IF Elfsborg

Location

Borås, Sweden, Sweden

Capacity

16,899

Opened

2005

Time zone

UTC +01:00 Central European Time (CET)

The Borås Arena is a football stadium in Borås, Sweden. It is the home ground of IF Elfsborg and Norrby IF and was opened in 2005. Borås Arena has an artificial turf pitch, GreenFields MX by GreenFields, and has a capacity of 14,500–17,800 depending on usage. Both clubs presently using the stadium previously had Ryavallen as their home ground. Until recently it was the only stadium in Allsvenskan built in the last 40 years. The arena is located in Knalleland and is very close to the newly built athletics hall Ryahallen. The first game at Borås Arena was IF Elfsborg vs Örgryte IS on 17 April 2005 in the top Swedish league, Allsvenskan. The game ended in a 1-0 victory for Elfsborg, Daniel Mobaeck scoring the goal. The current record attendance is 17,070 and was set 4 July 2005 in a game between IF Elfsborg and Kalmar FF which marked the return of both Anders Svensson and Mathias Svensson. The stadium was originally scheduled to be a tournament site for the 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, but a sponsorship conflict with Max fast food chain's location at the stadium and official UEFA sponsor McDonald's, plus a contractual requirement for official sponsors to have a monopoly over the stadium's area, and a refusal to close the restaurant led to it losing its status as a site for the tournament. Borås Arena didn't only open a new era for IF Elfsborg but also for other clubs in Allsvenskan, Elfsborg was the first club to build a new arena owned by their investment company. Many other clubs have built new arenas copying the model Elfsborg set up, trying to own their arena which gives big economic resources.