Allianz Arena

About this place

The Allianz Arena stands at Froettmaning on the northern edge of Munich, a bowl of seventy-five thousand seats and the home ground of Bayern Munich. It was built between 2002 and 2005 for a practical reason: the old Olympic Stadium, architecturally famous as it is, was designed as an athletics venue, and a running track pushes the stands tens of metres back from the pitch. Munich's residents voted in a referendum in 2001 to build a stadium for football alone. The outer skin is what makes it recognisable in a photograph before you know its name. The Swiss office Herzog and de Meuron wrapped it in roughly two thousand eight hundred diamond-shaped cushions of plastic film, each inflated with air and each lit separately from within. For years the colour announced who was playing: red for Bayern, blue for 1860 Munich, which shared the ground until 2017, white for the German national team. Since a full-colour lighting system was fitted in 2015 the entire shell can change shade. Outside match days a visit is two things: the FC Bayern Museum, with the trophies, the shirts and the club's story since 1900, and the guided arena tour, which goes through the dressing rooms, the players' tunnel, the press conference room and down to the edge of the pitch. The museum alone is twelve euros; the combined ticket with a tour is twenty-five and runs about two and a half hours. The U6 drops you at Froettmaning for a fifteen-minute walk along a raised path, and the approach, with the arena swelling ahead of you, is a genuine part of the experience.