Amsterdam ArenA

Tout juste sorti de l’Amsterdam Music Festival qui se tenait dans l’enceinte de cet énorme stade en pleine ville, nous avons été impressionné par la taille du monument qui est posé en pleine ville, à 2 pas d’un énorme complexe commercial.
Nous utilisons une dizaine d’entrées différentes pour accéder à la scèné ce qui permettait un flux plutôt lisse des festivaliers dans les coursives de l’Arena.
L’intérieur est immense, nous étions (octobre oblige) avec le toit fermé mais malgré les 30 000 personnes, nous n’avions pas chaud du tout.
On regrettera la sécurité un peu trop tatillonne pour un festival de musique électronique (2 sociétés de sécurité différentes pour 2 lois différentes)

I came here for Amsterdam Music Festival. I got the VIP weekend tickets so it came with a free locker for me to store my stuff. The lounges were also pretty clean and nice to seat down in when my feet got tired.
–Convenient to the train station
–You can buy an Arena Card to put money on in order to purchase drinks and food
–DELICIOUS fries (get the mayo stuff)
–AMAZING LIGHTS
–Spacious seating
–Clean Bathrooms
–Clean Lockers
Everything was also super organized compared to festivals in the U.S.A.

This is a great stadium for games. There isn’t a bad seat in the house, especially if Ajax is playing! You can take a tour of the place, which is worthy for any football fan. It’s great to see where they do the post-​game rationalizations, the tunnel to the pitch, and of course, the pitch itself.

I got the pleasure of going to my first Euro football. It was an experience like no other! The whole adventure is just insane.
It starts with trains from all directions packed with hooligans heading to the same destination. You step out, go down the escalator, and you’re instantly in a sea of fans walking toward a large open area in front of the stadium entrance. There are bars serving up cheap beers to enjoy before heading inside.
Inside is a giant, open air arena with 50,000+ seats that were all filled by the time the game started. There’s a great energy that’s hard to describe about this place. The best part was when the entire stadium was singing Marley.

Well if you are a soccer fan you need to attend a match in this stadion, the only disadvantage is that they have there own payment system using arena cards. You always leave money on it and you need to purchase an extra card to clear the other one.

I can only speak for ArenA as a music venue and I prey that future concerts are held in the Ziggo Dome.
First off, the positive. It’s big? I guess that’s the only positive I can think of. If huge acts come to Amsterdam and they need explosions on stage, this is the only place besides a festival. Another positive is the staff was quite good at checking tickets and bags quickly to get people in.
For the negative. In order to eat or drink anything, you need to buy a card. This card is 5 – 50 € depending on how much you want to spend. We opted for the 20 € just wanting a few beers each. Then we found that the beers were priced at 5.50 €, meaning you could not order four as you were two euro short. It is not allowed to «top up» your card with extra change or turn it in for a refund. So essentially you are stuck with this card containing 2 €. Smaller beer? 2.50 €. Patats? 2.95 €. Anyway won’t be returning unless it’s a band I «have» to see.

The first time I went to Ajax stadium is when I saw my first soccer game in Amsterdam between America and Holland. It was an awesome experience! I went with about more then 100 American supporters from Amsterdam University to show some love for America. Unfortunately, we lost the game to Holland but of course we still rocked and the experience was awesome!
I got a kick out of watching Dutch soccer fans because they go to great length to show their love for Holland. Fans were pouring in with a stream of orange. It was a large number of Dutch fans painted in bright orange. Many painted their faces orange too. I was blown away by the bright orange glow in the stands. I must say Dutch fans out-​shined their rival from head to toe when it came to team spirit. Next to Queen’s day, I never saw so much orange in my life. Orange wigs, orange hats, orange farmer suits, orange soccer jerseys and they even rock the orange crown.

I’ve had football stadium tours at Man UTD and Real Madrid but theres something special about the AJAX tour. Their history is amazing, the tour uncovers just how many great players have played here.
I had this tour back in 2004, we were lucky to see the AJAX footballers training, after their training we were casually speaking with Van der vaart, snider and a croation footballer (can’t remember his name). The players are all down to earth. My friend for what ever reason kissed Van der Vaart’s left boot which came as a surprise to the players around with laughter, well van der vaart was shocked and embarrassed! still have that picture! (If your an ajax /​tottenham player then message me if you want to see that pic, its hilarious!)
It’s worth checking out this tour but try to plan so you can also see the players training.