The ground is a 'smart stadium', where fans enjoy StadiumVision and high-speed Wi-Fi technology, planned in conjunction with Cisco.
[8] Demolition works on BJK İnönü Stadium started on 2 June 2013, following the end of promotion play-offs for the TFF First League.
In 1936, French architect and city planner Henri Prost (1874–1959) was invited to Turkey by President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
The stadium was inaugurated on 19 May 1947, by İsmet İnönü, the second President of Turkey and himself a Beşiktaş fan, and Lütfi Kırdar, the Governor of Istanbul.
The tartan track was removed within the scope of these activities and the ground level was lowered by 4 metres to increase the capacity of the stadium to 32,145 spectators.
Due to the unique location of İnönü Stadium, which is considered one of the best in the world,[10] and its legal status as a "historic monument" protected by the Turkish High Council of Monuments, the renewal project had to be modified and postponed several times and all official requests, efforts, renewal attempts were denied.
Finally, in 2013, current club president Fikret Orman completed the administrative procedures after extended bureaucratic exchanges, and received all required permissions by proposing specific design goals.
The first and larger explosion took place at about 7:30 p.m. after home team Beşiktaş defeated visitors Bursaspor 2–1 in the Turkish Super League.
Officials have said that the first explosion was caused by a passing vehicle that detonated in an area where police special forces were located at the stadium exit.
Turkish officials said a person who had been stopped by police in nearby Maçka Park committed suicide by triggering explosives moments later.
On 26 May 2017, President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, announced he had instructed his minister of sports to remove the word 'arena' from all stadiums across the country due to his personal objections to the term, associating it with the original Roman meaning.
[12] Beşiktaş Stadium witnessed the first female referee in a major European men's football final match when French referee Stéphanie Frappart took charge of the UEFA Super Cup match between Liverpool FC and Chelsea FC on 14 August 2019.
Most of the proposed architectural designs for the new stadium were modern structures, with glossy external surfaces made from metal, glass or composite materials.
Since the construction site of Beşiktaş Stadium is narrow and surrounded by roads, the height of the stands decrease specifically at the corners and widen at the edges.
The height of the east stand is lower – which is another design goal imposed by the High Council so as not affect the silhouette of the Bosphorus.
The design of the majority of modern football stadiums are mostly square, rectangular with rounded corners, or circular.
The design repeats the same idea of perfect symmetry reached in 1939 by extending the main arc between the two old towers throughout the structure.
The new stadium project aimed to ensure a low environmental impact via the use of state of the art sustainable technologies.
These alternative energy sources are aimed at helping the stadium meet the criteria dictated by the Kyoto protocol by generating multiple results: All concrete and metal parts from the demolished BJK Inönü Stadium were separated and reused; other materials were divided into categories, in order to be recycled, resold, or reused.
The inner tension ring, which is made of 8 Ø110 mm full locked coil ropes with a single length of nearly 200 meters, is connected to the outer compression ring by radial cables that consist of full locked coil ropes with Ø110, Ø85, Ø65 and Ø45 mm.
[24] From the Beşiktaş district, supporters and visitors traditionally approach the stadium through the historical Dolmabahçe Street, called "Ağaçlı Yol" (the Wooded Road) in Turkish.
The tower was constructed by the famous Armenian architect Sarkis Balyan between 1890 and 1895 with the order of Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II (1842–1918).
The opening ceremony of the stadium was held on 11 April 2016,[25][26] with a Süper Lig match against Bursaspor on matchday 28.
[27] In the 22nd minute of the game, during an attack initiated by Oğuzhan Özyakup, the ball met José Sosa, who sent a fine pass behind the defense outside the penalty area.
Gómez controlled it in the penalty area, slipped away from goalkeeper Harun Tekin and scored the very first goal at Beşiktaş Stadium.
Beşiktaş Stadium is a 5-minute walk from Taksim Square, a busy transportation hub located in the heart of the Istanbul city centre.