Allianz Stadion is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

stadium which is built on the site of the former

Gerhard Hanappi Stadium The Gerhard-Hanappi-Stadion was a football stadium in Hütteldorf, in the west of Vienna, Austria. It was the home ground of Rapid Vienna. It was officially opened in 1977 as ''"Weststadion"'' (Western stadium). In 1980 it was renamed to honour i ...

as the new home of

SK Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid Wien (), commonly known as Rapid Vienna, is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the first title in the season 1911–12, ...

. In international matches the stadium has the no-commercial name Weststadion. Demolition of the old stadium began in early October 2014, after a ceremonial farewell with thousands of fans. By January 2015 almost nothing was left of the old stadium, which allowed foundation works for the new arena. The stadium was officially unveiled when Rapid Wien hosted

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

in a

pre-season friendly An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

on 16 July 2016. The first competitive match took place in the new stadium on 23 July 2016 when Rapid Vienna hosted

SV Ried SV Ried is an Austrian association football club from Ried im Innkreis, Upper Austria. The team plays its home matches at Josko Arena, a stadium with a capacity of 7,680. After being relegated from Bundesliga in the 2016–17 season, SV Ried ...

in the first round of the

Austrian Football Bundesliga The Austrian Football Bundesliga (german: Österreichische Fußball-Bundesliga, italic=no , "Austrian Football Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Austrian football league system. Th ...

Christoph Schößwendter Christoph is a male given name and surname. It is a German variant of Christopher. Notable people with the given name Christoph * Christoph Bach (1613–1661), German musician * Christoph Büchel (born 1966), Swiss artist * Christoph Dientzenho ...

scored the first competitive goal in the newly opened stadium in a 5–0 victory.

References

. Sports venues in Vienna Football venues in Austria Buildings and structures in Penzing (Vienna) SK Rapid Wien Sports venues completed in 2016 2016 establishments in Austria {{Coord, 48, 11, 52, N, 16, 15, 55, E, region:AT_type:landmark, display=title