Bolt Arena – stadium description

Plans to build a new stadium in Helsinki were drawn in May 1998. The stadium ,designed by local Atelier23, was built mostly with municipal funding and belongs to the city in almost 85%, shared with Finnish football association.

Construction by Skanska started in September 1999 and ended in just 10 months, allowing the stadium to open in the summer of 2000. Stands on the north, east and south sides are conjoined and have a single covered tier, while main grandstand is much taller, with extensive corporate and office space, as well as the most distinctive element of the stadium – independent roof spanning beyond the stand.

Capacity of over 10,000 is rarely packed to capacity, with Finland’s largest club HJK averaging around 4,000. Of course on some occasions crowds are much higher, like in the record game against FC Honka from 2006, when the stadium was reopened with a sell-out crowd after pitch being changed to FIFA-certified (it’s artificial since 2003).

Day-to-day use is provided by HJK and its daughter-club Klubi-04, but other events also take place here, like the U17 World Cup (first to be played on synthetic grass) of Women’s Euro.

During its first decade the stadium was called Finnair Stadium for commercial purposes. Another naming rights deal was signed with Sonera until the end of 2013.