Capacity
Effective with the city's approval of modifications that was granted 16 January 2006, the legal capacity of the stadium increased from 69,000 to 71,000 spectators (including standing room). The lower tier can seat up to 20,000, the middle tier up to 24,000, and the upper tier up to 22,000. 10,400 of the seats in the lower tier corners can be converted to standing room to allow an additional 3,120 spectators. The total capacity includes 2,000 business seats, 400 seats for the press, 106 luxury boxes with seating for up to 174, and 165 berths for wheelchairs and the like. From the second half of the 2005–06 Bundesliga season, the arena was able to accommodate 69,901 spectators at league and DFB-Pokal games, but because of UEFA regulations, the capacity remained at 66,000 seats for UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup games. Bayern Munich limited capacity during their league and cup games to 69,000. The partial roof covers all seats, although winds can still blow rain onto some of them. Prior to the 2012–13 season, Bayern Munich announced that capacity had been increased to 71,000 for domestic matches and 68,000 for UEFA matches, with the addition of 2,000 seats in the upper tier of the arena.[12]
Allianz Arena also offers three-day-care centres and a fan shop, the FC Bayern Munich Megastore. Merchandise is offered at stands all along the inside of the exterior wall inside the area behind the seats. Numerous restaurants and fast-food establishments are also located around the stadium.
There are four team locker rooms (one each for the two home teams and their respective opponents), four coaches' locker rooms, and two locker rooms for referees. Two areas are provided where athletes can warm up (approx. 110 m2 each). There are also 550 toilets and 190 monitors in the arena.
On 28 April 2013, FC Bayern announced it would be selling 300 more tickets in the Südkurve starting with the 2013–14 Bundesliga season.[13]
On 21 January 2014, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge declared that FC Bayern was discussing a further expansion of the Allianz Arena.[14] About 2,000 new seats were to be installed in the upper tier and about 2,000 more tickets in the Nord- and Südkurve. In August 2014, it was reported that the capacity expansion was completed leading to a new maximum capacity of 75,024 in the Bundesliga and 69,334 in international matches.[15] Approval was given in January 2015 to expand the stadium's capacity to 75,000 for Bundesliga Games and 70,000 for games in the Champions League.[16]
Construction
The stadium construction began on 21 October 2002 and it was officially opened on 30 May 2005. 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.[17] The roof of the stadium has built-in roller blinds which may be drawn back and forth during games to provide protection from the sun.
- 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 2,760 ETFE-foil air panels that are kept inflated with dry air to a differential pressure of 3.5 Pa.[18] 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 colours of the respective home team—red for Bayern Munich, blue for TSV and white for the Germany national team. White is also used when the stadium is a neutral venue, like the 2012 UEFA Champions League final. Other colours or multicolour or interchanging lighting schemes are theoretically possible, but the Munich Police strongly insists on using a single-colour lighting scheme due to several car accidents on the nearby A9 Autobahn with drivers being distracted by the changing lights.
Allianz Arena's innovative stadium-facade lighting concept has been subsequently adopted in other recently built venues, like MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, which lights up in blue for the National Football League's Giants and green for the Jets. With electricity costs for the light of about €50 (USD$75) per hour, the construction emits enough light that, on clear nights, the stadium can easily be spotted from Austrian mountain tops, e.g. from a distance of 50 miles (80 km).
Transport
Patrons may park their cars in Europe's largest parking structure, comprising four four-storey 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.
Owners
The arena was commissioned by the Allianz Arena München Stadion GmbH, founded in 2001, and was owned in equal parts by the two football clubs that called it home. The GmbH's CEO was Karl-Heinz Wildmoser Jr. until the unravelling of the stadium corruption affair (see below). Since then, Bernd Rauch, Peter Kerspe, and Walter Leidecker have led the company. In April 2006, FC Bayern Munich bought out TSV 1860 Munich's 50 per cent share in the arena for a reported €11 million. 1860 managing director Stefan Ziffzer stated that the deal prevented insolvency for the club. The terms of the agreement gave 1860 the right to buy back their 50 per cent share of the arena for the price of sale plus interest anytime before June 2010. In November 2007, 1860 Munich resigned that right. In advance, the income of two friendly-games both clubs shared equally instead of having that money going to Allianz Arena GmbH. Due to 1860 Munich's financial turbulence, Bayern Munich took over all the shares and owns 100 per cent of the Allianz Arena.
Name
Allianz paid significant sums for the right to lend its name to the stadium for a duration of 30 years. However, Allianz is not a sponsor for UEFA and FIFA competitions, and for this reason, the logo is covered during Champions League games, and was removed during the 2006 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2024.
Cost
The cost of the construction itself ran to €286 million, but financing costs raised that figure to a total of €340 million. In addition, the city and State incurred approximately €210 million for area development and infrastructure improvements.
