Denmark's second largest city without a proper football stadium? This is about to change soon! The new facility in Aarhus is expected to cost almost DKK 600 million, with inspirations including the French Stade de France, the 'Bird's Nest' in Beijing and the National Stadium in Tokyo.

Aarhus is the largest city on the Jutland Peninsula (almost 300,000 inhabitants) and in the whole country second only to Copenhagen in terms of population. It is no wonder that for many years there have been numerous voices in the city aimed at mobilizing local authorities to invest money for the construction of a new stadium.

AGF Aarhus, which have been part of the Danish Superliga for many years, currently play at Ceres Park, but neither the players nor the fans like the venue anymore. The stadium has an athletics track that separates the fans from the pitch. In the opinion of many, the stands are so far away that it takes away the good reception of the match from the supporters.

AGF is a 5-time Danish champion and 9-time national cup winner. 2 years ago the team from Jutland finished third in the league, which was the club's most successful season since the 1990s. For the sporting success to continue and for the team to appear regularly in European cups, infrastructural progression is necessary. And this is exactly what is going to happen in Aarhus.

Despite the fact that AGF has regular problems filling all the stands at their home ground, for the time being it has been decided to build a new 20,000-seat stadium, the same capacity as the current Ceres Park. The total investment cost is expected to be around DKK 585 million (€79 million) with the facility to be built near the current venue, in Kongelunden. In addition, DKK 65 million will be used to demolish the stadium that celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2020.

So far, it is not known whether the arena will receive a naming rights sponsor, but due to the fact that the city is home to the Royal Scandinavian Casino, it is highly probable that one of bedste online casino Danmark will be interested in such a deal. What is known, however, is that the investment assumes a possible extension to 24,000 places with the possibility of making standing places available to fans in the near future.

© Nils Jepsen

The list of architectural firms ready to implement the concept has been reduced from 42 to 6. The studios will present their design in spring 2022, after which the evaluation process with the winning application will take place by autumn 2022 at the latest.

The main inspiration is expected to be Stade de France near Paris. One thing is for sure - the Danish stadium will certainly not be as large as the colossus from France, but perhaps at least in some part it will be built on its model.