Laugardalsvöllur

History

The idea of building a sport venue in Laugardalur, along with some other entertainment facilities, dates back to 1871. At that time, the population of Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland, was only about 2,000. Laugardalur was also nearly 3 km (1.9 mi) away from residential areas. Little came out of this proposal the next 60 years or so.

In 1943, the town council set up the Laugardalsnefnd committee. Its task was to make proposals and ideas for the area. The committee then delivered the result later, which included building a new football stadium and a new swimming pool (Laugardalslaug).

Construction of the field started in 1949 and lasted until sowing for the grass itself started in 1952. A year later in 1953, construction of a new stand started. The stand had a capacity of 4,000 when completed later.

The first match was played on Laugardalsvöllur in 1957 when the Iceland men's national football team played against Norway, two years before the official opening, 17 June 1959. A few years later, the stand was renovated and expanded, starting from 1965 to 1970.

Under the new stand there was opened a track-and-field facility, which operated until 2007, although there has always been all-weather running track around the pitch (upgraded in 1992). Later the year 1992, floodlights were inaugurated for the match against Greece.

In 1997, another new stand was built against the old stand, across the pitch. Constructions started a year earlier. It has a capacity of 3,500. At the same time, the old stand was relieved by matching it with the new stand by seating capacity.

Big renovation and expansion of the old stand started in 2005. After the completion in 2007, the stadium has a capacity of 9,800. Additional capacity can be added by bringing in two temporary stands seating 1,500 each, giving the stadium a maximum capacity of 15,000 but after the new requirements of FIFA for national football stadiums, this addition method has been forbidden. No major renovations or expansions have occurred since the year 2007.

The largest attendance for a football match ever seen by Laugardalsvöllur was 20,204 in 2004 in a friendly match between Iceland and Italy. Biggest attendance ever seen was at concert in 2007, about 25,000.

Facilities

The stadium comprises two big stands facing each other. West Stand is the main stand and the larger one. It is the only stand to hold all the facilities needed for the stadium, excluding stadium seating. For the purpose of football matches and other competitions, the stand has 4 Changing rooms for players (mainly) and 2 other for referees, which also have the capability of accommodating facility for a doctor or drug test. Then there are two other rooms for football matches and athletics tournaments administration.

Future

There has been some serious plans to renovate and expand Laugardalsvöllur since Iceland men's national football team reached play-off for the 2014 FIFA World Cup back in 2013. The team's success kept going until they went to UEFA Euro 2016 and reached quarter-finals.

Both Icelandic football fans and KSÍ (the Football Association of Iceland) have been asking for new stadium because seats have sold out for nearly all official matches (even friendly matches) since 2013. That situation is ongoing.

Several ways are available, but all of them have at least two things in common: removing the running track and cover the stadium. KSÍ has stated that it wants retractable-roof stadium for the possibility of multi-purpose stadium, that would increase the utilization of seating capacity in the long term.

There are stadiums in Europe that can be used as a guide to the perfect national stadium for Iceland. They are all big and extremely expensive on the local scale. The upcoming construction of Laugardalsvöllur is, for instance, expected to cost about 8 billion ISK (about €62 million). If built, the new national football stadium of Iceland is likely to have a capacity of 20,000 or more.

By running a hotel, services and stores in the same building, the costs of the stadium should not be a problem anymore because of the profit. It is also quite easy to get investors into that kind of project in Iceland.

The pitch itself would have to be dug many meters in the ground since the running track is to be removed and the bottom edge of the stadium will be moved closer to the pitch. By doing that, the stadium will have a lot more capacity. The new pitch is expected to be heated if natural grass is selected, due to hard winters in Iceland and also because of the new requirements of UEFA, which indicates that matches for some teams in the qualification competition, for the UEFA European Championship, shall also be played in the winter after fall 2018. The grass will then likely maintain itself with automatic irrigation sprinkler system.

Because the new stadium has to have retractable-roof to cover the costs, it is possible that all present structures of Laugardalsvöllur will be demolished and a new, solid, oval-shaped stadium will be built. The reason; neither of the existing stands are specially designed to support additional roof that can roll back and forth on tracks, that can open and close the stadium altogether. Another consequental problem is the surface of the pitch because it might have to be artificial turf, according to architects.