Viking Stadion is a football

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 stadium, built at Jåttåvågen, in Stavanger

Stavanger

Stavanger is a city and municipality in the county of Rogaland, Norway.Stavanger municipality has a population of 126,469. There are 197,852 people living in the Stavanger conurbation, making Stavanger the fourth largest city, but the third largest urban area, in Norway...

, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. It was inaugurated in May 2004 and cost 160 million NOK to build (€ 20 million). 50 million NOK, plus the lot it was built on, was a gift from the municipality. It replaced Stavanger Stadion

Stavanger stadion

Stavanger Stadion is a multi-use stadium in Stavanger, Norway. It was used mostly for football matches and hosted the home matches of Viking FK. The stadium opened on 13 August 1917, and was able to hold 17,555 people at the end of its life as Viking's home ground. The west stand was the largest...

 as the home stadium for Viking F.K.

Viking F.K.

Viking Fotballklubb is a Norwegian football club from the city of Stavanger. The club was founded in 1899 as football was becoming increasingly popular...

. Among the persons present at the official opening match were the coach of the Norwegian national football team Åge Hareide

Åge Hareide

Åge Fridtjof Hareide is a Norwegian football manager and former player. He is currently the manager of Viking FK.-Playing career:During his playing career, Hareide played for Hødd, Molde, Manchester City and Norwich City....

, Norwegian Idol winner Kjartan Salvesen

Kjartan Salvesen

Kjartan Salvesen is the winner of the second season of Norwegian version of Idol by 840.000 votes, the highest number for any participant on the show. His single "Standing Tall" sold five times platinum, making it the second most sold single of all time in Norway. He later released a self-titled...

 and Kjell Inge Røkke

Kjell Inge Røkke

Kjell Inge Røkke is a Norwegian businessman and among the richest people in Norway, controlling the Norwegian company Aker Solutions...

.
The stadium can also host large music concerts and events, and among the artists who have played in Viking Stadium are Bryan Adams

Bryan Adams

Bryan Adams, is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, guitarist, bassist, producer, actor and photographer. Adams has won dozens of awards and nominations, including 20 Juno Awards among 56 nominations. He has also received 15 Grammy Award nominations including a win for Best Song Written...

, 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...

, Roger Waters

Roger Waters

George Roger Waters is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. He was a founding member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd, serving as bassist and co-lead vocalist. Following the departure of bandmate Syd Barrett in 1968, Waters became the band's lyricist, principal songwriter...

, 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...

, Sissel Kyrkjebø

Sissel Kyrkjebø

Sissel Kyrkjebø , also simply known as Sissel, is a Norwegian soprano.Sissel is considered one of the world's top crossover sopranos. Sissel's musical style runs the gamut from pop recordings and folk songs, to classical vocals and operatic arias...

 & Plácido Domingo

Plácido Domingo

Plácido Domingo KBE , born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range...

.

In 2006, the stadium was expanded beyond the original capacity of 15,000, and now fits 16,300 people. The record attendance is 16,600 (vs Brann, 2007).

Right outside the stadium is Jåttåvågen Station

Jåttåvågen Station

Jåttåvågen Station is a railway station located at Jåtten in Stavanger, Norway. Located from Stavanger Station, it is served by the Jæren Commuter Rail operated by the Norwegian State Railways by up to four hourly trains in each direction. The station is located along the double track section of...

 that serves commuter trains on Jærbanen

Jærbanen

The Jæren Line long railway line between Stavanger and Egersund, in Jæren, Norway. The line is officially the western-most part of the Sørland Line. Owned by the Norwegian National Rail Administration, the line has double track from Stavanger Station to Sandnes Station, and single track from...

.

The venue has hosted Norway national under-21 football team

Norway national under-21 football team

The Norwegian national under-21 football team, controlled by the Football Association of Norway, is the national football team of Norway for players of 21 years of age or under at the start of a UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship campaign...

 matches four times, playing 1–0 against Spain

Spain national under-21 football team

The Spain national under-21 football team, is the national under-21 football team of Spain and is controlled by the Royal Spanish Football Federation. The team, nicknamed La Rojita , competes in the biannual European Under-21 Football Championship.Following the realignment of UEFA's youth...

 on 31 May 2006, 1–1 against Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina national under-21 football team

Bosnia and Herzegovina U21 national football team is a youth team of Bosnia and Herzegovina that represents the country in the European Under-21 Football Championship and friendly matches....

 on 6 September 2006, 2–2 against Slovakia

Slovakia national under-21 football team

The Slovakia national under-21 football team, controlled by the Slovak Football Association, is Slovakia's national under 21 football team and is considered to be a feeder team for the Slovakia national football team.-European Under-21 Championship record:...

 on 10 June 2009 and 2–2 against Belgium

Belgium national under-21 football team

The Belgium national under-21 football team is the national under-21 football team of Belgium and is controlled by the Belgian Football Association. The team competes in the European Under-21 Football Championship, held every two years...

 on 10 November 2011.

Future expansion

The club is now planning a further permanent expansion of the stadium. By adding a new upper tier to the south and east stands, the capacity will be increased to 22,000. The plan is to have the expansion completed by 2016. Should Norway and Sweden's application for the UEFA Euro 2016

UEFA Euro 2016

The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2016, will be the 15th European Championship for national football teams sanctioned by UEFA. It will be held in the summer of 2016. The host nation was announced to be France on 28 May 2010...

tournament go through, a temporary expansion to 35,000 will be considered. The expansion to 22,000 will, however, be carried out regardless of whether Stavanger is chosen as a Euro 2016 host or not.