Netherlands professional footballer Eponyms and public art Family Related The Johan Cruyff Arena (Dutch: Johan Cruijff Arena [ˈjoːɦɑŋ ˈkrœyf aːˌreːnaː]; officially stylised as Johan Cruijff ArenA) is the main stadium of the Dutch capital city of Amsterdam and the home stadium of football club AFC Ajax since its opening.

Both international and Dutch artists have given concerts in the stadium, including Tina Turner, Coldplay, U2, Take That, Celine Dion, Madonna, Michael Jackson, André Hazes, David Bowie, AC/DC, Justin Timberlake, One Direction, the Rolling Stones, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Armin van Buuren.

[7] Indeed, from the 1930s onward, Ajax had played most of their European fixtures and midweek night games at Olympisch Stadion.

In 1992, the Government of Amsterdam authorised the plans for the stadium with a Transferium where people could transfer from their car to various forms of public transportation.

In 1993, the Government of Amsterdam changed the development plan of the location and gave a permit to build the stadium.

Trijntje Oosterhuis sang the hymn "De Zee", composed for the opening ceremony by John Ewbank.

[citation needed] Tina Turner opened the stadium with three concerts with 160,000 people, from her world breaking Wildest Dreams Tour.

The construction of the stadium cost an equivalent of €140 million[3] (at the time, the currency of the Netherlands was the Dutch guilder).

This caused some problems in the beginning: the turf's grass would not grow in the shade of the open roof and had to be replaced up to four times a year.

[14][15] However, this was postponed as that date proved to be infeasible due to the many matters that needed to be settled, such as arranging compensation for possible loss of income, transferring part of the shares from the municipality of Amsterdam to Ajax and having a discussion with the Cruyff family.

[3] The Johan Cruyff Arena is one of two stadiums in the Netherlands that is rated as Category 4 by UEFA, the other being the Feijenoord Stadion in Rotterdam.

The 1998 UEFA Champions League Final when Real Madrid defeated Juventus by 1–0 due to a goal by Predrag Mijatović, was played in the stadium.

[8] World Bowl IX was played at the Arena in 2001, when the Berlin Thunder defeated the Barcelona Dragons.

As kickboxing is a popular combat sport in the Netherlands, the It's Showtime and K-1 promotions have held a number of fight cards at the arena.

Many of the sport's biggest stars such as Peter Aerts, Semmy Schilt, Badr Hari and Ernesto Hoost have fought there.

The arena was listed as a potential venue in Amsterdam's bid to host the 65th Eurovision Song Contest.

However, the city later withdrew its bid due to venues, including the Johan Cruyff Arena, being fully booked.