Estádio José Alvalade

The previous José Alvalade Stadium was opened on 10 June 1956.^[2] Plans by Sporting CP to modernize the club in the late 1990s coincided with the decision to award Portugal the right to host UEFA Euro 2004, and the decision was made to build a new stadium, with construction beginning on 15 January 2001. The club's statutes dictated that the stadium would be called Estádio José Alvalade. It would be the club's seventh stadium.^[3][4]

The stadium is the center of a complex called Alvalade XXI, designed by Portuguese architect Tomás Taveira,^[5][6][7] which includes a mall called Alvaláxia with a 12-screen movie theater, a health club, the club's museum, a sports pavilion, a clinic, and an office building. The complex cost a total of €162 million, with the stadium accounting with almost €120 million. On the exterior, the stadium featured multicoloured tiles which were later removed. In 2021, Sporting CP, headed by club president Frederico Varandas, announced that it would change the colour of the seats in the multicoloured stands of Estádio José Alvalade to green (the main colour of the sports club). The colour change was completed in 2022.^[8] Originally the seats were arranged in a random-looking mosaic of mixed colours, however during its second decade of use these were all gradually changed to dark green, with the roof support towers and access stairways, initially bright yellow, also repainted green.^[9]

Although it eventually received a fifth star becoming a UEFA 5-star stadium, it was initially classified by UEFA as a 4-star stadium.^[10] The stadium – originally projected to hold only 40,000 spectators at any given time – has a capacity of 50,095^[11] and was acoustically engineered as a venue for major concerts. The stadium has also a total of 1,315 underground parking spaces, including 30 for disabled spectators.

The new stadium official opening was on 6 August 2003 when Sporting played and beat Manchester United 3–1. Luís Filipe scored the first-ever goal at the new Estádio José Alvalade in that friendly win against Manchester United playing alongside Sporting Portugal's teammate Cristiano Ronaldo, then aged 18, who made his last appearance^[12] for the Portuguese club on that same day.^[13][14]

The stadium hosted five matches of UEFA Euro 2004, one of them being the semi-final between Portugal and the Netherlands, which Portugal won 2–1. In May 2005, the stadium was upgraded to 5-star stadium status by UEFA, the same month it hosted the 2005 UEFA Cup Final between Sporting and CSKA Moscow, which CSKA Moscow won 3–1.^[15]

It hosted quarter-finals and semi-finals matches during the 2019–20 UEFA Champions League.^[16] The stadium is one of the potential venues for the 2030 FIFA World Cup which Portugal will co-host along with Morocco and Spain.

First match

Team #1		Score		Team #2	Date
Sporting CP		3–1		Manchester United	6 August 2003

2005 UEFA Cup Final

Team #1		Score		Team #2	Date	Attendance
Sporting CP		1–3		CSKA Moscow	18 May 2005	47,085

• Disabled Seats – 50
• Skybox Seats – 1,542
• VIP and Business Seats – 1,968
• Tribune Seats – 100
• Public Seats (Level A) – 24,261
• Public Seats (Level B) – 21,970
• Press Seats – 204

The Stadium is served by the Campo Grande station^[17] of the Lisbon Metro and a bus terminal served by several companies. The Segunda Circular, a major ring road of Lisbon, runs close by and the stadium can be reached via the exit Estádio de Alvalade. There are several car parks around the stadium.

It is a relatively short distance (3 km) from the Estádio da Luz, homeground of rivals S.L. Benfica.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Estádio Alvalade XXI.

• Sporting Club web site