Cluj Arena (Cluj-Napoca)

Cluj Arena is a multi-use stadium in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. It was ready as of October 2011 and is ranked as an UEFA Elite Stadium (Category 4). The stadium is the new home ground of Universitatea Cluj.

General information

Official website: https://clujarena.ro/

Arena capacity: 30,201 spectators

Address: Aleea Stadionului 2, Cluj-Napoca 400375, Romania

GPS coordinates for the navigator: 46°46′6″N 23°34′20″E

Year of construction: 2009—2011

Construction cost: €57 million

Field: grass lawn with dimensions of 105 x 68 metres

Seating plan of Cluj Arena

When choosing a place in the stadium, use the Cluj Arena scheme above.

Where to buy tickets?

Tickets for Universitatea Cluj games can be bought in advance at the Cluj stand at Iulius Mall Cluj in the east of the city, or on the day at the stadium. Tickets may at times also be available to buy online through bilete.ro.

Tickets cost either 10.00 lei for the lower tier, 12.00 lei for the upper tier, or 40 lei for a VIP ticket.

How to get there?

The Cluj Arena is located about a kilometre west of Cluj-Napoca’s old town on the Somesul Mic river next to the city’s Central Park.

The walk from the old town takes about 15 minutes.

Cluj-Napoca’s main railway station is located a little further away, about a kilometre north of the old town. The walk to the stadium takes about 30 minutes, or take the tram. Tram 101 and 102 connect the stadium with the railway station (and old town). Trams run frequently for the 10-minute journey.

Design

A sleek and impressive curvilinear structure now sits prominently yet comfortably amid the relatively low-level residential and commercial blocks and trees otherwise occupying the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

The new Cluj Arena, built as a symbolic contemporary landmark, is by far the largest and most overtly modern building in this culturally rich university city.

According to lead architect Serban Tiganas, from design consortium Dico si Tiganas Birou de Proiectare, the most important conceptual element behind the design of the stadium was transparency. It was this requirement, she says, that dictated the use flexible metal cladding from early on in the project’s conception.

Cluj County Council and the Romania government together paid more than 350 million euros for the new stadium, which can seat 30,335 people in four two-tier covered stands. It replaces the former Ion Moina Municipal Stadium, constructed in 1961, which was itself a replacement for an athletic and football stadium built in 1911. Ranked as a Category 4 UEFA Elite Stadium, the new arena, which opened in 2011, is the home ground of FC Universitatea Cluj.

The stadium was designed to incorporate the city’s main promenade — one that starts at the western end of its historic centre and central gardens and continues past the municipal swimming pool areas and various sporting and university facilities.

The shimmering edifice, its fluid form curving in harmony with the adjacent Somes river, succeeds in providing a visual connection between the cityscape and the activities within, while at the same time framing the adjacent park and hills. The translucency of the facade is enhanced by woven strips or “parted gills” of punctured steel sheeting.

A perimeter slope surrounds the stand, is designed to reduce the scale of the structure while at the same time facilitating pedestrian movement through the site and offering the public a glimpse of life and activities within the arena.

At night, the arena is said to “unravel” two different images. A soft, warm light “embraces the rhythms of structure and facades”, Tiganas adds, while when hosting an event such as a football match, the arena grows into the largest lamp in the city “and is de-materialized by its transparency”.

The arena’s vast curving roof comprises 20,000 square metres of standing seam steel, while the facades are made from aluminium, specifically 5,000 square metres of facade cassettes and 2,000 square metres of perforated woven tape.

The surfaces have an Onyx White Pearl Effect Gold PVDF coating, chosen to reflect the changing colours of the sky and surrounding environment, enabling the stadium to become, says Tiganas, “a huge chameleon or, in a way, a solar clock”.

History

The inaugural friendly match at Cluj Arena was held on the 11th October 2011 between Universitatea Cluj and Kuban Krasnodar, with the first competitive match held a week later against FC Brasov. Designed by Romanian architects Dico si Tiganas with sweeping lines, the stadium cost an estimated €45 million euros to build and took approximately 2 years to build in total.

Cluj Arena was was constructed on the site of the former Stadionul Ion Moina which was demolished on 20th November 2008. Dating as far back as 1911 when it first opened with a match against Galatasaray, the stadium peaked with a 28,000 capacity in the 1960s however the two of the stands were deemed structurally unsafe in 2000, and facilities were lagging behind the rest of Europe’s footballing arenas.

Whilst the original ground was named after Ion Moina who was a famous athlete of the era, fans of U Cluj proposed that the new stadium should named after Mircea Luca who is one of the club’s most iconic players. The local municipal instead opted to call it the Cluj Arena as they believed that it would be a more enticing prospect for advertisers if there was no history to usurp.

Whilst Cluj Arena was under construction Universitatea temporarily relocated to Clujana Stadium between 2008-2010, and then at the start of the 2010/2011 season moved between three stadiums whilst the finishing touches were being put to their new ground.

During the 2013/2014 season Pandurii Târgu played their home matches of the Europa league at Cluj Arena. Reaching the group stages, Pandurri were drawn against Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, Fiorentina and Paços de Ferreira but failed to progress to the knock-out stages. This is the currently the highest level of football played at the new stadium.