Netanya Stadium

The Netanya Stadium (Hebrew: אצטדיון נתניה‎), commonly known as The Diamond Stadium, is a multi-use stadium in Netanya, Israel. It is used as the permanent home ground of Maccabi Netanya, and it has been used as the temporary homeground of Hapoel Hadera.

History

Financing of the stadium came from the sale of the land where the old Sar-Tov Stadium was on before being demolished to be used for a housing project.

On 30 September 2003 Minister of Internal Affairs Avraham Poraz approved the plan to build the stadium in an area called Birkat Hanoun. The plan was for a 24,000-seat stadium, consisting of four separate stands. The first two stands under construction will be the main east and west grandstands. It will house 36 private boxes, a VIP section and the press areas. This will be followed by construction of the remaining stands, along with training grounds.

Spread out over 163 dunams (16.3 hectares), the entire complex was planned to be connected by train and have a parking lot for around 1,000 cars. The architects of the stadium were from GAB (Goldschmidt Arditty Ben Nayin) Architects, one of Israel's leading sport architecture firms based in Jerusalem. Construction was managed by the Netanya Development Company, who handled planning of the project for three years before construction.

Construction began in 2005 and the stadium officially opened on October 30, 2012. The first game was played on November 4, 2012, in front of a sold-out crowd as Maccabi Netanya defeated Hapoel Tel Aviv 2–1. Netanya's Ahmad Saba'a became the first player to score a goal in the new stadium. The stadium hosted the 2012–13 Israel State Cup finals in front of 8,621 people. A week later the Youth State Cup finals were held in the stadium in front of 4,600 people.

It was one of four venues for the 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, holding three group matches and a semi-final. It was also one of four stadiums to host the 2015 UEFA European women's under-19 Football Championship and