Leisure - Stadiums

It was July 1970 and the City of Montreal was preparing to hold the XXI Olympic Games, one the world will never forget. Working against the clock for the next six years, 10’000 workers would lay 12’000 pre-fabricated pieces of concrete to create the spectacular Montreal Olympic Stadium.

Three group matches will be played at the relatively new Stade de Genève in the La Praille District of Geneva near the French border. It is a modern football stadium providing covered seating for more than 30,000 fans and was opened in April 2003. It has direct access to its own train station and is close to the motorway.

It was built as part of a development that includes a 32,000 m² shopping centre, a multi-storey car park, a hotel, a cultural centre, commercial offices and TV studios. In a new design innovation the pitch was excavated and then built up below the surrounding natural ground levels, so now it is about 4 m below its original ground level.

On 7 September 2007 the Letzigrund Stadium held its first major event since its complete refurbishment as a prelude to the spectacle of EURO 08. The new Letzigrund Stadium has covered seating for 30,000 people under a projecting and curved timber roof designed in the shape of a mollusc - “Corcolum Impressum” and impressive it certainly is! This is purely a sporting and events stadium without any additional commercial services and uses. It will also host the legendary Zurich athletics meetings, top name music concerts and of course some of EURO 2008.

A ‘State of the Art’ football stadium, retail shopping centre, commercial and leisure facilities, all in one development and with a fabulous lake view, has recently been built in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. The stadium has a seating capacity of 12’500 and the retail centre has 60 different shops in an area of 27’000 m².

The towns Central Fire Station and 6 multipurpose sports halls have also been incorporated into the development. The main structure is 198 metres long and 115 metres wide and the total investment was over 280M CHF. It has three floors above ground, plus an additional three floors below ground level.

This new Eastern Switzerland commercial centre including the new stadium, will be fully completed in time for the Euro 2008 tournament. Complete with large retail areas, leisure facilities and a sports park, it has been built on a 50,000 m² site in St. Gallen-Winkeln. The development includes a multi-story shopping centre of 65,000 m² and the stadium known as the AFG Arena, with capacity for 21,000 seated spectators. The shopping centre includes 1250 below ground parking spaces and the large leisure centre facility covers more than 11,000 m².