World's 7 BIGGEST Lower League Football Stadiums 

The Bari stadium has an athletics track, but still they decided the fans weren’t far away enough from the pitch, so built the stands at a considerable distance from even just the outer edge of the athletics track

Mané Garrincha has hosted some Serie A matches, mostly regional derbies involving clubs from Rio in the last few years for numerous reasons. In 2022, due to some repairs at Maracanã, Flamengo moved 3 matches to the capital stadium. It also became a sort of backup stadium for all top flight Rio clubs as it's the closest venue outside the city with such a large capacity available nearly all year long and they're pretty much the only teams that can draw crowds to fill most of the seats

In Portugal we have the Estádio Dr. Magalhães Pessoa, built for the Euro 2004 in the city of Leiria (60 876 inhabitants), with a capacity of 24 000 people and an athletics track. The stadium's owner is the Leiria municipal council and the club playing there is União Desportiva de Leiria, currently playing in the 3rd division, but they used to play in the Primeira Liga some years ago before getting relegated. Fun fact: União Desportiva de Leiria was the club were Mourinho was after being sacked by Benfica and before being hired by FC Porto and winning the 2003 UEFA cup.

11:17 The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California near Los Angeles is a single tier bowl stadium holding 90,000. The beautiful venue hosted the 1994 World Cup final and was the original home of LA Galaxy. The seating tier is on a gentle slope and yes, a seat at the top of the bowl is an incredible distance from the playing surface.

Santa Cruz fan here, really glad to see my team in a international channel. We were playing in the top flight in 2016 but since then we got into financial problems and now we are here in the last national tier. Hope the future is bright for us, great video 🙏💪

a documentary on the afc Wimbledon on the nine promotions in eleven years, how they’re a fan own club and how they have a stadium in plough lane now. The story of they lost the club, how the F A allowed that and won’t allow that anymore. How they were very close to moving to ireland How they went up the English football leagues. It would be a good documentary video if you can do this. #thepeopleschannel

Regarding Estádio do Arruda (Santa Cruz FC), in addition to the D series, the team competes in the Pernambuco (state) championship against the great rivals Náutico and Sport, relegated last year to series C (third has) and in series B (second has) respectively. Brasilia is a strange city, created in 1960 in the middle of nowhere, in an attempt to internalize the Brazilian occupation, has its population coming mainly from the Northeast and Southeast of Brazil, which is represented by the fans. Flamengo, Vasco and Corinthians played a few times, filling the venue. I would say that the biggest absurd among Brazilian stadiums is in the North Region, where Manaus (Amazonas State Capital) received a new stadium despite the biggest football center being Belém (Pará State Capital), which has two teams that are in lower divisions, Paysandu and Remo, but in the local Derby they place (Re-Pa) more than 40 thousand people to watch.

I always get quite happy with Alfie's pronunciation of Brazilian Portuguese. Sure it's not perfect, but some Europeans don't even try to say things the correct way, or just butch it and say "I don't speak Spanish" (which is a wild statement in itself). Thanks as always, Alfie!

Great video as always!!! I watched it 15 Times already

Bari stadium also hosted 1991 European Cup final between Red Star Belgrade and Olympique Marseille and definitely has a special place in hearts of many Red star fans including me. I really appreciate and love your work and humour and just keep up the good work

USL side Indy Eleven host their games in Lucas Oil Stadium, a 67,000 capacity stadium while I was living in the city of Indianapolis, Indiana (sharing their pitch with an American football side). They've been trying to build something more fitting for a second division side (even as they were trying to get/buy into the first division), but the city have been getting in the way for years.

I live in Alicante, and our team, Hércules CF, plays in a 30.000+ capacity stadium while being in the fourth division, and for a moment this season we were almost getting relegated to the fifth

Loved this video! I know you spent a lot talking about the San Nicola, but I think mentioning that it hosted the 1991 European Cup final would've added to the ridiculousness of that stadium's history

I'm from Recife, Pernambuco. Santa Cruz FC's home city. Although i am a Sport Recife (the biggest and most successful team in Pernambuco and in the whole north-northeast regions of Brazil) fan, i can give more depth into Santinha's current situation. Santa Cruz has been relegated two separate times to the Série D. On the first one, in 2011 (they were struggling in the 4th division for about 3 years) they got promoted and after some more promotions, they were in 2016's brazilian Série A. But then, they got relegated. In 2018 they were already at the 3rd division, and in 2021, they got relegated to the 4th division for a second time. But even then, they always fill up the stands when it's a game against it's rivals (Sport Recife and Náutico) in the Campeonato Pernambucano (a state pre-season tournament) and in the Copa do Nordeste, or when it's a important game in the 4th division. Even though i am a fan of a rival of them, i want them to get promoted, it isn't even fun making fun of them, it's like kicking a dead horse. If everything goes right this year, Sport will be in Série A in 2024, Náutico in Série B and Santa in C.

Oh shit, Bari made it to an HITC 7 vid

Love from Kerala, India. Hitc❤️

Man, King Abdullah stadium (the stadium that is mentioned when he excluded stadiums with multiple occupants) was the first stadium that came to my mind and you shot that down quickly 😂

For the Chinese stadium, i think it also is important that a lot of chinese team don't own their stadium, but instead they are government properties. And they might also host other competition such as the national games or just province-level games, (and concerts and other non-sports events of course)

I want to see Neverton join this list

Wow! I'm Sheffield Wednesday fan and I thought Hillsborough might make this list. I didn't realise just how big The Stadium of Light is and it's astonishing that that one doesn't even make the list!

Gokulam Kerala Women play in the IWL, the top tier of women's football in India

China is filled with gigantic white elephant stadiums. I went to several games in several different stadium while living there and I can attest that 1. They are all absolutely gigantic and 2. They are never more than 30% full. A clear symbol of the gigantomania of authoritarian states.

so excited and happy to see ISL featuring on the world-famous HITC Sevens channel😃

My local Club in Arkansas. Little Rock Rangers a USL2 (3rd Tier) plays in 54,120 War Memorial Stadium.

Malmö stadion has 26 500 which is home of IFK Malmö which plays in the division 2 västra götaland which is the 4:th teir of swedish football/soccer. Malmö FF who plays in allsvenskan which is swedish soccer/football top teir plays on the smaller Eleda stadion which has capacity of just 22 500. These stadiums are extremely close to each other.

Lol at Alfie pronouncing Kerala as Karala, he tried his best though.

And I thought MK Dons stadium was way too big for its league… these are way worse

This is a really interesting topic, especially when you consider there are teams like Fatih Karagumruk who play in the Turkish Super Lig in a 75000 seater stadium, but got 700 spectators last week. Does anyone know the reason for this?

11:21 American college football teams have a number of massive single bowl stadiums; the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum used to hold over 90,000 before it was reduced to 77,000, the Rose Bowl (home of the 1994 World Cup final and former home of LA Galaxy) holds 92,000, and Michigan Stadium holds up to 115,000 (109,000 for Real Madrid and Manchester United). There are also a handful of other single bowl stadiums that seat between 60,000 and 80,000, and all but one or two of them were built before the Great Depression.

Oooo, every time Genoa is mentioned I get a shiver. We lost the Anglo Italian cup final to them back in '96 lol

As far as I can tell, The Arruda is the largest that is owned by the club who plays there. The others are publicly owned. With regards to Brasilia, it seems to happen quite a lot that when other teams get stadium bans, their home games conveniently get moved to Brasilia. I remember Flamengo having some ‘home’ games there that attracted sell out crowds, so it has hosted top flight football just not involving local teams. Brasiliense has been in the top flight although I think it was before the stadium got built.

Would also be interesting to see the 7 most empty stadiums in the world (lowest average % filled). It may take a lot more research though, so may be more possible if only including professional european stadiums

Always wanted to visit the Stadio San Nicola. I think back then World Cups were meant to cover the whole nation, with Bari representing the east of Italy, rather than having all the stadia in the big cities Turin, Milan, Rome, Naples etc. I seem to remember England's group playing in Sicily and Sardinia. Another absurdity is Stadio delle Alpi, designed for Italia 90, only lasted 26 years before being demolished for a new stadium with capacity for 28k less fans

I wrote an entire academic thesis about Brasília National Stadium to graduate in University of Brasília. It's not a white elephant, it's used as a festival ground and is profitable. Also it has a gastronomic complex and lot of party isles in the outside of the stadium, and in the parking (it's an enormous parking and they make concerts there). It exists a lot of wrong information about that, even to Brazilian people in general. And Brasilia is the 3rd biggest city in the country, the capital and richest city per capita, so a lot of people will always go there every time something good is available to do in the stadium.

Santa Cruz fan here. Santa Cruz, yet playing in the 4th tier of brazilian football, they still managed to achieve one of the best attendance average in their home games in all the four tiers last year. Not only that, but they also have the 20th biggest number of fans in Brazil, counting with 1kk+ fans or so; numbers bigger than several first and second tier teams

An addition. Brasilia's Stadium does receive important club games sometimes. it hosts some important games from Serie A teams at times, usually smaller clubs tend to sell their field assignments to Brasília because the stadium is so big and has no fixed use. in addition, the final of the "Supercopa do Brasil" is usually hosted there. and some Serie A teams usually play there when their stadiums or where they play are closed for some time. like the case of Flamengo

Choctaw Stadium in Arlington, TX is an interesting one in the United States. Capacity is slightly over 48,000 and it hosts MLS Next Pro side North Texas SC. It used to be the home of Major League Baseball's Texas Rangers from 1994-2019 before they moved to Globe Life Field in 2020. The stadium also hosts the XFL's Dallas/Arlington Renegades and Major League Rugby's Dallas Jackals.

Large stadiums built in countries where the gdp per capita is not that high, tells you something about politics/corruption, rather than football.

From 2018 to 2020, Indy Eleven of the USL Championship played at Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Indianapolis Colts NFL team. 67,000 is the capacity there.

11:17 The Rose Bowl is a 92k+ capacity single tier bowl stadium. Its debatable if Europeans would call it a football stadium but it did host the 1994 World Cup Final, was home to the LA Galaxy for about 7 years, and regularly hosts friendlies in the summer for both clubs and National Teams.

The Garrincha stadium looks absolutely amazing. Really sad that it's not being used what it was built for after the world cup.

How about 7 national stadiums that host very small cubs

The viewers who go digging into the "Trigger's broom" reference are in for a treat!! Tbf you did have a picture, Alfie, so what more proof could we want 🤣

Love a video about the Save Tolka Park campaign by Shelbourne fans. Dublin City Council (DCC) came up with a plan to redevelop Dalymount Park (Bohemians home) and sell off Tolka Park to developers to fund it. The new Dalymount would be the home for both Shelbourne and Bohemians. This went down like a lead balloon with Shelbourne fans that lead to upheaval against their own board for agreeing to the proposal. Many parallels were drawn to the KRAM campaign (Keep Rovers At Milltown) by Shamrock Rovers fans when Glenmalure Park was sold to property developers. Rovers ended up jumping from home ground to home ground for 22 years before (after a legal battle with the GAA, I could go on all day about how they try to fuck up football in Ireland) settling in Tallaght Stadium in south west Dublin. Eventually a new Shelbourne board backed out of the deal and with some outside investment, bought Tolka Park from DCC. The latest strategic plan from DCC showed Tolka as being kept for sporting and recreational purposes. The Shelbourne womens team (current champions) had a big part to play in the campaign since many Ireland internationals and Heather O'Reilly, US WNT legend, backed the campaign. Thankfully Tolka Park has been saved and a redevelopment plan will slowly improve different parts of the ground.

i worked in the Hefei stadium for a few years, there isn't really football there sure, but it gets a lot of usage for music concerts and there are offices and schools and things inside

Thank you for mentioning Kerala

Can always rely on Alfie for well presented uploads, informative with good humour

11:17 The largest single tier stadium that I am aware of currently in the world, in terms of seating capacity, is Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It is home to the University of Michigan (American) football team and, to my knowledge, has never hosted a major soccer match. The venue seats just over 109,000 and is regularly filled to capacity for Michigan Wolverine home games. That is only somewhat less impressive when you consider the team has, at most, eight home games a season.

As someone who's home team is in fact Gokulam Kerala FC, I can confirm you mispronounced every single name in that part of the video.

never forget the European Cup final in 1991 which was played in Bari. Red Star forever

Some of these modern stadia are works of art. 👍

Queen's Park playing at Hampden Park for a century was remarkable.

The largest stadium in the world is in Chile, in the town of El Salvador at 2,800 meters above sea level, it had capacity for 20,000 people, now it has been 10,000, but the mining camp has 5,000 inhabitants, it belongs to Club Cobresal

Just a correction about the thumbnail: Brazil doesn't have a 5th Division. The lower tier is the 4th Division, Série D. To qualify to it, you must do well in state championships.

Bramley Moore Dock will have a capacity of 52,888 so it might be on this list once it's completed

Remember Queens Park playing at Hampden which at one point held 100,000+ in front of 200 people.

There is a club in the second division of Colombia called Cúcuta Deportivo who play their home matches at a 43000 seater stadium. Seems unusual but it was quite a popular club in its heyday.

I still believe "7 clubs who need smaller stadia" would be a great video idea. New England Revolution & New York City FC would be ideal candidates.

Until recently, Sunderland could have been there. The Stadium of Light can seat almost 50,000 people, that is more than several stadia of League One (the league they played in until recently) teams combined.

I wouldn't reduce Kerala as just a state though since they have their own native language and writing system which is different than the majority of the nation and Kerala is about the size of netherlands while having twice it's population. I look at Indian states like the countries in Europe and India like as if its a continent like Europe.

The Rose Bowl, home of the 1994 World Cup Final is a single tier bowl holding 91,000. U of Michigan, which hosted a friendly (Barca v ManU? I forget) that set the USA soccer attendance record, is a 100,000+ seat bowl, although it now has luxury boxes, but not a proper 2nd tier.

You know it’s a top tier video when HSV is being mentioned despite not even being featured on the list

For ages Queens Park, an amateur team, owned and played at Hampden. Only moved out the last couple years, selling it to the scottish football association and redeveloping Lesser Hampden right beside it

Can you revisit your video ranking best/worst run PL clubs? Or make a updated version?

You should make a 7 best post fergie man united signing

I really liked the architecture of the Kerala stadium tbf! There's too much steel and glass around.

You seriously tied in Triggers Broom!! You are a genius mate!😂

The last one seems to be on the lower end of the capacity range given, but at least it's being put to use with those shops

Do Queens Park still play at Hampden ?

Having played a lot of Football Manager, one of the hardest parts of being a small club that gets promoted to the big boys league is your stadium being half the size of everyone else's and thus you can't generate match-day revenues like they can. Having a huge stadium in a lower league, if you can still mostly fill it, must be a huge financial advantage, or if you can't fill it, a huge financial weight around your neck.

Santa Cruz of Recife in Brazil. Plays in Serie D and home stadium has a capacity of 60000

I just realized that there are 2 clubs from our country that will play at Liga 2, which is a lower division of the Indonesian football behind Liga 1 and are currently abandoned after the official statement by PSSI due to the Kanjuruhan tragedy. To the surprise, Persipura Jayapura and Sriwijaya FC Palembang both had their home grounds with a big capacity. Persipura played in the new Lukas Enembe Stadium, which is a main venue for the 2020 Indonesian Olympic (Pekan Olahraga Nasional). The Papua club had officially appointed this as a replacement to old Mandala Stadium before they suffered a shock relegation at the end of 2021-22 Liga 1 season, which was played in centralized venue and behind closed doors due to the pandemic. Sriwijaya had played at Jakabaring Stadium, which is the venue for 2018 Asian Games and the upcoming U-20 World Cup this year.

Great work. But the picture of the stadium you showed as the home ground of Kerala Blasters is the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi. No blame attached to you, as there are as many as 4 stadiums in Margao (Goa) ― which is also called Fatorda Stadium locally, New Delhi, Kochi (Kerala), and Chennai (Tamil Nadu) also called Marina Arena with the same name. All four of them have been, and 3 are currently, homes of Top flight clubs in India. The one in New Delhi used to be the home of dissolved Club Delhi Dynamos! If you're confused, don't worry, even we are in India😢

Day 380: Indonesia XI If All Eligible Players Had Declared For Them.

I know this is completely and utterly random but I would so love to see a vid of The Sampdoria Golden age(Late 80s/Early 90s). Especially the British players who went there E.g Souness, Platt just to name the obvious ones. Thanks in advance if you do make it.

A documentary on Mitrovic would be good, and how particularly Parker nearly ruined his career in that year in the Prem, but he Bounced Back etc.

Some people talk about the Ship of Theseus but I like to talk about the Mané Garrincha.

The Munich clubs actually moved into the Allianz Arena in 2005 :)

I miss Great Strahov Stadium on here. Capacity 250 000 (second largest sports venue ever built). It's in such a bad state it would probably collapse though lol. It is home stadium for Sparta Prague B team (they play 2nd level of football in the country). I think it would be eligible.

Karabukspor has a stadium with the capacity being higher than some of the PL teams while playing in the amateur divisions

On a ratio of stadium size to how far down the leagues the occupants are, The DCBL or The Halton Stadium always comes to mind, not massive at a 13,350 capacity, it is the home to Widnes FC in the 8th tier of English football, and they're currently bottom of that division. My understanding is the council own the stadium and it was built for the Widnes Vikings, a once top flight rugby league team, as Widnes ultimately is a rugby league town

Just a small add-on to the Mane Garrincha part. Gama and Brasiliense, are the biggest clubs in Brasília, but they play their home games in their own cities. Gama has Bezerrao and Brasiliense has Serejao. They only use it for neutral ground finals or something. I'm a Gama supporter and we hate to play at Mant Garrincha.

I would love to have lunch while watching this

Bramley-moore dock

in my country (Poland) Lechia Gdańsk will relegate after this season so they count and they have one of the most beautyful stadions in country (plus arena builded for Euro 12) 41620 people capacity

For 11:14 the Rose Bowl in LA is another example of that type of stadium.

My state of kerala has finally showed up in an HITC sevens video ❤️❤️ Put more effort into pronouncing names correctly tho, you completely slaughtered all the names in the EMS stadium segment

It should be noted that there is, or at least until last season, no relegation from K-League 2. There is only promotion to the first division

I loved the john stones pun keep doing it

Greetings from Brasília.

Bari hosted the European Cup final in the 90s

up until recently Queens Park playing at Hampdon Park when they used be in fourth tier of scotland would of been a big addition to this video

The last game played in old wembley was 0:1 against germany. Now you have it!

The MLS still has a handful of teams playing at American football stadiums that are far too big for them. I did an FM save with Charlotte FC who ground share with Carolina Panthers at the 75k Bank of America Stadium, they were barely filling a quarter of it. Can't imagine the turnout being to dissimilar irl

11:18 The Big House, Michigan University stadium is an american football stadium and has a single tier and is the 3rd largest stadium in the world and the largest outside of asia

Congratulations for your videos. Can you make a video about panathinaikos?

I didn't expect to see the stadium 4km away from my home at the end of the video😂😂 that was quite a shock. Everyone calls it Calicut corporation stadium even though the actual name is EMS or something. It's a terribly maintained stadium which doesn't see much action. Probably because it's located at dead center of the city without enough parking spaces. I don't think even many keralites today know this, in its golden days, Calicut stadium hosted Nehru international cup in 1987 which included Soviet union, Denmark, China, Bulgaria, East Germany, Nigeria and Syria 😀

It's kinda funny that Bari's stadium is called the St. Nicholas Stadium and their colors are red and white like Christmas...

Bari’s stadium looking like that from the outside and being so far from the city centre makes it feel like an American stadium

YOOOOOOOOOO KERALA MENTIONED