Allianz Arena

Effective with the city's approval of modifications that was granted 16 January 2006, the legal capacity of the stadium increased from 69,000 to 71,000 spectators (including standing room). The lower tier can seat up to 20,000, the middle tier up to 24,000, and the upper tier up to 22,000. 10,400 of the seats in the lower tier corners can be converted to standing room to allow an additional 3,120 spectators. The total capacity includes 2,000 business seats, 400 seats for the press, 106 luxury boxes with seating for up to 174, and 165 berths for wheelchairs and the like. From the second half of the 2005–06 Bundesliga season, the arena is able to accommodate 69,901 spectators at league and DFB-Pokal games, but because of UEFA regulations, the capacity remained at 66,000 seats for UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup games. Bayern Munich limited capacity during their league and cup games to 69,000. The partial roof covers all seats, although winds can still blow rain onto some of them. Prior to the 2012–13 season, Bayern Munich announced that capacity had been increased to 71,000 for domestic matches and 68,000 for UEFA matches, with the addition of 2,000 seats in the upper tier of the arena.[9]

Allianz Arena also offers three-day-care centers and a fan shop, the FC Bayern Munich Megastore. Merchandise is offered at stands all along the inside of the exterior wall inside the area behind the seats. Numerous restaurants and fast-food establishments are also located around the stadium.

There are four team locker rooms (one each for the two home teams and their respective opponents), four coaches' locker rooms, and two locker rooms for referees. Two areas are provided where athletes can warm up (approx. 110 m² each). There are also 550 toilets and 190 monitors in the arena.

On 28 April 2013, FC Bayern announced to sell 300 more tickets in the Südkurve starting with the 2013–14 Bundesliga season.[10]

On 21 January 2014, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge declared that FC Bayern discusses a further expansion of the Allianz Arena.[11] About 2,000 new seats to be installed in the upper tier and about 2,000 more tickets are to be sold in the Nord- and Südkurve. In August 2014, it was reported that the capacity expansion was completed leading to a new maximum capacity of 75,024 in the Bundesliga and 69,334 in international matches.[12] An expansion was approved in January 2015 to expand the stadium's capacity to 75,000 for Bundesliga Games and 70,000 for games in the Champions League.[13]

Allianz Arena under construction (August 2004)

The stadium construction began on 21 October 2002 and was officially opened on 30 May 2005. The primary designers are architects Herzog & de Meuron. The stadium is designed so that the main entrance to the stadium would be from an elevated esplanade separated from the parking space consisting of Europe's biggest underground car park.[14] The roof of the stadium has built-in roller blinds which may be drawn back and forth during games to provide protection from the sun.

• Total concrete used during stadium construction: 120,000 m³
• Total concrete used for the parking garage: 85,000 m³
• Total steel used during stadium construction: 22,000 tonnes
• Total steel used for the parking garage: 14,000 tonnes

The arena facade is constructed of 2,874 ETFE-foil air panels that are kept inflated with dry air to a differential pressure of 3.5 Pa.[15] The panels appear white from far away but when examined closely, there are little dots on the panels. When viewed from far away, the eye combines the dots and sees white. When viewed close up however, it is possible to see through the foil. The foil has a thickness of 0.2 mm. Each panel can be independently lit with white, red, or blue light. The panels are lit for each game with the colours of the respective home team—red for Bayern Munich, blue for TSV and white for the Germany national team. White is also used when the stadium is a neutral venue, like the 2012 UEFA Champions League Final. Other colours or multicolour or interchanging lighting schemes are theoretically possible, but the Munich Police strongly insists on using a single-colour lighting scheme due to several car accidents on the nearby A9 Autobahn with drivers being distracted by the changing lights.

Allianz Arena's innovative stadium-facade lighting concept has been subsequently adopted in other recently built venues, like MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, which lights up in blue for the National Football League's Giants and green for the Jets. With electricity costs for the light of about €50 (USD$75) per hour, the construction emits enough light that, on clear nights, the stadium can easily be spotted from Austrian mountain tops, e.g. from a distance of 50 miles (80 km).

Allianz Arena

Patrons may park their cars in Europe's largest parking structure, comprising four four-story parking garages with 9,800 parking places. In addition, 1,200 places were built into the first two tiers of the arena, 350 places are available for buses (240 at the north end, and 110 at the south entrance), and 130 more spots are reserved for those with disabilities.

The stadium is located next to the Fröttmaning U-Bahn station. This is on the U6 line of the Munich U-Bahn.

From the subway station just south of the arena, visitors approach the stadium through a park that was designed to disentangle and guide them to the entrance. An esplanade rises gradually from ground level at the subway station entrance, practically building the parking garage's cover, to the entrance level of the stadium. On the other side of the Autobahn, the Fröttmaning Hill with its windmill affords a marvellous view on the stadium. Also the Romanesque Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche, the oldest structure on the area of the City of Munich designed to serve religious purposes, is located there together with its copy, an artwork in concrete as a reminder for the village of Fröttmaning which disappeared with the construction of the Autobahn.

The arena was commissioned by the Allianz Arena München Stadion GmbH, founded in 2001, and was owned in equal parts by the two football clubs that called it home. The GmbH's CEO was Karl-Heinz Wildmoser Jr. until the unraveling of the stadium corruption affair (see below). Since then, Bernd Rauch, Peter Kerspe, and Walter Leidecker have led the company. In April 2006, FC Bayern Munich bought out TSV 1860 Munich's 50 per cent share in the arena for a reported €11 million. 1860 managing director Stefan Ziffzer stated that the deal prevented insolvency for the club. The terms of the agreement gave 1860 the right to buy back their 50 per cent share of the arena for the price of sale plus interest anytime before June 2010. In November 2007, 1860 Munich resigned that right. In advance, the income of two friendly-games both clubs shared equally instead of having that money going to Allianz Arena GmbH. Due to 1860 Munich's financial turbulence, Bayern Munich took over all the shares and owns 100 per cent of the Allianz Arena.

Allianz paid significant sums for the right to lend its name to the stadium for a duration of 30 years. However, as Allianz was not a sponsor of the 2006 World Cup and is not an official UEFA sponsor, the Allianz logo had to be removed during the World Cup and is covered during Champions League games.

The cost of the construction itself ran to €286 million but financing costs raised that figure to a total of €340 million. In addition, the city and State incurred approximately €210 million for area development and infrastructure improvements.

Between March 2004 and August 2006, a corruption affair relating to the stadium occupied the football world and German courts. On 9 March 2004, Karl-Heinz Wildmoser Sr., president of TSV 1860 Munich, his son Karl-Heinz Wildmoser Jr., chief executive officer of Allianz Arena München Stadion GmbH, and two others were charged with corruption in connection with the award of arena construction contracts and taken into custody. On 12 March, Wildmoser Sr. struck a plea bargain and was released. As part of the plea bargain, he relinquished the presidency of the club three days later, and on 18 May, the investigation into his conduct was closed.

His son, Karl-Heinz Wildmoser Jr., remained in custody. At a bail hearing on 29 June, the judge refused bail on the grounds of danger of flight and obstruction of justice. The District Attorney filed charges on 23 August 2004, accusing him of fraud, corruption and tax evasion. The case was that Wildmoser Jr. had awarded the construction contract at an inflated price, provided the Austrian builder Alpine with inside information that enabled the builder to win the contract, and in return received €2.8 million.

On 13 May 2005, Karl-Heinz Wildmoser Jr. was convicted and sentenced by a Munich court to four and a half years in prison. He was released on bail pending his appeal. The Federal Court of Justice rejected the appeal in August 2006.

Allianz Arena during a match in November 2014

Test illumination in March 2005

On 30 May 2005, 1860 Munich played an exhibition game against 1. FC Nürnberg and won, 3–2. The next day, the record German champions Bayern Munich played a game against the Germany national team.[18] Both games had been sold out since early March 2005. Patrick Milchraum of TSV 1860 scored the first official goal at the stadium.

On 2 June 2005, in response to high demand, the first "arena derby" took place between the two tenants. That game was won by TSV 1860 with the help of a goal by Paul Agostino.

Prior to opening day, the alumni teams of both clubs played each other in an exhibition game in front of a crowd of 30,000. During the game, all stadium functions were thoroughly tested.

The stadium's first goal in a competitive game went to Roy Makaay of FC Bayern in the semi-finals of 2005 DFL-Ligapokal on 26 July 2005. In the same game, Thomas Hitzlsperger of VfB Stuttgart scored the first goal in an official game by a visiting team. The game ended with a 2–1 win for Stuttgart.

The first goal in a league game was scored by Owen Hargreaves of FC Bayern when the home team won 3–0 in its 2005–06 Bundesliga season opener against Borussia Mönchengladbach on 5 August 2005. The first goal in a league game by a visiting team was scored by Dynamo Dresden on 9 September 2005 in the 2. Bundesliga match against 1860 Munich. That game ended in a score of 1–2 in front of a full house which included approximately 20,000 – 22,000 fans who had traveled to Munich from Dresden for the game. Dresden thus became the first visiting team to win a league game at Allianz Arena.

The first goal against FC Bayern Munich in a league game at Allianz Arena was scored by Miroslav Klose of Werder Bremen on 5 November 2005 in the first minute of play. This was to remain the visitors' only goal that day, as the game went to the FC Bayern with a final score of 3–1.

FC Bayern broke its consecutive sell-out record by selling out each of its first ten home games at Allianz Arena.

Inside Allianz Arena during a match between Bayern Munich and 1860 Munich, 10 June 2005

The stadium was one of the venues for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. However, due to sponsorship contracts, the arena was called FIFA World Cup Stadium Munich during the World Cup.

The following games were played at the stadium during the World Cup of 2006:

Date	Time (CEST)	Team #1	Result	Team #2	Round	Attendance
9 June 2006	18:00	Germany	4–2	Costa Rica	Group A (opening match)	66,000
14 June 2006	18:00	Tunisia	2–2	Saudi Arabia	Group H	66,000
18 June 2006	18:00	Brazil	2–0	Australia	Group F	66,000
21 June 2006	21:00	Ivory Coast	3–2	Serbia and Montenegro	Group C	66,000
24 June 2006	17:00	Germany	2–0	Sweden	Round of 16	66,000
5 July 2006	21:00	Portugal	0–1	France	Semi-finals	66,000

The stadium will host three group stage matches, one match in the round of 16 and one semi-finals match at the UEFA Euro 2024.

Date	Time	Team #1	Result	Team #2	Round	Attendance
14 June 2024	21:00	Germany	Match 1	A2	Group A
17 June 2024		E3	Match 10	E4	Group E
20 June 2024		C1	Match 18	C3	Group C
2 July 2024		Winner Group E	Match 43	3rd Group A/B/C/D	Round of 16
7 July 2024	21:00	Winner match 45	Match 49	Winner match 46	Semi-finals

On 9 February 2022 it was announced that the Allianz Arena would host a regular-season game between the Seattle Seahawks versus the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as part of the NFL International Series.[23] The Buccaneers, who were the designated home team, defeated the Seahawks 21–16 in front of 69,811 fans in the first ever regular-season National Football League game played in Germany. The game was played on 13 November, after Bayern Munich hosted their final Bundesliga match before the German domestic league season breaks for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.