Allianz Arena - Bayern Munich Stadium Guide

The Allianz Arena replaced the municipally owned Olympiastadion Munich in 2005.

Designed by Swiss architect firm Herzog & de Meuron who also lent a hand to FC Basel’s St. Jakob-Park, Allianz Arena took slightly less than 3 years to build and cost of €340 million.

The first official match held was a game between TSV 1860 Munchen and against FC Nuremberg.

For years FC Bayern wanted to build a purpose-built Football Stadium but  it wasn’t until Germany were awarded the World Cup in 2006 that the project gained momentum.

With Olympiastadion now unsuitable as an elite footballing venue, the two clubs formed a partnership with the city to create a new state-of-the-art stadium.

Financial services provider Allianz secured the naming rights to the new stadium from the moment it was built, with the large company taking an unprecedented step of signing a 30 year sponsorship deal.

When the stadium hosted four group matches, a round of 16 and the semi final between Portugal and France (0-1) for the 2006 World Cup, the stadium was officially referred to as the FIFA World Cup Stadium Munich due to sponsorship reasons.

The Allianz Arena is regarded as one of the most innovative stadiums in the world and is famous for its luminous exterior with the colours changing depending on who the opposition is.

If Bayern play it is Red, if 1860 Munich play it is blue and if it is the national team or a theoretically neutral game it remains white.

View of Allianz Arena

Below is a seating plan of Bayern Munich's Allianz Arena:

Allianz Arena is a modern stadium which has a continuous ring design which means each stand around the perimeter of the pitch is pretty much uniform in design:

Click the thumbnails above to enlarge an image of each stand and to read a more detailed description of each part of the Stadium.

For Champions League matches featuring Bayern München the standard allocation of tickets is 3,500, and the away section is usually located in the north stand in sections 340 to 347 which is up the third tier.

Although the section is technically the furthest back from the pitch views are excellent throughout due to the lack of support beams for the roof and relatively steep seating arrangement.

With the exception of European matches fans inside Allianz Arena and other German grounds can of course consume alcohol inside the stadium with pre-match pints normal behaviour for the majority of adult male supporters.

As the the two Munich club’s cater for the beer-swigging population themselves, and the ground is out of town there really aren’t any independently run boozers within the immediate environs of the Allianz.

Within the grounds of the stadium there is a moderate of choice of what to eat and drink before kick-off with the Arena Bistro (Open 10. 00 am to 6.00 pm), and your standard fast food stalls constituting your main choice of where to eat.

You could potentially get off a stop earlier at the Kieferngarten Metro stop and either walk to the stadium (20 minutes) or hop back on when you’ve finished exploring. Restaurants around this area include Pizzeria Fellini, Pizza Avanti Heimservice and Restaurant Mykonos Inh. Christos Katzanos.

Be advised that food and drink inside the stadium must be purchased from an ArenaCard which is basically a prepaid credit card! These can be purchase from multiple locations inside the ground.

Bayern Munich Club Shop

Both Munich based clubs operate stores at the Stadium as outlined below as well as their own web based stores such as Bayern’s Fan-Shop and TSV’s 1860’s Online Store.

Opening Hours

• Weekdays: Monday to Sunday between 10.00 am – 6.30 pm
• Matchdays: 2 hours before kick-off and for 1 hour after the full time whistle (Entry permitted with valid match ticket)

The “standard tour” lasts approximately for 1 hour and runs daily including Sundays and on National holidays except the big three of Christmas, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

At a cost of just €10.00 for adults (14+), €6.50 for children (6-13) and €9.00 for Concessions such as seniors and students the Allianz Tour is a bargain and one of the most visited tourist attractions in Munich.

For more information, timetables and to book your tour please visit the Allianz Arena website or alternatively phone +49 (0) 89 35 09 48 350.

Bayern Munich

You can purchase tickets online, or from one of 9 official club shops scattered throughout the city with the Allianz Megastore being the most prominent example. As one of the largest teams in Europe, Bayern Munich sell out almost every home match and it can very difficult, or nigh on impossible to secure tickets without going through a reseller.

Standing tickets cost around €15.00 per person, but a seat behind the goal in an upper row will cost €29.00 for Category A and around €36.00  for Category B. As for a seat behind the goal the cheaper games will be around €58.00 and the more expensive €70.00.

Tickets to see 1860 Munich are much more easy to buy than their cross-town rivals Bayern due to their smaller fanbase and less appeal nationally.  The cheapest tickets start at €14.00 for something standing, €19.00 for a seat behind the goal and around €38.00 for something within the main stand.

The Allianz Arena is located towards the North of Munich in a relatively green area albeit industrial area, around 12 km kilometres from the historic city centre. Most supporters catch the Tram (U-Bahn) as outlined below.

The out of town Allianz Arena is very accessible by automobile as it lies adjacent to both the A9 and A99 stretches of the Autobahn motorway.

The address for satnav is as follows:

• Werner-Heisenberg-Allee 25, München

Car Parks

At the ground there is the largest football stadium carpark in Europe with approximately 9,800 spaces.

You must pay upon exiting the car parks, and the exit barriers require you to pay the €10.00 parking cost via the ArenaCard which can either be purchased from the stalls as you enter the turnstiles and inside the concourses at the stadium.

The largest train station is Munich is known as München Hauptbahnhof which is one of three long distance stations in the city which gives you an idea of its sheer size (Others are München-Pasing and München Ost).

The station serves over 450,00 passengers a day and has direct connections to both German and European cities, making a weekend trip to Munich much more viable for time strapped travellers.

Public Transport of Allianz Arena

As a large city you can count on the city of Munich to be well connected to the rest of Europe and the World, and Munich International Airport (Flughafen München) serves the region of Bavaria as the largest airport and holds the distinction of being the second largest in Germany with over 38.7 million passengers served in 2013 alone.

Located approximately 29km Northeast of Munich near to the city of Freising, the airport has decent ground transportation with S-Bahn lines S1 and S8 taking you to the city in just under 45 minutes, in addition to the MVV line 635 bus service which can take you to the nearby train station of Freising which grants you more choice of destination.

The closest and only really walkable hotel from the Allianz Arena is the Arena Stadt München which is around 20 minutes walk towards Kieferngarten U-Bahn station.

The other hotels fairly nearby to the stadium are in the small towns of Ismaning and Garching, both of which require either a car or taxi which means you’re probably better off catching the metro back towards Munich city centre where there are lots more options to choose from.

As Munich is a massive city there are way too many districts and options for me to go through so all I’ll do is give you a few options near the main train station (München Hbf). These are Hotel Ibis, Euro Youth Hotel and Regent Hotel.