Euro 1984 Stadiums Venues

France's winning bid to host the Euro was based on seven stadia. The 48,000-seat Parc des Princes in Paris was the venue for the opening match and the final. Built in 1972, it was still state-of-the-art in 1984 and needed minor improvements only. Marseille's Stade Vélodrome was expanded to 55,000 seats to host one semi-final and some group matches, becoming France's largest stadium on the occasion. Stade de Gerland in Lyon, the venue for the other semi-final and some group matches as well, was thoroughly renovated and expanded to 40,000. Stade Geoffroy-Guichard in Saint-Étienne and Stade Félix-Bollaert in Lens were the other existing stadia that hosted group matches and were expanded to 53,000 and 49,000, respectively. Lastly, two all-new stadia were built to host group matches (and subsequently provided worthy home grounds for the traditionally strong local club teams): Stade de la Beaujoire in Nantes (53,000) was built on an entirely new site while Stade de la Meinau in Strasbourg was rebuilt from the ground up on the site of the old stadium into a modern 40,000-seat arena.

Fixtures were scheduled according to an innovative rotation schedule in which each team played its three first-round matches in three different stadia. Host France, for instance, played in Paris, Nantes, and Saint-Étienne. This formula had the advantage of exposing residents of a given city to more teams but implied multiple and sometimes costly trips from town to town for fans who wanted to follow their side. In subsequent Euros, the organisers reverted to conventional schedules in which teams played in one or two cities only.

Paris	Marseille	Lyon	Saint-Étienne
Parc des Princes	Stade Vélodrome	Stade de Gerland	Stade Geoffroy-Guichard
Capacity: 48,000	Capacity: 55,000	Capacity: 40,000	Capacity: 53,000
Lens	Nantes	Strasbourg
Stade Félix-Bollaert	Stade de la Beaujoire	Stade de la Meinau
Capacity: 49,000	Capacity: 53,000	Capacity: 40,000

EURO 2012 Stadium Venues