Avicii Arena, originally known as Stockholm Globe Arena and previously as Ericsson Globe, but commonly referred to in Swedish simply as Globen (; "the Globe"), is an indoor arena located in

Stockholm Globe City Stockholm Globe City or Stockholm Globe Arenas is an area in Johanneshov, in Stockholm, Sweden. It contains a number of venues, office areas, and a shopping centre. Venues Avicii Arena represents the Sun The Sun is the star at the cen ...

, Johanneshov district of

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. The arena represents the Sun in the

Sweden Solar System The Sweden Solar System is the world's largest permanent scale model of the Solar System. The Sun is represented by the Avicii Arena in Stockholm, the largest hemispherical building in the world. The inner planets can also be found in Stockhol ...

, the world's largest scale model of the Solar System.

Construction

Avicii Arena is the largest spherical building on Earth and took two and a half years to build. It has a diameter of and an inner height of . The volume of the building is and it has a seating capacity of 16,000 spectators for shows and concerts, and 13,850 for ice hockey. In the upper area there are 40 VIP boxes and a restaurant. The steel, concrete and glass construction designed by the architects Berg Arkitektkontor AB is supported by a MERO space structure. It represents the Sun in the

, the world's largest scale model of the Solar System.

History

Globen was inaugurated on 19 February 1989 after a construction period of less than three years. The first major events were Melodifestivalen, the Ice Hockey World Championships and the Men's European Volleyball Chamiponships. In 2009, the naming rights to the Stockholm Globe Arena were officially acquired by Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson, and it became known as the Ericsson Globe. In 2021, it was announced that the arena would be renamed the Avicii Arena in honour of the late Swedish DJ Avicii, who died in 2018. To commemorate the new name, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra recorded a performance of the Avicii song " For a Better Day", with vocals provided by fourteen-year-old Swedish singer Ella Tiritiello.

Events

The Globe is primarily used for ice hockey, and is the former home arena of AIK, Djurgårdens IF, and

Hammarby IF Hammarby Idrottsförening ("Hammarby Sports Club"), commonly known as Hammarby IF or simply Hammarby ( or, especially locally, ), is a Swedish sports club located in Stockholm, with a number of member organizations active in a variety of differe ...

. It is also used for musical performances as well as other sports than ice hockey, for example futsal (indoor football). The third team to play a home game in their league was

Huddinge IK Huddinge IK (or ''Huddinge Hockey''), is a Swedish ice hockey team from Huddinge, a southern suburb in Stockholm County. The team is currently playing in the third highest league in Sweden, Hockeyettan. In the middle of the 1990s, a women's fl ...

(three home games there, all in 1993), followed by

(20 home games in The Globen to this day) and AC Camelen (one game in 1998, in the sixth level league, with 92 spectators). The first international game played in Globen was between Hammarby IF (Sweden) and Jokerit (Finland) a couple of weeks before the grand opening, although the players were only 12 years old at the time (born 1977) and it was a friendly game. The arena has been the home of the finals of

Sveriges Television Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television Stock Company"), shortened to SVT (), is the Sweden, Swedish national public broadcasting, public television broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksdag (national ...

's yearly music competition ''

Melodifestivalen Melodifestivalen (; literally "the Melody Festival") is an annual song competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song ...

'' until 2012. The show returns to the arena for the first three heats of the 2022 competition. Ericsson Globe hosted the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

and

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

. In March 2021, it hosted the World Figure Skating Championships despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In November 2021, it hosted the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament Major Stockholm 2021.

Artwork

A small cottage in aluminum with a base was placed upon the Globe on 26 May 2009. The artist, Mikael Genberg, intended it to illustrate two important symbols for Sweden: the high-technology Globe building and the traditional, simple small countryside cottage in Falu red with house corners painted in white. The house was positioned some distance from the exact top position of the Globe. Genberg also hoped to eventually place a similar cottage on the Moon. The cottage remained on the Globe until October 2009. (The sequence starts automatically within a few seconds.)

Concerts

Skyview

Skyview is an exterior inclined elevator which transports visitors to the top of the arena for a virtually unobstructed view of Stockholm. It has two spherical gondolas, each able to accommodate up to 12 passengers, which travel along parallel tracks on the exterior of the south side of the globe. Skyview opened in February 2010 and carried 160,000 people during its first year of operation.

References

External links

Stockholm Globe Arenas, website.
(English).
Stockholm Globe City

Hockeyarenas.net entryWeb cams monitoring the construction on the ''Globe Arena''
{{Authority control Event venues established in 1989 Sports venues in Stockholm Globen Indoor arenas in Sweden Indoor ice hockey venues in Sweden Domes Ice hockey in Stockholm Ice hockey venues in Sweden

Handball venues in Sweden Athletics (track and field) venues in Sweden Indoor track and field venues 1989 establishments in Sweden Avicii