Ghencea Stadium

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Stadionul Ghencea
UEFA
Location	Bucharest, Romania
Opened	April 9, 1974
Renovated	1996, 2006
Owner	Ministry of National Defence of Romania
Operator	Steaua Bucharest
Surface	Grass
Construction cost	€20 million
Architect	Ministry of National Defence of Romania
Tenants	FC Steaua
Capacity	28,000 (Football)

Ghencea Stadium (or Ghencea) (Romanian: Stadionul Ghencea) is a football stadium in Bucharest, Romania, home of FC Steaua Bucharest. Also called Steaua Stadium, it was inaugurated in April 9, 1974 when Steaua Bucharest played a friendly game against OFK Belgrade. At the time it was one of the first football-only stadiums ever built in Romania, as there are no athletic (track and field) facilities, the stands are very close to the pitch.

The original capacity was 30,000 on benches, but in 1991 when the plastic seats were installed, the capacity dropped to 28,139^[1], along with 126 press seats, 17 personal boxes of 12 seats each and 733 armchairs. The floodlighting system, with a density of 1400 lux, has been inaugurated in 1991.^[2]

Today, following two general renovations in 1996 and 2006 in order to host UEFA Champions League games, Ghencea is the most modern stadium in Romania offering some state-of-the-art facilities such as: a four-star establishment with all the facilities required for the team, internet for the press-room, 17 cameras for video surveillance, electrically heated pitch, an automated irrigation system, and a modern scoreboard capable of playing replays.^[3] Lately there have been talks for increasing the capacity to either 45,000 or 60,000 with the company that, among others, has worked on building stadia such as Commerzbank-Arena in Frankfurt and renovating ones as Olympiastadion in Berlin.^[4]

Romania is also a tenant. The first game played by the national team at Ghencea was in March 1977 against Turkey. Since then other 59 games were played, the last one in October 2006 against Belarus.^[5] Also, several matches from the 1998 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, including the final, have been hosted by the arena.

[edit] The Most Important Games played on Ghencea Stadium

April 9, 1974 - Steaua Bucharest vs. OFK Belgrade 2 : 2. A friendly game, the first ever played on Ghencea Stadium.

March 23, 1977 - Romania vs. Turkey 4 : 0. A Balcanic Cup game. The first game played by Romania on Ghencea Stadium.

April 16, 1986 - Steaua Bucharest vs. RSC Anderlecht 3 : 0. European Cup semifinal. Following this win, Steaua qualified for the European Cup final.

April 6, 1988 - Steaua Bucharest vs. SL Benfica 0 : 0. European Cup semifinal.

April 5, 1989 - Steaua Bucharest vs. Galatasaray Istanbul 4 : 0. European Cup semifinal. An important win for Steaua which virtually opened the door to the European Cup final.

November 15, 1989 - Romania vs. Denmark 3 : 1. Following this win, Romania qualified to 1990 FIFA World Cup, the first World Cup Romania attended in twenty years.

September 28, 1991 - Steaua Bucharest vs. FCM Bacău 4 : 1. A Divizia A game, in which occasion the floodlighting system was inaugurated.

February 25, 2005 - Steaua Bucharest vs. Valencia CF 2 : 0. Steaua won 4-3 on penalty shootout, and thus Steaua Bucharest qualified for the Round of 16 of the UEFA Cup. Many consider this game, the most important win of the past 15 years, marking the beginning of "a new era" for the Romanian side.