Stadium of the Year

Stadium of the Year is an annual public poll organised by StadiumDB.com website, to select, through a public vote, the best football stadium completed in the year preceding the contest. The award is the largest public vote of its kind in the world.^[1]

Stadium of the Year
Awarded for	best football stadium completed in the year preceding the contest
Presented by	StadiumDB.com
First awarded	2011

The contest is organised by StadiumDB.com and its twin site Stadiony.net, edited in Polish. In the 2014–2020 editions, jury voting was held separately, in addition to public polls.

Description

In 2011 Stadiony.net web portal for the first time organised a competition in which readers could vote for the best football arena in their opinion, commissioned in 2010. The contest has been held annually since then.^[2][3][1][4]

Initially, the competition was organised only in the Polish language version of the website. Since the 3rd edition, following the creation of the English version of the site, StadiumDB.com, the contest has been held jointly in both language versions.^[2]

The voting each year is preceded by a nomination phase, during which readers can submit their suggestions and comments, influencing the final list of stadiums considered for the competition. Facilities that meet the following criteria are eligible to participate in the poll:^[5]

• were commissioned in the year prior to the vote
• are completely new or substantially redeveloped
• are suitable for hosting football matches
• have a capacity of at least 10,000 spectators

The competition takes the form of an open, online vote in which readers of the website can take part, awarding points to five stadiums of their choice (scores of 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1).^[6] The award is the largest public vote of its kind in the world. In the record-breaking 2014 edition, nearly 100,000 votes were cast.^[2]

In the 2014–2020 editions, in addition to the public vote, a jury vote was also organised separately. Architects specialising in stadium design, were invited to join the panel of jurors.^[2][7][3]

The statue for winning the 2021 edition (in which El Sadar Stadium in Pamplona was selected as the best) was presented by the owner of the site to the president of the CA Osasuna club, Luis Sabalza. The brief ceremony took place on April 20, 2022 at the winning stadium, just before Osasuna's high-profile encounter with Real Madrid, and was broadcast live on the official La Liga coverage worldwide.^{[8][9][10][11]}

List of winners

List of past winners of the Stadium of the Year contest:^[2]

Edition	Year	Nominations	Votes	Public Award		Jury Vote
1 ( Stadiony.net only)	2010	22	1809[12]	Aviva Stadium (Dublin)		–
2 ( Stadiony.net only)	2011	27	11 859	Stadion Gdańsk (Gdańsk)		–
3	2012	16	14 439	Arena do Grêmio (Porto Alegre)		–
4	2013	18	27 851	Ghelamco Arena (Ghent)		–
5	2014	32	96 772	Allianz Parque (São Paulo)		Hazza bin Zayed Stadium (Al Ain)
6	2015	22	37 677	Estadio BBVA (Guadalupe)		Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux (Bordeaux)
7	2016	29	82 826	Vodafone Park (Istanbul)		London Stadium (London)
8	2017	27	53 083	Estadio General Pablo Rojas (Asunción)		Luzhniki Stadium (Moscow)
9	2018	27	35 330	Volgograd Arena (Volgograd)		Diósgyőri Stadion (Miskolc)
10	2019	21	30 632	Puskás Aréna (Budapest)		Japan National Stadium (Tokyo)
11	2020	20	21 821	Sultan Ibrahim Stadium (Iskandar Puteri)		SoFi Stadium (Inglewood)
12	2021	23	12 873	El Sadar Stadium (Pamplona)		–
13	2022	36	24 524	OPAP Arena (Athens)		–
14	2023	35	12 073	Arena MRV (Belo Horizonte)		–

References

1. "Stadium awards: Which are the most prestigious?". Football Ground Guide. 8 April 2021. Archived from the original on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
2. "Stadion Roku (Stadium of the Year)". Stadiony.net (in Polish). Archived from the original on 27 September 2022. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
3. "Chosen for jury service for two major architectural awards". IDOM. 14 March 2016. Archived from the original on 6 December 2022. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
4. "Sydney, Lusajl i… Łódź. Stadion ŁKS-u nominowany w prestiżowym plebiscycie". ŁódzkiSport (in Polish). 7 January 2023. Archived from the original on 25 January 2023. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
5. Mateusz Osmola (6 January 2023). "Stadium of the Year 2022: Czas na Wasze propozycje!". Stadiony.net (in Polish). Archived from the original on 6 January 2023. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
6. Mateusz Marchewka (13 February 2022). "Polskie stadiony najlepsze na świecie". iGol.pl (in Polish). Archived from the original on 25 January 2023. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
7. "Konkurs Stadion Roku 2019". Stadiony.net (in Polish). Archived from the original on 2 February 2021. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
8. Pablo Vande Rusten; Roger Sabatés (28 April 2022). "Una noche en el mejor estadio del mundo". El País (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 24 October 2022. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
9. Robert Saganowski (22 April 2022). "Stadium of the Year: Stadiony.net z wizytą w Pampelunie!". Stadiony.net (in Polish). Archived from the original on 21 May 2022. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
10. "El Sadar, reconocido y galardonado como el mejor estadio del mundo en 2021". Navarra.com (in Spanish). 21 April 2022. Archived from the original on 20 May 2022.
11. "Reconocimiento a El Sadar como mejor estadio de 2021". noticias de Navarra (in Spanish). 21 April 2022. Archived from the original on 25 January 2023. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
12. "Stadion Roku 2010: Pełna lista wyników". Stadiony.net (in Polish). 2 February 2011. Archived from the original on 8 December 2022. Retrieved 25 January 2023.