Ramat Gan Stadium

Located in Ramat Gan, the stadium served as a national venue for Israeli football and as a gathering place for the Maccabiah Games.[1][6] Its uses also extended to international concerts, club football, national-team training and activities involving youth teams, women players and referees.[2][7] The combination of national-team matches, Jewish sporting ceremonies and large public performances gave the site a role beyond that of a single club's home ground.[1][2][6]

The stadium's historical scale is reflected in both its seating figures and its recorded crowds.[3][4] The 1950 Maccabiah opening took place in a stadium described as having 50,000 seats, while approximately 65,000 people attended the Israel–Soviet Union match in 1956.[3][4] Later descriptions gave nominal capacities of approximately 41,500 seats, including a precise figure of 41,583 in 2019.[1][7] Those nominal totals eventually differed substantially from the number of seats approved for spectators: only the 11,300-seat western section was permitted for use in 2019, and a January 2026 account put usable accommodation at no more than 5,000.[2][5]

An athletics track surrounded the playing field, separating spectators from the football pitch.[7] The western stand became particularly important after the older stands were closed for safety reasons in 2013.[7] The stadium's surroundings also formed part of its infrastructure: a renovation completed before the 2005 Maccabiah included nearby streets, landscaping and improvements to the Abba Hillel Street–Ben Gurion Street intersection, a principal access route.[8]

In January 1950, Ramat Gan mayor Avraham Krinitzi announced plans for a large national stadium to accommodate the Maccabiah Games scheduled for September of that year.[2] Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion welcomed the initiative but said that the state could not finance it.[2] Construction began in April and was completed in 130 days, allowing the venue to receive the September gathering.[2] The project cost 600,000 Israeli lirot and created a major deficit for the municipality.[2]

The Third Maccabiah opened at the stadium on September 27, 1950, with 800 athletes representing 20 countries.[3] These were the first Maccabiah Games held after the establishment of the independent State of Israel.[3] An earlier edition had been scheduled for 1938, but the British government cancelled it, largely because of concern that the games could provide cover for large-scale illegal Jewish immigration as the Nazi threat increased in Europe.[3] The September 1950 ceremony drew 45,000 people.[2]

Ben-Gurion addressed the competitors at the opening ceremony, declaring: “Existence in our ancestral home requires physical might no less than intellectual excellence.”[3] His words connected the sporting gathering with Jewish life in the ancestral homeland and the physical demands of national existence.[3] The stadium's Maccabiah association continued beyond this inaugural gathering: the games, held every four years, included an opening ceremony at the National Stadium in Ramat Gan.[6]

Although construction and the Maccabiah ceremony occurred in 1950, a 2015 retrospective dates the stadium's football inauguration to 1951, when Maccabi Tel Aviv played Scotland's Dundee United in an exhibition match.[9] Dundee United won 2–0.[9] This treats the 1951 match as an inauguration milestone rather than the venue's first use.[3][9] During the following decade, the stadium became the setting for international football occasions followed by crowds numbering in the tens of thousands and radio audiences numbering in the hundreds of thousands.[4] Broadcaster Nehemia Ben-Avraham's commentary carried these matches to listeners beyond the stadium.[4]

The second of Israel's July 1956 matches against the Soviet Union was played at Ramat Gan Stadium before approximately 65,000 spectators.[4] Israel lost 2–1, while nearly all the rest of the country followed the match by radio.[4] The Herzl Institute study characterizes the matches as politically important as well as sporting occasions, noting government involvement in preparing the national team and organizing the encounters.[4] Another remembered international fixture was Israel's 2–2 draw with Yugoslavia in 1960.[7]

The western stand was renovated in 1986.[2] The Israel Football Association's institutional connection to the site was formalized through a 49-year lease signed toward the end of 1984, running through 2033 and carrying an option for a further 49 years.[2] In 1993, the association moved its offices into the stadium.[2] Its presence there consequently extended beyond the staging of senior international matches to administrative occupation and investment in the premises.[2]

On July 14, 1997, a bridge leading to the stadium collapsed as competitors and officials were approaching the Maccabiah opening ceremony.[10] Members of the Australian delegation fell into the Yarkon River; four Australians were killed and more than 70 people were injured.[10] In 2000, a Tel Aviv court ruled that the bridge had been constructed with substandard materials, without a proper plan and without supervision.[10] The engineer who designed it received a prison sentence of 21 months.[10]

On May 18, 2004, Bnei Sakhnin defeated Hapoel Haifa 4–1 at Ramat Gan National Stadium before 35,000 spectators, most of whom supported Sakhnin.[11] Hapoel Haifa led 1–0 at halftime, but second-half goals involving Avi Danan, Lior Asulin and Gavriel Lima reversed the result.[11] The victory marked a major achievement for Bnei Sakhnin, identified in the account as the first non-Jewish club to win the Israeli championship.[11]

Ahead of the 17th Maccabiah in 2005, the municipality announced the completion of a NIS 14 million renovation of the stadium and its surroundings.[8] Ramat Gan contributed NIS 4.6 million, with the balance supplied by the Ministry of Transport, Ayalon Highways, the Yarkon River Authority and the Jewish National Fund.[8] The works included landscaping, reconstruction of nearby streets and rebuilding the Abba Hillel Street–Ben Gurion Street intersection.[8] The project therefore addressed both the venue and the routes used to reach it.[8]

In April 2013, nearly 33,000 supporters attended Maccabi Tel Aviv's 2–0 victory over Ironi Ramat Hasharon at the stadium.[12] The result secured the 2012–13 league title, ending Maccabi Tel Aviv's ten-year wait for the championship and putting the team 13 points ahead of second-place Maccabi Haifa.[12] That same year, use of the stadium's old stands, corresponding to gates 5–20, was prohibited for safety reasons.[7]

The closure reflected missing railings, problems with passageways and emergency exits, and cracks in the concrete.[7] By 2019, the old stands were described as deteriorating and sinking, while the newer western stand, served by gates 1–4, remained the only section approved for spectators.[7] Of more than 40,000 nominal seats, only 11,300 in that western section were then permitted for audience use.[2] The national team no longer played at the stadium, although the football association maintained that it remained invested in the site.[2]

The venue nevertheless retained a varied football schedule in 2019.[7] It hosted Hapoel Ra'anana and Hapoel Ramat Gan matches, youth-team and women's national-team activities, senior-team training, referee training and youth-cup matches.[7] These activities differed from the large senior internationals that had defined its earlier national role.[1][7] A 2024 comparison of stadium capacities placed Ramat Gan's restricted capacity at 13,370 seats.[13]

By January 2026, the stadium was mainly accommodating smaller second-division teams, with usable stands able to hold no more than 5,000 people.[5] Much of the structure was unusable, and it had not hosted international events for 12 years.[5] Its reduced operating role coexisted with continuing uncertainty over whether the site would be renovated, replaced or incorporated into a broader redevelopment scheme.[5]

Ramat Gan Stadium hosted major international musicians as well as football and Maccabiah events.[2] Performers appearing there included Elton John, Leonard Cohen, Depeche Mode, 50 Cent, Kanye West, Simon and Garfunkel, Madonna, Metallica, Bob Dylan and Sting.[2] This concert history made the stadium a venue for large-scale entertainment alongside its sporting functions.[2]

Leonard Cohen's concert on September 24, 2009, was designated to raise money for a newly established Fund for Reconciliation, Tolerance and Peace.[14] Cohen and concert promoter AEG Live donated all their earnings from the performance.[14] The stadium could hold 40,000 spectators.[14] The concert thus combined a large public performance with fundraising directed toward reconciliation and tolerance.[14]

The economics of operating the aging venue became an important part of its later history.[2] In 2019, the Israel Football Association said it spent NIS 5 million annually on maintenance and operation.[2] A circus tent on the stadium's northern side was being used as a revenue-generating activity to help offset operating costs.[2] The association also argued that its investments in the premises remained relevant to any decision to demolish or relocate the stadium.[2]

Investment in the stadium had involved several forms of public participation.[2][8] The original construction placed a substantial burden on the municipality, while the 2005 renovation combined municipal funding with contributions from transport, river-management and land-development bodies.[2][8] The latter project included streets and access infrastructure rather than only work inside the stadium.[8] Later replacement proposals likewise connected the stadium's sporting future to the commercial use and financial potential of the surrounding land.[2][5]

A 2010 proposal envisaged demolishing the stadium and replacing it with a modern venue at an estimated cost of about NIS 700 million.[1] Financing had not been settled, and the proposal did not constitute an approved or completed construction project.[1] At that time, the stadium was described as jointly owned by the Israel Football Association and Ramat Gan municipality, with about 41,500 seats and continuing use for national-team internationals.[1]

The initiative associated with mayor Zvi Bar and football association chairman Avi Luzon reached the stage of an architects' tender.[2] It was subsequently shelved after nearly NIS 3 million had been spent on the process.[2] A later proposal by mayor Yisrael Zinger would have reduced the stadium's size and incorporated it into a cultural and commercial zone, but that plan also did not proceed.[2] Repeated planning efforts therefore failed to produce the replacement or transformation envisaged for the site.[2]

By 2019, the municipality was considering several substantially different possibilities: demolition followed by housing, relocation of a stadium, or demolition and reconstruction on the existing site.[2] The football association argued that demolition or relocation could require compensation for its investments.[2] Its position was reinforced by a lease extending through 2033, with a further 49-year option, and by the continuing presence of its offices at the stadium.[2] Questions about land ownership, construction costs and the economic viability of a new venue remained part of the planning problem.[2]

Earlier proposals included a rebuilt stadium with 60,000 seats, commercial space and an office tower.[5] These plans were shelved because financing or demonstrated economic feasibility was lacking.[5] A subsequent proposal for a sports district also failed to advance.[5] By January 2026, neither rebuilding on that scale nor the broader sports-district concept had supplied a settled future for the deteriorating stadium.[5]

In January 2026, mayor Carmel Shama Hacohen said that he had initially supported renovation but had come to favor examining redevelopment of the wider area for employment, leisure and education.[5] He described the stadium as nearly unusable and less safe, and expressed doubt that it would return to hosting international events.[5] The Israel Football Association's spokesperson instead advocated investment in renovation and a capacity of at least 40,000.[5] The landowners' positions and the municipality's future plans remained unsettled.[5]

The stadium's layout and spectator experience attracted criticism before the later restrictions on its stands.[15] A 2009 Jerusalem Post commentary criticized the absence of assigned seating, described exits as steep and congested, and argued that the athletics track left spectators too far from the pitch.[15] These were the commentator's assessments rather than neutral technical findings.[15] The same commentary described partial refurbishment in the early 1980s and reported that replacement plans existed.[15]

The opening of a football stadium in Ramat Gan on the Sabbath also figured in discussion of religious-secular relations.[16] The episode was characterized as one of the smaller confrontations over the boundaries between religious observance and public secular activity, although the account supplied neither a date nor further details.[16]

The later debate concerned whether continued investment in a large football venue was preferable to redevelopment of the wider site.[2][5] By 2026, the mayor's interest in employment, leisure and educational uses contrasted with the football association's call for renovation and at least 40,000 seats.[5] No final resolution between those approaches was established in the January 2026 account.[5]