Stade de Genève (Stadium of Geneva), also called Stade de la Praille, is a

stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

in Lancy,

Canton of Geneva The Canton of Geneva, officially the Republic and Canton of Geneva, is one of the Cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons of the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of forty-five Municipality, municipalities, and the seat of the governme ...

. It has a capacity of 30,084.

Overview

The stadium was completed in 2003 by Zschokke Construction S.A. after nearly three years of construction. Normally the home venue of Geneva's Servette FC, a Swiss

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

team, the stadium hosted international friendlies between

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

on 12 November 2005, which England won 3–2 and between New Zealand and Brazil on 4 June 2006, which Brazil won 4–0. The venue played host to three group-stage matches for Group A during

UEFA Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial association football, football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA ( ...

. A memorable match Turkey-Czech Republic was played in this stadium. The stadium was also used for

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

, with a 2006–07 Heineken Cup clash between Bourgoin and

Munster Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...

being moved from Bourgoin's home ground. In the summer of 2016 the stadium was equipped with heated hybrid turf, Mixto Hybrid Grass by Limonta Sport to cater the needs of football and rugby clubs of Servette. Installation of the new turf prevented Servette FC from playing home on the first three rounds of the 2016–17 Swiss Challenge League. Throughout the 2019–20 season, all 30,000 seats were replaced with brand new burgundy seats as the old ones had completely faded to a pink/grey color. In addition to that, a small portion of the North stand was left without seats to provide a new standing section for about 500 fans. The stadium hosted the semi-finals and final of the 2022–23 UEFA Youth League.

NLA Winter Classic

On 11 January 2014, the

National League A The National League (NL) is a professional ice hockey league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss league system. Prior to the 2017–18 season, the league was known as National League A. During the 2018–19 season, the league h ...

played its second Winter Classic (the first one was held on 14 January 2007 at the Stade de Suisse, Wankdorf). The game featured Genève-Servette HC and Lausanne HC and was played in front of a sellout crowd of 29,400 (the capacity being reduced to 29,400 for security and visibility concerns).