While all 20 candidates are still competing for the Public Award, the Jury Award’s list just became shorter. Here are the 10 best stadiums, as decided by our Jury.

Because the composition of Stadium of the Year Jury is different every year, even we’re never able to predict which stadiums will best fit the requirements and tastes of the Jurors. That’s why each year there are surprises on the list and the 2020 edition is no different!

As is tradition, we’re presenting the shortlist of finalists alphabetically, not to reveal their scores. It’s not about suspense, there’s a more important reason. During the second voting phase, Jurors are asked to change criteria to some extent and the first vote’s result becomes irrelevant.

Also, our goal is not to try and directly compare a compact football ground with a large event arena – that would make little sense, if at all possible. Instead, we’re asking the Jurors to evaluate (in short) fitness for purpose and quality achieved in each individual case.

What we can reveal is that only one candidate was close to receiving a score of 90%. The last qualified stadium received nearly 64%, which means all finalists are regarded as high quality choices by all four Jurors: Karsten Fiebiger (Fiebiger GmbH, Germany), Bill Massey (Sasaki, USA), Massimo Roj (Progetto CMR, Italy) and Nikos Siapkaras (A&S Architects, Greece).

Below is the shortlist of 10 finalists. Tomorrow, the second phase of the Jury vote begins. We intend to present the winning stadium on March 10, however the date may change if extra time for evaluation is needed.

All 20 candidates still in play for the Public Award

The Jurors are set to give their final evaluation soon but remember: we’re also waiting for your verdict! The Public Award is still within reach of all 20 candidates from 14 countries. And we’re quite serious. So far we’ve seen 15,000+ votes cast, significantly fewer than during the past several editions. Whether it’s caused by COVID-19 or any other factor, with this level of interest even the 20th stadium today could end up on top by the end of the week.

How to cast your vote? Select the best 5 stadiums out of 20 by giving them star grades. 5 stars for the top stadium, 4 starts for the second, 3 stars for third, 2 stars for fourth and 1 last star for the fifth most interesting stadium. Once you’re out of stars, just click “Vote!” below the list. Time to make your decision will run out with the end of this week, at midnight on Sunday, March 7 (CET).