Intility Arena

Intility Arena, also referred to as Valerenga Stadion, is an association football stadium in Oslo, Norway. The stadium is the home stadium for the Valerenga Fotball, currently playing in the Eliteserien, and it has a seating capacity of 16,555 people.

The stadium plans were accepted by the city council of Oslo in 2014 and by EEA in June 2015. Construction started in August 2015, and the stadium opened in September 2017. The stadium was initially called Valerenga kultur- og idrettspark.

History

Early grounds

From the 1960s till the 1980s and a short period in the end of the 1990s Bislett Stadion was Valerenga's home ground. Bislet Stadion also hosted speed skating and track and field events in addition to football, and hosted the 1952 Winter Olympics. Poor conditions and maintenance of Bislett forced Valerenga to move to Ullevaal and a groundshare with FK Lyn.

Planning

After Valerenga moved from Bislett Stadion plans for building their own ground were conceived, but poor results on the field combined with financial problems kept those plans at bay for a few years. After the second place in 2004 and the league title in 2005 as well as business man John Fredriksen's deletion of the club's debt in 2003, the talks of building a ground for Valerenga resurfaced.

Following a press statement made on 15 May 2008, Valerenga announced that they will be moving home to Valle Hovin after purchasing the area of the proposed stadium for the symbolic sum of 1 Norwegian Krone. In late 2014, the plans were accepted by the city council of Oslo. On 10 June 2014, the European Free Trade Association Surveillance Authority accepted the plans for the stadium.

Construction and opening

The foundation stone of the new stadium was laid on 29 July 2015, the club's 102nd anniversary. Construction started in the summer of 2015.

The first game at the stadium was played on 9 September 2017 and was a women's Toppserien game Vale