| The Stade Vélodrome (French pronunciation: ), known for sponsorship reasons as the Orange Vélodrome since June 2016, is a multi-purpose stadium in Marseille, France. It is home to the Olympique de Marseille football club of Ligue 1 since it opened in 1937, and has been a venue in the 1938 and 1998 FIFA World Cups; the 1960, 1984 and 2016 editions of the UEFA European Championship; and the 2007 and 2023 Rugby World Cup, and football at the 2024 Summer Olympics. It occasionally hosts RC Toulon rugby club of the Top 14. It is the second largest stadium in France, behind Stade de France in Saint-Denis (Paris), with a capacity of 67,394 spectators. The stadium is also used regularly by the France national rugby union team.
The record attendance for a club game before renovation at the Stade Vélodrome was 58,897 in a UEFA Cup semi-final against Newcastle United in 2004. Since expansion to 67,394, the record attendance at the ground now stands at 65,894 for the match against rivals Paris Saint-Germain that occurred on 26 February 2023. The first-ever match to be played was between Marseille and Torino in 1937.
The French rugby union team began an impressive run of victories at the stadium in the early 2000s. They defeated New Zealand 42–33 in November 2000, and in 2001 defeated Australia by one point. Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License - Full article |
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