Wow!!!
I know that I haven’t been to all of the great football stadiums of Europe, very few as a matter of fact, but I have a hard time believing that there possibly could be a better place to watch a football match in the world than Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany. I was blown away.
Now, to be sure, the experience could have been much greater. Bayern Munich was out of town (losing to Hamburg SV) while I was in Munich, so the match I went to see was a 2. Bundesliga match between TSV 1860 Munich and Paderborn. Still, even with a crowd that was only about a quarter of the nearly 80,000 capacity, the crowd was loud and loving it.
As a football-specific stadium, the seats were right on top of the field and the players. My seat was about a dozen rows from the pitch and I felt like I was part of the action. As I toured the stadium, because I got there early, it appeared that there wasn’t a “bad” section to sit in for a match. This was in sharp contrast to Olympic Stadium, which I had toured earlier in the day and where Bayern Munich played for several seasons.
It was an expensive ticket for a second-division match, but I didn’t want to pass up an opportunity to catch a match there while I was in Munich. One of my favorite features, oddly enough, was the gaps in between the seats. After being in dozens of stadiums where I have had to climb over rows of seats to get to my own, and I’m not twenty-one anymore so it’s getting more difficult, I loved being able to slide in-between empty seats to move up and down the rows.
The match itself could have been more entertaining. Ultimately, there were no goals, but more than that, there were very few really good scoring chances for either side. Nevertheless, I was impressed with the 1860 Munich crowd showing so much support for a club that has not been in the top flight for a handful of seasons, now. As an American, I was also happy to get a chance to see Kenny Cooper play.
The one thing I didn’t like was having to get an Allianz Card in order to purchase anything at the food stands, since they didn’t take cash. I had to put a minimum of ten Euros on my card in order to activate it. Fortunately, I’ve never had a problem drinking ten Euros worth of beer, but it did create a need to do math in order to assure that I didn’t leave money on a card that I likely will never use again.
Although I’d prefer to see an FC Bayern match there, I have to say that if you ever have a chance to catch ANY match at Allianz Arena, you should definitely take the opportunity. I’ll keep searching, but like I said, I can’t imagine a better place to watch a match.
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