The Ion Oblemenco Stadium is a
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 ...
stadium in
Craiova
Craiova (, also , ) is the largest city in southwestern Romania, List of Romanian cities, the seventh largest city in the country and the capital of Dolj County, situated near the east bank of the river Jiu River, Jiu in central Oltenia.
It i ...
, Romania. The all-seater stadium opened in 2017 and has a capacity of 30,983, the
fourth largest football ground in Romania. It is in the immediate vicinity of the new
Sala Polivalentă. The ground is named after
Ion Oblemenco
Ion Oblemenco (13 May 1945 – 1 September 1996) was a Romanian football player and manager who spent the majority of his playing career with Universitatea Craiova. A prolific striker, he is known for finishing four seasons as top goalscorer in ...
(1945–1996), a legendary player and coach of
Universitatea Craiova.
The stadium ranked fourth overall among stadiums in the world opened in 2017 surpassing expectations, ranking higher than
Wanda Metropolitano and
Gazprom Arena. On 26 February, 2018, the Stadionul Ion Oblemenco was selected as a finalist from 27 submissions by the jury. Architects generally agreed that the outcome was satisfying, with decent investment results.
History
Construction began on September 7, 2015. The older stadium was demolished in the same year. On 26 April, 2017, the construction reached its final phase, with seats being installed.
To celebrate the opening of the stadium,
Universitatea Craiova played a friendly on 10 November, 2017 against the
Czech
Czech may refer to:
* Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe
** Czech language
** Czechs, the people of the area
** Czech culture
** Czech cuisine
* One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus
*Czech (surnam ...
side
Slavia Prague
Sportovní klub Slavia Praha – fotbal (Sports Club Slavia Prague – Football, ), commonly known as Slavia Praha or Slavia Prague, is a Czech professional football club in Prague. Founded in 1892, they are the second most successful club in t ...
. A crowd of 30,000 people attended.
The stadium officially opened with a ceremony on 18 November, 2017 before its first competitive senior game, the
Liga I
Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 1 ...
match against
Juventus București. The match was won by Universitatea Craiova 3–1, with
Alexandru Mitriță scoring the first ever official goal at the new stadium.
Events
International football games
Gallery
New Stadionul Ion Oblemenco.jpg, External view of the stadium
The Stadionul Ion Oblemenco parking spaces.jpg, Ion Oblemenco Stadium parking lots
Choreography in the Stadionul Ion Oblemenco.jpg, Fan choreography stadium overview
OblemencoNewStadium.jpg, Internal view of the stadium
See also
*
List of football stadiums in Romania
This is a list of football stadiums in Romania, ranked in descending order of seating capacity. There is a large number of non all-seater football stadiums and pitches in Romania, which were built during the 20th century. This list, therefore, is ...
*
List of European stadia by capacity
This is a list of the largest stadiums in European countries. Stadiums with a capacity of 30,000 or more are included.
They are ordered by their audience capacity. The capacity figures are for each stadium's permanent total seating capacity.
C ...
*
Stade Vélodrome
The Stade Vélodrome (), known for sponsorship reasons as the Orange Vélodrome since June 2016, is a multi-purpose stadium in Marseille, France. It is home to the Olympique de Marseille football club of Ligue 1 since it opened in 1937, and has ...
References
{{Football venues in Romania
2017 establishments in Romania
Buildings and structures in Craiova
Romania national football team
Football venues in Romania
CS Universitatea Craiova
Sport in Craiova
Sports venues completed in 2017
FC U Craiova 1948