| Maksimir | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Stadion Maksimir |
| Location | Zagreb, Croatia |
| Opened | 5 May 1912 |
| Expanded | 1997 |
| Owner | City of Zagreb |
| Operator | NK Lokomotiva |
| Surface | Grass |
| Capacity | Concerts: 60,000 Football: 38,079[1] |
| Field dimensions | 105 x 68 m |
| Tenants | |
| HAŠK (1912–1945) Dinamo Zagreb (1949–present) Croatia national football team (1990–present) Lokomotiva (2009–present) |
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Maksimir Stadium (Croatian: Stadion Maksimir) is a stadium in the Croatian capital of Zagreb. It takes its name from the neighbourhood of Maksimir. It is primarily the home of Dinamo Zagreb, the top football team in the country. It is also home to Dinamo Zagreb's farm team NK Lokomotiva.
The stadium was first opened May 5, 1912. Over its history it has gone through many facelifts, but starting in 1997 it received a major rebuilding that lifted its seating capacity to 38,079. Many of the Croatian national football team's games are played at Maksimir, which competes with Poljud stadium for the biggest matches. For 16 years the Croatian football team had a proud unbeaten record at this stadium in any competitive match, however on 10 September 2008 (two years after suffering a 2-0 defeat at the same venue) England became the first team to beat Croatia in Zagreb, winning 4-1, ending a thirty match undefeated streak.
The stadium has also been used as the venue for some big concerts, including U2, David Bowie, Bijelo Dugme, Marko Perković Thompson and Bon Jovi.
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The plans for a massive renovation process were made in 1998, with first phase starting that same year. The old northern stand was demoslihed and a new one arisen within a year. Renovations was to include lowering the lawn and making the “ring” round the pitch in the place of running track and thus gain 16,000 new seats with the annex to he south stand with the final addition of a modern roof structure. Maksimir was to have 60.000 comfortable sitting places and was to be an exclusively football stadium like many others in Europe. It has additionally been planned to build: new premises for Club’s Management, Elegant “Blue Lounge”, Big “Trophy room”, football school premises, changing room, coach staff room, sports hall with gym, out patient clinic, restaurant, luxury hotel (“A” category) with 46 beds for visiting teams special importance will be given to the building which will connect west stand to the north stand. By this, all conditions for hosting and organizing big European matches will be fulfilled (including UEFA offices, press club, press center, V.I.P. hospitality…). With that, the venue was to be one of the best equipped stadiums in Europe [1] but in the beginning of 2000's they were suspended. As of December 2007, the public was awaiting the presentation of new stadium, and in 2008 city government presented two potential stadiums, new Maksimir and Vulkan (Volcano) which is supposed to be built on the another location (Kajzerica) in Zagreb and old Maksimir should then be knocked down, the citizens were to choose which one they want on the referendum predicted to take place somewhere in the near future. However, the city government never made any progress with referendum or these plans and the stadium remaines to be a city shame for a decade now.
In the summer of 2011, a little, but much needed "facelifting" was made on the stadium. All seats were replaced, a new drainage system, under-soil heating and automatic watering were installed along with a new turf, the athletic track was covered with blue artificial grass and all brick surfaces were covered in blue cloth.
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