Ramat Gan Stadium
Encyclopedia
Ramat Gan Stadium is the national football stadium
National stadium
Many countries have a national football stadium, which typically serves as the primary or exclusive home for one or more of a country's national representative sports teams. The term is most often used in reference to an association football stadium. Usually, a national stadium will be in or very...

 in the Tel Aviv District
Tel Aviv District
The Tel Aviv District is the smallest and most densely populated of six administrative districts of Israel with a population of 1.2 million residents...

 city of Ramat Gan, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

.

Completed in 1951 and serving as Israel's largest stadium ever since, this all-seated stadium contains 41,583 seats, 13,370 of which are located in the Western Tribune, completed in 1982 - at the time the stadium went through a major refurbishing process.

The stadium is mixed-use, fit for athletic competitions alongside its more regular usage as a football stadium when it hosts Israel international football matches along with the home UEFA Champions League
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...

 matches of Maccabi Tel Aviv and Maccabi Haifa
Maccabi Haifa F.C.
Maccabi Haifa Football Club is an Israeli football team from the city of Haifa, a section of Maccabi Haifa sports club. The club has won 12 championships, 5 State Cups and 4 Toto Cups...

 in the 2004–05 and 2009–10 seasons, respectively. The pitch dimensions are 105 m × 68 m (115 × 74 yd), with a 10500 m² (2.6 acre) lawn. The stadium's plot area is 36000 m² (8.9 acre).

The stadium also contains six dressing rooms, meeting halls, a conference center, press rooms, referees' room and medical and drug-test clinics. It is sided by two training fields, large athletes clinic, a cafe-restaurant, and a 3,900 space open-air car park. It also houses the headquarters of the Israel Football Association
Israel Football Association
The Israel Football Association , also known as IFA, is the governing body of football in Israel. It organizes the football leagues, Israeli Premier League, Israeli State Cup, Toto Cup and the Israeli national football team. The association is based in Ramat Gan...

.

The artificial lighting conditions in the stadium are on the same level with the world's top stadiums, offering a max 1,550 lux
Lux
The lux is the SI unit of illuminance and luminous emittance, measuring luminous flux per unit area. It is used in photometry as a measure of the intensity, as perceived by the human eye, of light that hits or passes through a surface...

 on every part of the pitch.

This is the only stadium in Israel which is world-class standard, and the only one to host official FIFA World Cup
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...

 Qualifiers and UEFA Champions League
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...

 games, although Hapoel Tel Aviv got permission to stage their 2010 Champions League games at the Bloomfield Stadium
Bloomfield Stadium
Bloomfield Stadium is a 14,700-seat football stadium in the Tel Aviv District city of Jaffa, Israel. It is the home stadium of Hapoel Tel Aviv, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv.-History:...

. The stadium is also the location for opening ceremonies of the Maccabiah Games
Maccabiah Games
The Maccabiah is an international Jewish athletic event similar to the Olympics held in Israel every four years under the auspices of the Maccabi Federation, affiliated with the Maccabi World Union. The Maccabiah Games is the third largest international sports competition in the world...

.

There are plans to tear down the stadium and rebuild a bigger one, which is expected to have the capacity of 60,000 people. The stadium will cost more than US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

100 million and is expected to start construction in late 2011 and finish in early 2015.

Entertainment

The stadium has hosted musical acts such as R.E.M.
R.E.M.
R.E.M. was an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. gained early attention due to Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's...

 Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...

, Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex. The group's original line-up consisted of Dave Gahan , Martin Gore , Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke...

, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Yeah Yeah Yeahs are an American indie rock band formed in New York City in 2000. The group is composed of vocalist and pianist Karen O, guitarist and keyboardist Nick Zinner, and drummer Brian Chase. They are complemented in live performances by second guitarist David Pajo, who joined as a touring...

, Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...

, Sting, Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...

 and Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

.
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