page_title: Aarhus Stadium
section_title: Background and inauguration
hierarchical_section_title: Aarhus Stadium / History and development / Background and inauguration
caption_attribution_description: English: Aarhus Stadion as seen from Stadion Allé. Designed by architext Høeg-Hansen and inaugurated on 5 June 1920.
context_page_description: Aarhus Stadium is an association football stadium located in Aarhus, Denmark which has been the home ground of Aarhus Gymnastikforening since the 1920s. With a current capacity of 19,433, it is the third largest football stadium of any football team in Denmark. It is part of the sports complex, known as Aarhus Sports Park, that is run by Ceres Park & Arena.
  The venue was inaugurated in June 1920 as Aarhus Stadium with major renovations made in the 1990s and 2000s. In recent years, it has been known under several names due to sponsorship arrangements; Atletion, NRGi Park, and in July 2015 it was renamed Ceres Park, when the naming rights for AGF's football matches and events was acquired by Ceres Brewery, a subsidiary of Royal Unibrew. In FIFA and UEFA matches, it is known under its original name, Aarhus Stadium, due to sponsorship restrictions.
context_section_description: Before the inauguration of Aarhus Sports Park (Danish: "Aarhus Idrætspark"), the city of Aarhus had for a long time lacked modern sports facilities for mainly athletics. In 1914, the idea of a common sports ground in the city began inspired by stadium constructions in Copenhagen and the rest of the Nordic countries. This, however, proved difficult, in regards to agreeing to location as well as economy and scope of construction, which is why the project was abandoned for some time.
  When the director of Aarhus Oliefabrik A/S, Frederik Lausen, was elected chairman of Aarhus Gymnastikforening (AGF) in 1916, the project was resumed with new momentum. A location in the Marselisborg Forests in the area around Friheden was agreed upon, and the design was laid in the hands of engineer T. Engquist and architect Axel Høeg-Hansen. Now, a determined effort was made towards realising architectural and sporting plans in one master plan that also included the construction of Stadion Allé, a central street cutting through the borough of Frederiksbjerg and ending at the central piece of the sports park, Aarhus Stadium. The construction of the sports park was approved by the Aarhus City Council on 16 May 1918. The construction area was a gift from the city and  during the construction of the indoor arena, today known as Ceres Arena, adjacent to the stadium, the wooden arch structure from Copenhagen's second Central Station, which had been constructed in the years 1863–64 and designed by architect Johan Daniel Herholdt, was reused in this new context. The arch had become available as a new central station was being constructed in Copenhagen. To finance the sports park, the municipality contributed DKK 280,000, while the remaining DKK 380,000 was collected from private investors. Frederik Lausen, the chairman of AGF, was responsible for a large part of this private financing. The stadium was inaugurated on 5 June 1920, the Danish Constitution Day, with the participation of King Christian X of Denmark and his spouse, Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. The first international match at the stadium was marked by pouring rain, as Denmark faced Finland on 27 September 1925.
caption: Aarhus Idrætspark. June 1920. Photo: Stadsingeniørens Kontor.
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