St. Jakob Park (Saint James park in english) is the stadium were FC Basel 1893 play in. "Joggeli" as it is nicknamed, has a capacity of around 33'000 fans and it is due to be fitted with more seats in time for euro 2008, which will be hosted in Switzerland and Austria. The stadium is divided into four blocks, A B C and D, each block is a whole side of the stadium. St. Jakob Park is a fairly new stadium, the construction started on the 13th of December 1998 and the first game that was played in it was on the 15th of March 2001. The "Genossenschaft S.J.P" officially own the stadium, the stadium itself is managed by "Basel United". The stadium cost around 220 million Swiss Francs to build. Within the stadium are 32 stores on 3 different floors. There are also 2 restaurants within the stadium, these are "Restaurant UNO" and "Hattrick Sports Bar". The stadium has parking space for 680 cars on 2 different floors. There are several ways to get to the stadium, either by bus, tram or train (the stadium has its own train station).

The stadium has been awarded 4 stars by the UEFA, which is the highest amount of stars that can be awarded to a stadium of that size.

For Euro 2008, the St. Jakob park will be host to 5 games, one opening game, one group game, two quarter-final games and one semi-final game.

The stadium will be expanded from 2005 until 2008.

(Source: Wikipedia)

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