Norwegian Eliteserien football club Bodø/Glimt has outlined plans for a new multi-purpose home that it hopes will become the world’s most sustainable stadium.
The Bodø-based club has said it is now time to “take the next step” by moving from Aspmyra Stadion, which first opened in 1966. While its current stadium has a capacity of around 8,000, the new venue will be able to welcome up to 10,000 fans and be suitable to host matches in UEFA and FIFA-sanctioned competitions.
Along with football, Bodø/Glimt is planning that the new stadium will cater to a host of other activities, with a fitness centre included along with other facilities for tennis, padel, gymnastics, handball, an ice rink, running track, sports retail, esports facilities, a playground, kindergarten, care home, offices, meeting and conference rooms, urban agriculture, a brewery and dining facilities.
The club said it also wants to include beach volleyball, indoor cycling and squash courts in the facility. “We have always said that we want to create a large living room for the population in Bodø and Nordland,” general manager of Bodø/Glimt, Frode Thomassen, told Norwegian broadcaster NRK.
“We want there to be a meeting place where there will be continuous activity throughout the day. We see a project that is feasible also in an economic context. We are now working with operating models, investors and tenants. Our primary interest is what we need. That is what we intend to own.”
Bodø/Glimt has spelled out how it hopes to build a stadium that is sustainable both socially, economically and in terms of climate and energy. The ambition is to achieve a circular economy operation through waste and heat recovery.
The club is aiming to secure the highest possible certification through BREEAM, the world’s leading science-based suite of validation and certification systems for sustainable built environment. It hopes that the stadium can be the world’s most sustainable through four additional concepts.
Bodø/Glimt wants to reduce the amount of material and CO2 in the load-bearing structures, along with using concrete that helps the climate and consists of less CO2. In addition, the club is looking at concepts for greatly reduced energy use and supply, and reuse of building and interior materials.
Bodø/Glimt is planning, among other things, a pyrolysis plant that will create energy for the stadium. In addition, the club will import and burn sewage sludge from the municipality’s facilities in an effort to become energy self-sufficient.
The club is seeking that the project be a hub for urban agriculture and install solar cells in the building. It states that solar cells at the stadium can potentially produce 25,000 kWh of energy per year.
In the immediate future, the city council in Bodø Municipality will tomorrow (Thursday) vote on the local part of the municipal plan, after which the club will know if we can continue work at its intended site at Thalleveikåkeren.
Commenting on the potential timeline for the stadium, Thomassen added: “Start of construction depends on the projects we go into. If everything works out, we can be up and running in half a year. The hope is to finish the main stadium in the autumn of 2024 or the spring of 2025.”
Images: Bodø/Glimt
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