Stadio Renzo Barbera (commonly known as La Favorita) is a football

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 ...

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. It is currently the home stadium of

Palermo F.C. Palermo Football Club () is an Italian professional football club based in Palermo, Sicily, that currently plays in Serie B. It is part of the City Football Group. Founded for the first time on 1 November 1900 as Anglo Palermitan Athletic and F ...

team. The stadium was inaugurated during the fascist era on 24 January 1932, and was originally named Stadio Littorio after the Italian word for the

fasces A fasces ( ; ; a , from the Latin word , meaning 'bundle'; ) is a bound bundle of wooden rods, often but not always including an axe (occasionally two axes) with its blade emerging. The fasces is an Italian symbol that had its origin in the Etrus ...

symbol. The opening match was Palermo vs

Atalanta Atalanta (; ) is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia (region), Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene (mythology), Clymene and who is primarily known from the tales of the Caly ...

, with Palermo winning 5–1. A running track surrounded the pitch and there were no stands behind either goal. In 1936, the stadium was renamed Stadio Michele Marrone, in memory of a soldier killed during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

. In 1945, the name was changed again at the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

to Stadio La Favorita, taken from the name of the local ancient game preserve of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor in the 13th century. In 1948, the running track was removed and stands behind each goal were built. The stadium then remained largely unchanged until 1984, when the second main redevelopment took place involving the addition of a second tier to the stadium, which increased total capacity to 50,000 spectators. This maximum capacity was, however, only reached twice: in a

Serie C1 Serie C1 was the third highest football league in Italy. It consisted of 36 teams, divided geographically into two divisions. History Before the 1978–79 season, there were only three professional football leagues in Italy, the third being Se ...

league match against Sicilian rivals

Messina Messina ( , ; ; ; ) is a harbour city and the capital city, capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of 216,918 inhabitants ...

, and for a friendly match against

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

. A third, and to date the most recent, modernisation of the stadium took place in 1990, due to city of Palermo having been chosen to host a number of the

1990 FIFA World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second ...

First Round matches. A tragic accident occurred during the course of these works, resulting in the deaths of five construction workers. Following this redevelopment, the total capacity of the stadium was lowered to its current 37,619 seats. On 18 September 2002 the stadium was officially renamed as Stadio Comunale Renzo Barbera, in honour of the chairman of Palermo during the club's last Serie A tenure, as well as the two Coppa Italia finals throughout the 1960s and the 1970s, who had died that same year on 19 May. In the Serie A 2004–05 campaign, which marked Palermo's first appearance in the top division for over 30 years, all seats in the stadium were already sold before the season began to season-ticket holders. However, this was not repeated in the next years.

Transport

The stadium is linked to the city center and the central railway station by regular bus route 101.

1990 FIFA World Cup

The stadium was one of the venues of the

, and staged the following matches:

Concerts

The stadium was frequently used as a music concert venue during the 1980s. Starting in the 1990s, however, concerts and other cultural events were gradually banned from the stadium due to fears they could damage the grass on the field. The Renzo Barbera Stadium is currently the only stadium in Italy where concerts are prohibited. From the early 1990s, large open air concerts in Palermo were held at the Velodromo Paolo Borsellino instead. Below is a list of artists who have performed at the Renzo Barbera Stadium in the past.

References

{{coord, 38, 9, 9.96, N, 13, 20, 32.19, E, type:landmark, display=title Renzo Barbera Renzo Palermo FC Sports venues in Palermo Football in Sicily