The Skagerak Arena is a football stadium located in

Skien Skien () is a city and municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county in Norway. In modern times it is regarded as part of the traditional region of Grenland, although historically it belonged to Grenmar/Skiensfjorden, while Grenland referred the ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

. It was formerly called Odd Stadion, and was built in 1923 as the home ground of

Eliteserien Eliteserien () is a Norwegian professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the Norwegian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotio ...

club

Odd Odd means unpaired, occasional, strange or unusual, or a person who is viewed as eccentric. Odd may also refer to: Acronym * ODD (Text Encoding Initiative) ("One Document Does it all"), an abstracted literate-programming format for describing X ...

. The stadium is often referred to as ''Falkum'', being situated in that area of Skien. The stadium has been undergoing an extensive redevelopment process, begun in November 2006, which produced a modern all-seater venue by April 2008. Part of the finance Odd needed for the project was obtained through the lease of the stadium's naming rights to the club's main sponsor since 1995, the Norwegian

power company An electric utility is a company in the electric power industry (often a public utility) that engages in electricity generation and distribution of electricity for sale generally in a regulated market. The electrical utility industry is a major pr ...

Skagerak Energi Skagerak Energi is a Norwegian utility company. The company's main focus is production and distribution of electrical power and other energy, in addition to business areas related to this. The group has about 600 employees, and an annual power pro ...

. The stadium will therefore be known as Skagerak Arena until at least 2017. The pitch has been rotated 90 degrees in order to free up space. As is increasingly common in Norway, the new surface is

artificial Artificiality (the state of being artificial or manmade) is the state of being the product of intentional human manufacture, rather than occurring naturally through processes not involving or requiring human activity. Connotations Artificiality ...

. The old main stand is now an end stand, incorporated into the new structure as the only surviving feature of the old stadium. Three new two-tiered stands was completed between 2007 and 2008. The east and west stands has a capacity of 4,300 while the south end seats around 3,000. Construction of the west stand had progressed far enough by April 2007 to allow spectators on the lower tier for the first home match of the season, on 15 April. Total capacity was at first 6,000 And increased gradually throughout 2007. The old stadium had a capacity of about 8,600, of which 5,600 were seated. The venue has hosted

Norway national under-21 football team Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

matches three times, playing 0–0 against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

on 9 May 1979, 2–1 against

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

on 18 August 1998 and 3–1 against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

on 19 August 2003. In a 2012 survey carried out by the

Norwegian Players' Association The Norwegian Players' Association ( no, Norske Idrettsutøveres Sentralorganisasjon or NISO is a trade union for professional football, handball and ice hockey players in Norway. Established in 1995, it is member of the Norwegian Confederation of ...

among away-team captains, Skagerak Arena was ranked tenth amongst league stadiums, with a score of 3.07 on a scale from one to five.

References

External links

Skagerak Arena video and photos
- Nordic Stadiums {{coord, 59, 12, 40, N, 009, 35, 23, E, source:nowiki_region:NO, display=title Football venues in Norway Eliteserien venues Norwegian Cup Final venues Sports venues completed in 1923 1923 establishments in Norway Sports venues in Skien Odds BK