Intility Arena, also referred to as Vålerenga Stadion, is an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

stadium in

Oslo, Norway Oslo ( or ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of towns and cities in Norway, most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a Counties of Norway, county and a Municipalities of Norway, municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a populat ...

. The stadium is the home stadium for

Vålerenga Fotball Vålerenga Fotball () is a Norwegian professional association football, football club from Oslo, and a part of the multi-sport club Vålerengens IF. The club currently competes in the Eliteserien after being promoted from the Norwegian First ...

, currently playing in the

Eliteserien Eliteserien () is a professional association football league in Norway and the highest level of the Norwegian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Norwegian First Division ...

, and

Vålerenga Fotball Damer Vålerenga Fotball Damer is the women's association football, women's football branch of Vålerenga Fotball. Based in Oslo, the team plays in Norway's top league, Toppserien. The team first won promotion to Toppserien in 2011 Norwegian First D ...

, currently playing in the

Toppserien The Toppserien is the top level of women's association football in Norway. It was founded in 1984. History Women's league football was introduced on a county basis in 1977. These leagues acted as qualification for the regional (South) league in ...

. It has a seating capacity of 16,555 people. The stadium plans were accepted by the city council of Oslo in 2014 and by EEA in June 2015. Construction started in August 2015, and the stadium opened in September 2017. The stadium was initially called Vålerenga kultur- og idrettspark.

History

Early grounds

From the 1960s till the 1980s and a short period in the end of the 1990s

Bislett Stadion Bislett Stadium () is a sports stadium in Oslo, Norway. Bislett is Norway's most well known sports arena internationally, with 15 speed skating world records and more than 50 track and field world records having been set here. The original stadi ...

was Vålerenga's home ground. Bislet Stadion also hosted speed skating and track and field events in addition to football, and hosted the

1952 Winter Olympics The 1952 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VI Olympic Winter Games (; ) and commonly known as Oslo 1952, were a winter multi-sport event held from 14 to 25 February 1952 in Oslo, the capital of Norway. Discussions about Oslo hosting ...

. Poor conditions and maintenance of Bislett forced Vålerenga to move to Ullevaal and a

groundshare A groundshare, also known as a shared stadium or shared arena, is the principle of sharing a stadium between two local sports teams. This is usually done for the purpose of reducing the costs of either construction of two separate facilities and ...

with

FK Lyn Lyn 1896 Fotballklubb () is a Norwegian football club and a department of the sports club Ski- og Fotballklubben Lyn based in Oslo, whose members also participate in Nordic skiing and orienteering. Until 2010, SFK Lyn had two football departm ...

Planning

After Vålerenga moved from

plans for building their own ground were conceived, but poor results on the field combined with financial problems kept those plans at bay for a few years. After the second place in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

and the league title in

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

as well as shipping magnate

John Fredriksen John Fredriksen (born 10 May 1944) is a Norwegian-born Cypriot oil tanker and shipping billionaire businessman based in London. He owns the world's largest oil tanker fleet and has major interests in the offshore driller Seadrill, the fish farm ...

's deletion of the club's debt in 2003, the talks of building a ground for Vålerenga resurfaced. Following a press statement made on 15 May 2008, Vålerenga announced that they will be moving home to Valle Hovin after purchasing the area of the proposed stadium for the symbolic sum of 1 Norwegian Krone. In late 2014, the plans were accepted by the city council of Oslo. On 10 June 2014, the

European Free Trade Association Surveillance Authority The EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) monitors compliance with the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA) in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway (the EEA EFTA States). ESA operates independently of the States and safeguards the rights of ind ...

accepted the plans for the stadium.

Construction and opening

The foundation stone of the new stadium was laid on 29 July 2015, the club's 102nd anniversary. Construction started in the summer of 2015. The first game at the stadium was played on 9 September 2017 and was a women's

game Vålerenga Damer won 2–0 against

Kolbotn Kolbotn is an Urban areas in the Nordic countries#Urban areas in Norway, urban area in Norway's Nordre Follo municipality in Akershus county. Kolbotn is in the centre of the traditional district, Oppegård. The population is about 6,000. Kolbotn ...

. The men's opening game was played on the following day, 10 September 2017, an

game Vålerenga lost 1–2 against Sarpsborg 08. The record attendance of 17,011 spectators dates from this game.

Naming rights

In October 2017, Norwegian technology company Intility reached an agreement with Vålerenga to buy the stadium's naming rights for ten years. The deal saw the stadium's name change to Intility Arena.

Transport

The stadium will be served by several stations on the

Oslo Metro The Oslo Metro ( or or simply ) is the rapid transit system of Oslo, Norway, operated by Sporveien T-banen on contract from the transit authority Ruter. The network consists of five lines that all run through the city centre, with a total leng ...

. Helsfyr Station is the closest station, approximately 500 metres away from Valle Hovin. Ensjø Station and Hasle Station are both approximately one kilometre away.

References

External links

Vålerenga's press release confirming the beginning of construction

Opening match of Intility Arena
{{DEFAULTSORT:Intility Arena Sports venues in Oslo Football venues in Norway Eliteserien venues Vålerenga Fotball Sports venues completed in 2017