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Sükrü Saracoglu Stadium
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Fenerbahçe Sükrü Saracoglu Stadium (pronounced as /?yc?y sa?at??o??u/ in Turkish) is a football stadium in the Kadiköy district of Istanbul, Turkey, and is the home venue of Fenerbahçe S.K. football club. It was inaugurated in 1908 and renovated between 1999 and 2006. On October 4, 2006, after numerous inspections by the UEFA, Fenerbahçe Sükrü Saracoglu Stadium was selected to host the 2009 UEFA Cup Final. The stadium is one of the 5-star UEFA venues in Turkey, together with the Atatürk Olympic Stadium, which is also in Istanbul.
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Encyclopedia
Fenerbahçe Sükrü Saracoglu Stadium (pronounced as /?yc?y sa?at??o??u/ in Turkish) is a football stadium in the Kadiköy district of Istanbul, Turkey, and is the home venue of Fenerbahçe S.K. football club. It was inaugurated in 1908 and renovated between 1999 and 2006. On October 4, 2006, after numerous inspections by the UEFA, Fenerbahçe Sükrü Saracoglu Stadium was selected to host the 2009 UEFA Cup Final. The stadium is one of the 5-star UEFA venues in Turkey, together with the Atatürk Olympic Stadium, which is also in Istanbul. After the UEFA Cup Final game in May 2009, construction works will begin to add a retractable roof and further increase the stadium's seating capacity.
Fenerbahçe Sükrü Saracoglu Stadium has gone through a complete rebuilding process which involved each stand being demolished and rebuilt in turn. Each stand has been built closer to the pitch, getting the fans closer to the action on the field. This style of stadium has never before existed in Turkey, as the stands are usually separated from the pitch by a running track.
The "Maraton" stands can hold up to 14,500 supporters. This tribune includes "Boxes" (or Lodges) which are rented out from the club on a yearly basis. These boxes are fully-equipped with TV screens, Internet, working and meeting areas, dining facilities and many other luxuries; as the first and most luxurious of their kind in Turkey. Facing the Maraton tribune, at the opposite side, is the "Fenerium" tribune (named after the official fan-shop chain of Fenerbahçe) with its 15,000 seating capacity and the luxurious "1907" zone. There also are equally luxurious boxes and lodges here. Apart from the boxes section of this tribune, every single seating has an LCD monitor behind the chair, for every supporter to follow the game from the live coverage and catch the replays. Including the two remaining tribunes behind the goal areas, namely the "Migros" and "Telsim" tribunes (named after the sponsors of each tribune's construction projects), which both have a seating capacity of 10,500, the total official capacity of the stadium is 50,509.
History
Before Fenerbahçe Sükrü Saracoglu Stadyumu was built, the field was known as Papazin Çayiri. The field, however, became the very first football pitch of Turkey, where the first league games of the Istanbul Football League were all held successively. In 1908, local teams of the league needed a regular soccer field, so this land was leased from the Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamid II for 30 Ottoman gold pounds a year. The total construction cost was 3,000 Ottoman gold pounds. The name was changed to the Union Club Field after the club which made the highest donation for the construction.
The Union Club Field was used by many teams in Istanbul, including the owner, Union Club (which changed its name to Ittihatspor after World War I), Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray and Besiktas. However, it had lost its importance when a bigger venue, the Taksim Stadium, was built in 1922, inside the courtyard of the historic Taksim Topçu Kislasi (Taksim Artillery Barracks), which was located at the present-day Taksim Gezi Parki (Taksim Park).
In 1929, the club which owned the stadium, Ittihatspor, was shut down by the CHP government, in which Sükrü Saracoglu was a member. Thus, the ownership of the stadium passed to the state, but the field was immediately leased to Fenerbahçe. Later, in 1933, Fenerbahçe purchased the stadium from the government for 9,000 TL; when Sükrü Saracoglu was the President of Fenerbahçe.
The name of the field was changed to Fenerbahçe Stadium, and this made Fenerbahçe SK the first football club in Turkey to own its stadium, with the help of the Sükrü Saracoglu government. In the following years, Fenerbahçe SK renovated the stadium and increased its seating capacity. By the year 1949, Fenerbahçe Stadium was the largest football venue in Turkey, with a seating capacity of 25,000.
The name of the stadium was changed once more in 1998, becoming Fenerbahçe Sükrü Saracoglu Stadium, named after Fenerbahçe's legendary chairman and Turkey's 6th Prime Minister Sükrü Saracoglu. In 1999, the latest round of renovations and capacity increasing projects started. The tribunes on the four sides of the stadium were torn down one at a time, as the Turkish Super League seasons progressed, and the entire renewal and construction project was finalised in 2006, with the immense efforts of the Fenerbahçe president Aziz Yildirim and the team's board of directors. Since the completion of the enlargement and renewal works in 2006, the stadium is now the most attractive, effective and advanced football stadium of Turkey.
Fenerbahçe Sükrü Saracoglu Stadium is one of two stadiums in Turkey (the other being the Atatürk Olympic Stadium) which fulfilled the 5-star criteria of UEFA. It continues to be the only privately-owned football club stadium in the country with a 5-star UEFA rating, as the Atatürk Olympic Stadium is owned by the state.
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