Nicknamed Folkets Teater (en: "The People's Theater") by Jack Johnson, it has been the home ground of Odense Boldklub since the 1940s and has previously hosted select matches for FC Fyn (2011–2012), Boldklubben 1909, Boldklubben 1913 and Odense Boldklub Kvinde Elite (until 2016) during their tenures in the higher ranking leagues.
[2] In the beginning of the 1920s, Aarhus and Aalborg inaugurated their own stadiums, which increased the local discussions regarding building a stadium in Odense, but a decision could not made in the first couple of years, partly due to the huge concerns by the dominating political party in the city council, Conservative People's Party.
[26][27] The building site for the city's first stadium was placed at Kildemosen, in an area located in the western section of the workshops for Sydfyenske Railways (SFJ) and 'Sukkerkogeriet Odense'.
[2][26][27] Due to the lack of maintenance, the football pitch went into so much oblivion, that the Odense clubs decided they would rather play tournament matches on their own facilities.
[27] A memorial stone with no inscription, raised during the construction of the old stadium area, today marks the site, which has since been loaned out to KFUM's Boldklub Odense and Boldklubben Frem.
[26] The bankruptcy quickly triggered a new discussion about the construction of a new and much more comptemporary sports facility located at an alternative site, with either Kræmmerparken, Fruens Bøge, Bolbro or Kildemosevej being suggested by the politicians.
[2] The second edition of Odense Idrætspark was officially inaugurated on 17 August 1941, when the Danish athletics championships were organized at the athletics stadium and speeches were held in the presence of the mayor of Odense, Ignatius Vilhelm Werner (Social Democrats), the chairman of National Olympic Committee and Sports Confederation of Denmark, Holten Castenschiold, 7,000 spectators and transmitted to the radio by Gunnar "Nu" Hansen.
[3][25][23] Before the match, the mayor of Odense gave an inauguration speech, and the national anthem Der er et yndigt land was sung, following by giving up the ball to officially start the game, that ended with the Copenhagen team winning the match 6–2 after a quick initial 1–0 lead from the home team.
[30] In the 1990s, a decision was made by Odense Municipality to do an extensive renovation of the entire stadium at a total construction cost of DKK 60 million.
[7] The renovations, made in the years 1996–1997, consisted of expanding the stadium with four new seating grandstands that included a small number of standing areas in the corners.
[7][9] The VIP building was designed by the Danish architect Søren Vestergaard, one of the then two main shareholders of Torkild Kristensens Tegnestue A/S (TKT) and the investment of DKK 40 million was done by Odense Boldklub A/S.
[2][11][31][3][13][28] The game was won 3–2 by Esbjerg fB during which the youngest spectators had to be placed closest to the sidelines of the football field to make room for everybody.
[11][35] Approximately 40,000 spectators were present at the opening ceremony of DGI's Landsstævnet on 27 June 1985, the highest number in the history of Denmark's largest sports festival.
[44][7] The sponsor name for the stadium cannot be used when hosting FIFA and UEFA events, since these governing bodies have policies forbidding corporate sponsorship from companies that are not official tournament partners.