during the 1980s, Brøndby IF reached a hitherto zenith by reaching the quarter-finals of the 1990–91 UEFA Cup. At that time, Brøndby Stadium did not live up to international standards to host matches at that level. However, this was solved by installing temporary end stands of scaffolding, which allowed the club to receive an approval by the UEFA to organise the home leg against Torpedo Moscow. The changes raised the total capacity to 15,000 spectators, and the club even outdid themselves when they reached the semi-finals by increasing the capacity to 17,000–18,000. In the same period Brøndby IF submitted a bid to host the Denmark national football team at a new national stadium; a " Stadion Danmark ", which would seat 60,000 spectators and border the Holbæk Motorway. These plans, however, never came to fruition as Parken Stadium won the bid and eventually became the national stadium.

As Brøndby IF gained domestic and European success, spectator interest had grown to such a degree, that it became necessary to move the biggest matches to Københavns Idrætspark. This solution was not deemed satisfactory for neither club, fans nor sponsors, who wanted to remain rooted in the local community. Therefore, the board under leadership of Per Bjerregaard, decided to plan an expansion of Brøndby Stadium. The first step was taken in 1990, when the stand opposite the grandstand was covered and expanded with eight rows, holding 3,500 seated spectators, as well as terracing holding 10,500 standing spectators in total. In the same year the grandstand was expanded with a lounge for sponsors in which a panoramic window allowed for a view of the entire pitch. While Brøndby Municipality had financed the new covered stand, Brøndby IF funded the construction of the sponsors lounge.

Despite improved spectator facilities, the stadium did still not live up to UEFA requirements, and the club wished to erect permanent terracing behind both goals. As this would mean that the running track around the pitch had to be demolished, and that Brøndby Atletik would have to be compensated with a new running track elsewhere, the municipality chose to turn down Brøndby IF's application to further expand the stadium. This made the club consider moving to another city where it would be able to host international games, prompting the municipality to offer Brøndby IF to acquire the stadium and thus raise money to construct an athletics stadium. The club board, spearheaded by Bjerregaard, was, however, only interested in purchasing the area behind the two goals. Brøndby IF had meanwhile offered to pay for construction costs of the end stands themselves, but in order to do so the pitch had to be expanded both in width and length.

In 1991, the municipal council decided that Brøndby IF should have the sole right to use the stadium. Thus, a green light was finally given to turn Brøndby Stadium into a football-specific stadium. In December 1991, the contractor began removing the running track, and in the spring of 1992, the expanded Brøndby Stadium has reached completion: four covered stands with a total capacity of almost 21,000 spectators. This included the infamous terraced "South Side"-end ( Danish : Sydsiden ) – then known as Faxe Tribunen for sponsorship reasons – which was inaugurated on 29 March 1992. With the 1,335 seats on the main grandstand and another 3,000 new seats on the lower side of the opposite stand, the stadium could hold more than 6,000 seated spectators.

Despite several expansions and improvements over the years, Brøndby Stadium could still not achieve acceptable capacity for international matches, and the club was therefore forced to rent Parken Stadium in Indre Østerbro – home of the national team as well as archrivals FC Copenhagen – for major matches under UEFA. This resulted in losses; both on a financial level, but also in terms of prestige, and because of this the board continued to work on plans of further expanding the stadium.

The first step was commencing negotiations with Brøndby Municipality in order to secure the total acquisition of the stadium, and as a result of the proceedings, Brøndby IF A/S purchased Brøndby Stadium for DKK 23.5 million in May 1998. From this, DKK 16 million was to be deducted for the two end stands and the sponsors lounge, which the club itself had financed, resulting in a final amount of DKK 7.3 million.

The acquisition officially took place on 1 January 1999, after which the largest expansion of Brøndby Stadium could commence; a connected upper stand supported by a total of 32 concrete staircase towers, and a new roof carried by a total of 32 m tall iron structures, each 25 m apart. These would – together with the existing lower stands – ensure that the stadium could bring the total spectator capacity to more than 30,000 for European games and 33,000 to domestic matches. The total costs for the expansion were DKK 270 million, 40 million more than original estimates due to costs spiralling. In addition to the new upper stand section, the main grandstand was expanded with a superstructure. Not least, the sponsor and lounge areas were expanded considerably, and a new three-storey annex providing administrative offices, press facilities, commercial kitchen and lounge areas able to host more than 3,000 was erected facing the parking lot. On the ground floor additional facilities, including a lobby, a gym for the players and a fanshop, were constructed.