The Marcantonio Bentegodi stadium is the city's main sports facility and is the eighth Italian stadium by capacity.
The current home ground of Hellas Verona was designed by engineer Leopoldo Baruchello, together with engineers Sergio Bonamico, Riccardo Guglielmi and Silvano Zorzi, to replace the Vecio Bentegodi (in Verona dialect), the old stadium located in the Piazza Cittadella area, built in 1910 and demolished in 1963. The new facility, costing around one billion lire, was inaugurated on December 15th, 1963, on the occasion of the Serie B derby between Hellas Verona and Venice, won by the Venetians 1-0.
Based on an elliptical shape reminiscent of an ancient amphitheater, the stadium underwent some changes in the late 1980s, on the occasion of the Italia '90 football World Cup, during which time the third ring, roof and seating were added to replace all standing seats. Initially equipped with an eight-lane athletics track, in August 2010 a new asphalt track, painted in blue and yellow and open to skating was built. In 2009 a photovoltaic system was installed on the roof, becoming the largest in Italy on a sports facility.
The stadium is named in memory of Marcantonio Bentegodi, a sports executive and benefactor of Verona sport who lived in the 19th century. With a capacity of about 40,000 seats (for this reason nicknamed at the time of construction "the stadium of the forty thousand"), the absolute record for attendance at a match (47,896) was achieved 20 years later, in 1983, on the occasion of Verona-Rome football match.
In its history, in addition to the home games of the football teams Hellas Verona and Chievo Verona, it has also hosted some matches of the 1990 FIFA World Cup (those of the group E formed by Belgium, South Korea, Spain and Uruguay and the eighth final between Spain and Yugoslavia), the final of the rugby scudetto between Treviso and Milan in the 1996/97 season (won by Treviso 34-29), some matches of the Women's Champions League, a friendly between the national teams of Italy and Argentina, as well as some athletics events and occasional musical concerts.
