About Emirates Stadium
The Emirates Stadium (known as Ashburton Grove prior to sponsorship) is a football stadium in Highbury, London, England. It has been the home of Arsenal Football Club since it opened in July 2006. The stadium has a seating capacity of 60,704, making it the fifth-largest football stadium in England.
It replaced Arsenal's previous home, Highbury, which had become too small for the club's ambitions. The project cost £390 million. The design is a four-tiered bowl with roofing over the stands but not the pitch. The stadium is known for its pristine playing surface, widely considered one of the best in the Premier League.
To preserve the club's history, several features were "Arsenalised" in 2009, including the "Spirit of Highbury" shrine showing every player to have played for the club at its former home. Two cannons are located outside the stadium, and the "Clock End" retains the famous clock from Highbury. It serves as a modern fortress for the Gunners in North London.
The ground was designed by HOK Sport (subsequently renamed Populous in 2009) with structural engineering by Buro Happold and was constructed by main contractor Sir Robert McAlpine between February 2004 and July 2006 under a fixed-price design-build contract worth 296 million pounds. The 6.6-hectare parcel at Hornsey Road N7 7AJ occupies the former Ashburton Grove municipal waste-transfer station, which was relocated at a cost of 21 million pounds jointly funded by Islington Council and the club under a Section 106 planning agreement signed in December 2001. Ownership of the freehold rests with Arsenal Stadium Management Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Arsenal Holdings plc since majority acquisition by Kroenke Sports & Entertainment in April 2011 (final buyout August 2018).