Cluj Arena

The ground exists because the one before it had rotted. When Universitatea Cluj went up in 2007, the old Stadionul Ion Moina could offer only 7,600 usable seats, and a club heading for UEFA-standard fixtures needed considerably more than that. Work on its replacement started in July 2009 on the same site, and the doors opened just over two years later.

Money came from two directions — roughly €31 million from the Cluj County Council and €14 million from the Romanian government — for a build handled by ACI Cluj to a design by the local practice Dico și Țigănaș, with Șerban Țigănaș leading. Nothing structural has changed since. What has changed sits under the boots: the pitch was relaid as hybrid grass, natural turf stitched through with synthetic fibre.

That calendar is the point. The Romania national side has drawn its biggest crowds here — 28,000 against Spain in 2016, 26,895 against Denmark the following year — and the 2016 Supercupa României was settled on this pitch. Rugby followed, including the 2020 Cupa României final, and Universitatea share the ground with Olimpia Cluj.

Football, though, is not what fills it fullest. The Untold Festival put 90,000 people inside in 2019; Scorpions had already drawn upwards of 40,000 in the stadium's opening year. Depeche Mode, Andrea Bocelli and Imagine Dragons have all played here since.