Stadiums are an immensely important part of any football club’s fabric. So often, it is the home crowd that pushes teams through their toughest games, an immense source of noise and inspiration for those that they support and with any luck, they create an atmosphere that intimidates the opponents.
The last two decades or so have seen many teams move into a new stadium, with many doing so to accommodate more fans per game. This has been evident in English football, for example, with Arsenal, Manchester City, West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur all having moved to newer, larger grounds in the 21st century, often from a smaller ground that felt like it had a livelier atmosphere due to its smaller size.
Many stadiums, at the time of writing, are currently being built with the aim of being finished within the next five years or so, across a multitude of sports. So, just which seven stadiums for the future are currently being developed?
Ranking Factors
This list has been ranked solely on the capacity of each stadium, from lowest to highest.
7 New Sports Stadiums Currently Being Built
Rank
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
7 Everton Stadium
52,888 seats
Wide shot from the side of Everton's new stadium.
Located on Liverpool’s Bramley-Moore Dock, the Everton Stadium, as it is currently known, will serve as a brand new home to Premier League side Everton, rather unsurprisingly. The Toffees are due to move to what will be their stadium for the 2025/26 Premier League season, having called Goodison Park home since 1892.
Current plans are for Goodison Park, an all-seater stadium with a capacity of just under 40,000 seats, to be demolished after Everton leave, with the site to be redeveloped. Their new stadium will be the heart of an area that includes shops, housing and multiple other venues. With a capacity of nearly 53,000 seats, it will be England’s eighth-largest stadium upon its opening.
Talks over a new stadium for the Toffees have been ongoing for over a decade at the time of writing, but it was only towards the end of the 2010s that those ideas started to gather traction. The club struck a deal with Peel Holdings and Liverpool City Council to secure land for a new stadium, which included Everton signing a 200-year lease for rights to play there.
It will be a sad day when the doors close at Goodison Park for the final time, with English football losing yet another vestige of its history, but it is hard to argue that there is no excitement surrounding the new stadium, which will also serve as a host venue for the 2028 edition of the Euros.
Everton's club crest and the new Bramley Moore Dock stadium. Related
New Everton stadium build update: The Friedkin Group and timeline updates
On 24th September, it was announced that The Friedkin Group has agreed a deal to buy Everton. The deal is subject to regulatory approval from the Football Association, the Premier League and the Financial Conduct Authority. The US-based group are looking to be officially announced in time for the January transfer window, so they could improve the playing squad. As well as this, the layering of the pitch nears completion and the final installation of the seats in all four stands are checked. What are your thoughts on the stadium, timeline and the Premier League situation ahead of the January transfer window?
6 New Nissan Stadium
60,000 seats
New Nissan Stadium
The New Nissan Stadium, which is due to be in use from 2027, will be the new home for the National Football League side Tennessee Titans, who currently play at a stadium of the same name. Work on the stadium began earlier this year.
The new ground, which will cost billions of dollars to construct, is the largest stadium subsidy in American history. The Titans will be hoping that their new home ushers in a new period of success, having not won a league championship since the 1960s, which was the decade before the AFL and NFL merger.
With an expected capacity of 60,000, the new stadium will have nearly 10,000 fewer seats than the current Nissan Stadium, though the new build will include a dome as opposed to its predecessor, which is an open-air stadium made of concrete and steel. The plan for the Titans is that they will sign a 30-year lease to play at the ground and will move away from the place they have called home since 1999.
Derrick Henry Tennessee Titans RB Related
Ranking the 5 Best Tennessee Titans Players of All Time
Whether in Tennessee or Houston, the Titans and Oilers have had some incredible players over the years, especially at one key offensive position.
5 New Highmark Stadium
62,000 seats
Joe Cardona NEP
The New Nissan Stadium is not the only new home for a National Football League team that is currently under construction. Having been projected to be completed in time for the beginning of the 2026 season, the ceremonial groundbreaking for the New Highmark Stadium was completed in June 2023. Planned to replace the existing stadium of the Buffalo Bills, which has the same name, the New Highmark Stadium, known as “The Pit” amongst fans, will have a capacity of 62,000 seats.
The Bills, similarly to the Titans, will hope that their new ground ushers in an era of success that they have not seen for decades. The team won two league championships before the merger between the AFL and NFL in 1970 and since then, they have reached four Super Bowls but are yet to win any, the most Super Bowl appearances of any NFL team that has not yet won the trophy.
As it stands, the plan is for the original Highmark Stadium to be demolished upon the new one’s completion. Many observers have seen similarities between the new ground and Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium, though the overall construction process has been criticised by some for its financial plan.
4 New Inter Milan Stadium
70,000 seats
MixCollage-08-Aug-2024-12-07-PM-5937
Like their city-rivals AC Milan, Inter Milan are looking for a move away from the San Siro, though their efforts have brought just as much controversy as those of the red side of the city, with football fans worldwide condemning the idea of moving away from such an historic and culturally-significant stadium.
Inter would be moving south with their new stadium, although not to the suburb of San Donato as their rivals plan to. Instead, Inter would be migrating to the municipality of Rozzano, just a few miles south of Milan itself. As it stands, their capacity would be close to AC Milan’s, though still a few thousand seats less.
An idea for a project has been put forward to renovate the San Siro as games are still played at the stadium. The work would take around four years to complete. If this fails to materialise, however, and the clubs do indeed embark on a stadium split, then it is projected that Inter’s new ground will be completed in 2028, the same year as AC Milan’s new stadium.
San Siro, home of AC MIlan and Inter. Related
Why the San Siro has Been Stripped of the 2027 Champions League Final
The San Siro will not be hosting the 2027 Champions League Final due to uncertainty surrounding the stadium.
3 New AC Milan Stadium
72,000 seats
MixCollage-22-Apr-2024-09-19-PM-7676
Much has been said in the last decade or so regarding Inter Milan, AC Milan and the San Siro. An iconic stadium, the home of both clubs has scarcely been rejuvenated since the 1990 World Cup and it has been reported in the past that both teams have held an interest in partly demolishing and remodelling the stadium.
When these plans were announced, they were met with major backlash from both fans of the clubs and football fans worldwide, given the cultural impact of the San Siro. In fact, it was that impact that meant the clubs failed with the idea of replacing it, as it was announced last year by a local heritage commission that the “cultural interest” of the San Siro meant that it could not be knocked down.
Despite this, the clubs have not ceased looking for a new home. Last year, AC Milan announced that they had plans to build a new stadium of around 72,000 seats in the south of Milan, San Donato, to be exact, still looking to move on from the place they’ve called home since 1926.
At the time of writing, a completion date of 2028 has been given to the new AC Milan stadium, though given how much controversy has surrounded the notion of moving away from the San Siro, it remains to be seen whether the build will be completed or not.
2 Anil Agarwal International Cricket Stadium
75,000 seats
Originally known as the Jaipur Cricket Stadium, the building that will be India’s second-largest by capacity upon completion now goes by the name of The Anil Agarwal International Cricket Stadium, after the founder of the company Vedanta, who signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Rajasthan Cricket Association to go ahead with the build.
The stadium will serve as a new home for both the cricket team of the state of Rajasthan and the Rajasthan Royals, based in Jaipur. The Royals, founded in 2008 as one of the eight founding members of the Indian Premier League of cricket, have become known for their ability to unearth relatively unknown talents that possess high potential.
Currently, the plan is for the new stadium to be built in stages, which probably contributes to why there is no fixed completion date at the time of writing. There is hope that Vedanta’s support will continue across all phases of the build, the first of which is slated to see 40,000 seats for potential fans being constructed.
1 Hassan II Stadium
115,000 seats
In this handout image from Populous, digital renderings of the proposed Stade Hassan II stadium in Morocco, projected to be the largest football stadium in the world with 115,000 capacity
With a projected completion year of 2028, the Hassan II Stadium will become the biggest stadium in world football when its building is finalised. Named after the late King Hassan II, who reigned between 1961 and 1999, it was announced several months ago that construction on the stadium was expected to begin towards the end of 2024.
The stadium has a planned capacity of 115,000 and was initially slated as a project in the early 2000s as Morocco were looking to host the 2010 World Cup, which ultimately took place in South Africa. It too was used as part of the country’s later bid to host the 2026 World Cup, though again, Morocco would lose, this time to the joint bid of Mexico, Canada and the United States of America.
Finally, after much perseverance, it was announced that Morocco would be hosting a World Cup, the 2030 edition alongside Spain and Portugal. At the same time, it was revealed that Morocco would also be the host country for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, alongside which the construction of the long-planned stadium was announced.