Uzunlar Ortak Girişimi Ali Sami Yen Spor Kompleksi (commonly known as Ali Sami Yen Stadium), branded as Rams Park for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium serving as the home ground of the Süper Lig club Galatasaray.
The Rams Park is part of the Ali Sami Yen Sports Complex, named after the club's founder.
Rams Park was the first stadium in Turkey that met the UEFA Euro 2016 requirements during the country's bid to host the European Championship.
The first initiative to acquire a plot of land for Galatasaray was in 1933, when the then president of the club Ali Haydar Barşal showed an interest in a mulberry orchard in Mecidiyeköy.
The President of the Turkish Sports Organization at the time, Adnan Menderes, provided financial assistance for the project.
In the atmosphere of war, only a small open tribune was allowed in the stadium, which was set on a field of earth and inaugurated under the presidency of Muslihittin Peykoğlu in 1945.
However, its distance from the city center in those days, its inaccessibility by public transportation, and the rough winds that characterized the district were factors that contributed to a long period in which the stadium would lay idle and football games never took place.
In 1961, during the presidency of Refik Selimoğlu, a new agreement was signed with the Physical Education General Directorate whereby the utilization rights of the newly completed stadium were explicitly given to Galatasaray.
Over the period of 2001–2002, a revision was made in the project with an eye toward reducing the amount needed for financing but this time, although costs were brought down, the economic crisis of 2001 stood in the way of overcoming the financial issue.
At the end of 2007, ten years after the initial announcement of the project in 1997, the groundbreaking for the new stadium was carried out (December 13, 2007) at a ceremony attended by state officials.
2008, In Galatasaray's last year at the Ali Sami Yen Stadium, the Lower Closed Tribune was renovated in line with UEFA standards.
2010, It was announced that the official opening of the new stadium would take place on January 15, 2011, with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan presiding.
In recent years, numerous proposals had been put forward to demolish the current stadium and build a new, larger one on the same location, but this was impossible due to the lack of space.
Among the four companies that tendered proposals, the best offer was put forward by the Eren Talu Architecture – ALKE Partnership.
The contract for the tender held for the construction of Galatasaray's new stadium was signed between TOKİ and Eren Talu-ALKE consortium on 23 October 2007.
[16] The contract of the tender was realized by TOKİ and came to be known as the "Aslantepe Tender", covering the construction of a multipurpose sports complex with 52,652 spectator capacity on Aslantepe (formerly known as Seyrantepe) premises in return for building "Urban Social Infrastructure Areas" on 34.640 sq meters of land on which the present Ali Sami Yen Stadium is located.
Stating that the stadium is to be delivered on time on 29 October 2010, Talu said, "We are casting 1,500 cubic meters of concrete every day.
Talu said the project being contemplated on the land in Mecidiyeköy in lieu of the old Ali Sami Yen Stadium will be initiated in June 2009, and added, "the mixed-use development project that we are going to build on land measuring 34,600 square meters will include apartments, a large shopping center, offices and a five-star hotel.
A total of $650 million will be invested in these two projects, and in return, we expect an income of about $1.3 billion when the Mecidiyeköy mixed-use complex is completed.
The press launch of the agreement, which took place at the newly named Ali Sami Yen Sports Complex Nef Stadium, was held with the participation of Burak Elmas, President of Galatasaray Sports Club, and Erden Timur, Chairman of Nef Board of Directors.
[42] Under the agreement signed between Galatasaray and Enerjisa on March 9, 2021, plans were set in motion to equip the Stadium's roof with solar energy panels.
The objective is to empower the stadium to generate its own energy, with Enerjisa securing the operating rights for the system over a 10-year span.
The ambitious project unfolded as 10,404 solar panels were installed on the stadium's roof, spanning an impressive area of 16,700 square meters.
This innovative initiative propelled Rams Park to claim the prestigious title of "Most Powerful Stadium Operated by Solar Energy," earning a well-deserved place in the Guinness World Records.
[43] In the summer of 2023, the GSYIAD (Galatasaray Administrators and Business People Association) lounge underwent a notable transformation, being reconfigured into 12 distinctive suites.
[40] After the completion of a new structure to house the Galatasaray TV studio above the press stand, a strategic reconfiguration took place.
Rams Park is served by a number of bus routes and the shuttle line of Metro M2, which runs from the Sanayi Mahallesi Station to Seyrantepe at the stadium.
[50][51][52] On March 12, 2019, Galatasaray and DenizBank started an important cooperation which will lay the foundation of the cash-free payment period at Ali Sami Yen Sports Complex Rams Park for the first time in Turkey.
[53] On March 18, 2011, the Rams Park recorded 131.76 decibels which was considered to be the world record for "loudest crowd roar at a sport stadium" in Guinness World Records[54][55][56] The record has since then been raised by NFL American football games starting with September 15, 2013 at CenturyLink Field in a Seattle Seahawks game that reached 136.6 decibels;[57] on October 13, 2013, at Arrowhead Stadium in a Kansas City Chiefs game that reached 137.5 dB,;[58] again at CenturyLink Field on December 2, 2013, with 137.6 decibels;[59] and most recently reclaimed by Arrowhead Stadium on September 29, 2014, in a game that reached 142.2 dB.
However, due to sponsorship contracts, the stadium was called Ali Sami Yen Arena during the World Cup.