According to the book București published in 1968 by Institutul Proiect București, Complexul Sportiv August 23 was designed by the well known architect Vily Juster.

The sports complex that included Național Stadium, is named Lia Manoliu (1932–1998) after the famous Romanian athlete.

The plan calls for completion of a new five-star arena by April 2010.

The last football match played was a 6–1 win against Albania on November 21, 2007.

After the match, a few seats were removed from the stadium, as a symbolic start of the rebuilding operations.