The most famous stadiums that no longer exist

It is said that the English invented football – and, inevitably, they were among the first to define the standards of the modern ground. One name stands out in this early history: the Scottish architect Archibald Leitch, whose work between the late 19th and mid-20th centuries shaped the evolution of British sporting architecture. His designs formed the foundations of legendary venues such as Craven Cottage (Fulham), Anfield (Liverpool), Goodison Park (Everton), Molineux (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Villa Park (Aston Villa), White Hart Lane (Tottenham Hotspur), and Stamford Bridge (Chelsea), among many others.
Several of his creations, however, have been lost, including West Ham Stadium in London, demolished in 1972. With its unusual elliptical plan and running track – rare in British football – it also hosted greyhound races and speedway events. Among Leitch’s most distinctive works was the Arsenal Stadium, better known as Highbury. Built in 1913, it underwent several renovations, including the 1930s intervention that gave the East and West Stands their unmistakable Art Deco façade. When Arsenal moved to the new Emirates Stadium in 2006, Highbury was converted into Highbury Square, a residential complex with the former pitch turned into a central garden.
Protected as a listed building, the two main stands were preserved, while the beloved North Bank and Clock End are now entirely gone.

Pier Luigi Nervi was one of the foremost figures of Italy’s post-war structural modernism. His monumental works – from the Torino Esposizioni complex to the Hall of the Papal Audiences in the Vatican, and the Pirelli Tower in Milan with Gio Ponti – stand as milestones of Italian engineering and design.
Sport was another vital field of experimentation for Nervi. Among his many works are the Stadio Artemio Franchi in Florence and, with his son Antonio, the Stadio Flaminio in Rome. Inaugurated in 1959, the Flaminio could seat around 50,000 spectators and also contained four gyms, a swimming pool, bars, changing rooms, a first-aid centre, and state-of-the-art facilities. The stadium was at the heart of the cluster of buildings designed for the 1960 Rome Olympics, embodying the elegance and dynamism of the Italian modernist spirit – most strikingly in the sinuously-shaped concrete cover of its main stand. On top of hosting matches for both AS Roma and SS Lazio, it was the home of the Italian rugby national team until 2011, after which it fell into neglect and decay. In 2017, the stadium was officially listed for protection: a small but hopeful step towards the restoration it urgently needs before it becomes beyond repair.

Rembrandt, fries, coffee shops, and Johan Cruijff: that’s Amsterdam in a nutshell for the uninitiated. Since 2018, the late Dutch striker has lent his name to the city’s modern stadium, the Johan Cruijff Arena. Before its construction, Ajax played at De Meer Stadion, itself the successor to the older Het Houten Stadion, demolished in 1935. De Meer was the stage for Ajax’s golden years: the era of Cruijff, Rinus Michels, and ‘total football’, the revolutionary style of play that in the early 1970s earned the Netherlands the nickname Clockwork Orange. Closed in 1996 because its 19,600 seats no longer met the club’s ambitions, De Meer was soon demolished, becoming one of football’s most celebrated lost theatres.

The Stadio Appiani, home to Calcio Padova from 1924 to 1994, remains one of the most atmospheric venues in Italian football history. Nicknamed the lions’ den for the intensity created by its stands pressed so close to the pitch, the stadium’s character was defined by the backdrop of the Church of Misericordia’s bell tower and the adjoining monastery – a quintessentially Italian touch. In contrast stood its English-style gable roof on the main stand, later removed and now lost. The story of the Appiani – not demolished but left tragically idle – is a deeper one about the social meaning a stadium can hold for its community. The Stadio Euganeo, where Padova has played since 1994, is widely disliked by supporters, who find it soulless and detached from the club’s identity. Adding to the discontent are the continuous structural and bureaucratic mishaps – almost comically Italian in their persistence. In recent seasons, the Curva Sud has even been closed to the public following a judicial seizure linked to renovation works.

There are stadiums with greater sporting pedigree than Griffin Park, the former home of Brentford FC in west London. Yet few carried its unique charm. Known as Fortress Griffin Park for hosting the longest home winning streak in English football (21 games in the 1929–30 season), it left a mark far beyond architecture. Griffin Park also held a world record: it was the only stadium in the world with a pub on each corner – a legacy of its proximity to the Fuller’s Brewery, whose griffin symbol lent the ground its name. The stadium was demolished in 2021, only a few years after the historic brewery itself was acquired by Japan’s Asahi Group. The story of Griffin Park is, in the end, a broader reflection on how football mirrors the social and urban transformations of a city. It echoes, in some ways, the fate of another brewery-linked ground: Stadio Moretti in Udine, demolished in 1998 and named after the local beer producer. One of its final appearances lives on in Italian pop culture as a filming location for L’allenatore nel pallone (1984), a cult football comedy starring Lino Banfi.

Not all stadiums that fall into ruin are historic. Another central theme in the discourse on sports architecture is that of the so-called white elephants: buildings that are enormously expensive to build and maintain, yet remain largely unused. Some of the stadiums erected for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil are textbook examples. Among them, the Arena da Amazônia in Manaus stands out. Costing over $200 million, it now lies, little more than a decade later, in a state of abandonment and decay. One of the main reasons for its underuse is the absence of local football clubs with a fan base large enough to sustain attendance and upkeep. To offset maintenance costs, the stadium has been partially repurposed hosting wedding receptions. In its own peculiar way, a form of adaptive reuse.

Speaking of World Cups: the first goal in FIFA World Cup history was scored here, in 1930, by France’s Lucien Laurent against Mexico. The Estadio Pocitos in Montevideo, Uruguay – once home of Club Atlético Peñarol – is considered one of the most influential venues in the history of sports architecture, thanks to its elliptical stands inspired by ancient Greek theatres. Decommissioned in 1933 and demolished as early as 1940, the stadium’s fate was sealed by the high urban density of Montevideo, which made expansion impossible. This makes it an illuminating early case study of an issue that remains pressing to this day – as exemplified by the ongoing debate surrounding San Siro.