Allianz Arena is a football stadium in Munich, Bavaria, Germany with a 75,000 seating capacity. Widely known for its exterior of inflated ETFE plastic panels, it is the first stadium in the world with a full colour changing exterior. Located at 25 Werner-Heisenberg-Allee at the northern edge of Munich's Schwabing-Freimann borough on the Fr?ttmaning Heath, it is the second-largest arena in Germany behind Westfalenstadion in Dortmund.
FC Bayern Munich has played its home games at the Allianz Arena since the start of the 2005–06 season. The club had previously played their home games at the Munich Olympic Stadium since 1972. 1860 Munich previously had a 50% share in the stadium, but Bayern Munich purchased their shares for €11 million in April 2006. The arrangement allowed 1860 Munich to play at the stadium while retaining no ownership until 2025.However, in July 2017 the rental contract was terminated, making Bayern Munich the sole tenants of the stadium.
The stadium construction began on 21 October 2002 and was officially opened on 30 May 2005. The primary designers are architects Herzog & de Meuron. The arena facade is constructed of 2,874 ETFE-foil air panels that are kept inflated with dry air to a differential pressure of 3.5 Pa.The panels appear white from far away but when examined closely, there are little dots on the panels. When viewed from far away, the eye combines the dots and sees white. When viewed close up however, it is possible to see through the foil. The foil has a thickness of 0.2 mm. Each panel can be independently lit with white, red, or blue light. The panels are lit for each game with the colours of the respective home team—red for Bayern Munich, blue for TSV and white for the German national football team. White is also used when the stadium is a neutral venue, like the 2012 UEFA Champions League Final. Other colours or multicolour or interchanging lighting schemes are theoretically possible, but the Munich Police strongly insists on using a single-colour lighting scheme due to several car accidents on the nearby A9 Autobahn with drivers being distracted by the changing lights.
Allianz Arena's innovative stadium-facade lighting concept has been subsequently adopted in other newly built venues, like MetLife Stadium near New York City, which lights up in blue for the National Football League's Giants and green for the Jets.