Background The three clubs of the Gothenburg Alliance (
Göteborgsalliansen)—
GAIS,
IFK Göteborg and
Örgryte IS—played the majority of their matches on the old
Gamla Ullevi from its inauguration in 1916 until the newer
Ullevi stadium was completed in 1958 for the
1958 World Cup in Sweden. From that year most matches were played on the large stadium with a capacity of over 40,000, but as the attendance numbers decreased in the 1980s and early 1990s, and in connection with the removal of the terraces, calls for a move back to the old stadium was heard. After a renovation, Gamla Ullevi was from 1992 once again the home of the Alliance clubs. But playing in a stadium built almost 100 years ago was not ideal, lacking in service capacity, security, and architecture, the terraces having poles obscuring the view for the audience. Other propositions in 2002 and 2003 included building a new stadium in
Mölndal, a neighbour municipality of Gothenburg, a new stadium built on the site of the old stadium
Valhalla IP, located between Ullevi and
Scandinavium, and a third suggestion wanted to demolish Gamla Ullevi and move all football activities to the larger Ullevi which would be rebuilt to a
dome arena, with a rotatable pitch that would move it closer to the seats for regular season matches.
Decision The proposition that was decided to be used was to demolish Gamla Ullevi and to build a new stadium on the grounds of the old.
Municipal commissioner Göran Johansson presented his plan for the new football stadium at the site of Gamla Ullevi—and the idea to make it the
national stadium for the women's national team—to the contractor Higabgruppen, and in early 2005 architect Lars Iwdal got a confidential assignment from Higabgruppen to create a first sketch of the new stadium. Lars Iwdal said in a newspaper interview that and on the 9 April the municipal board of
Gothenburg arranged a press conference to show the plans. The new stadium, inspired amongst others by
NRGi Park in
Aarhus,
Aalborg Stadion in
Aalborg and mainly
Brøndby Stadion in
Copenhagen, was to have a capacity of 16,000–18,000 and have open corners; the construction cost was estimated to 180 million SEK for the stadium and a total of 240 million SEK including commercial areas in and around it. but paperwork once again postponed the start and the demolishing of the old stadium started several months later on 9 January 2007. This also delayed the construction which was planned to be finished for the start of the
2008 season in April,
Construction The final plan of the stadium and its facilities was settled in December 2006 and included several improvements compared to the early plans presented in 2005. The total budget of 240 million SEK that was said to have been very tight had been increased to 270 million SEK, There will be no retractable roof—only roof over the stands—as the cost for that alone would be 300 million SEK, more than the original projected cost of the whole stadium itself, but there is a possibility to build such in the future if there is need for it. Nya Gamla Ullevi will also have natural grass on the pitch since the stadium will host matches of the
2009 European U-21 Championship, where all matches must be played on grass. As with a retractable roof, there is a possibility to change to artificial turf in the future. There are also some concerns that the natural grass may not grow very well since the closed corners and high stand prevent wind and sun to reach the pitch. During construction, two of the clubs which previously had Gamla Ullevi as their home stadium, GAIS and IFK Göteborg, played at the much larger Ullevi stadium, while the third club of the Alliance, Örgryte IS, played on
Valhalla IP. It was originally said that Nya Gamla Ullevi would be officially opened with a match played between an Alliance team—featuring players from the three Alliance clubs just like when Gamla Ullevi was reopened in 1992—and the
Sweden national team or a European top club. The construction proceeded as planned and work on the foundations was finished by January 2008 according to the project manager Jan-Åke Johansson from Higabgruppen. He also stated that the stadium's walls and roof would be finished by August 2008—except for the southwestern corner which would remain open a bit longer to allow construction vehicles and cranes to move in and out—and that only interior work would be left to do at that point. The calculated cost for the stadium had at the same time risen to at least 335 million SEK excluding commercial areas and possibly even more than that when finished in 2009. Compared to the 180 million SEK which was the calculated cost for the original plans, the newer and somewhat modified plans have increased the cost by 86 percent. Some of the original specifications have changed over the time as well, the 900 m2 lounge was expanded to 1,100 m2 and nine additional private boxes were added to the original 18.—that more than planned could be fitted, which would allow room for another 1,000 seated spectators and thus extending the capacity to 18,800. The construction work has not seen any major complications and the stadium was planned to be completed by 30 November 2008. The final inspection and the grass pitch installation was begun on 4 December, and the only remaining work on the stadium itself at that date was the furnishing of the commercial spaces and other complementary installments. On 13–14 December the three Alliance clubs arranges an
open house weekend where supporters can inspect the stadium in person. The opening match has yet to be decided, but the options have been radically reduced since IFK director of sports
Håkan Mild ruled out the alternative of an Alliance team playing against a national team or a European top club, and as the plan of an opening match involving the women's national team was discarded.
Naming The name that was used at the first press conference about the new stadium was
Nya Gamla Ullevi—meaning New Old Ullevi, a play on the name of the previous two main stadiums of the city,
Gamla Ullevi and
(Nya) Ullevi—but it was also said that it was only a temporary name and that the final name of the stadium would not likely include the word "Ullevi" as it would possibly be even more confusing than before. The contractor,
Higabgruppen, used another name for the project,
"Fotbollsarenan" ("The Football Arena"). An early name discussed was Gunnar Grens Arena, named after
Gunnar Gren, one of the best Swedish footballers in history and a player that played for all three of the Alliance clubs, and who has already been honoured with a statue outside the old stadium. but the clubs were also willing to sell the name of the stadium to a company to generate an extra source of income. Another alternative that had been discussed and which gained support by all sides—ruling politicians, politicians in opposition, involved organisations and the general public—as time had passed was to let the new stadium take over Ullevi's name, and in turn rename that stadium to something else, possibly including "Göteborg", "Gothia" or "Gothenburg" in the name. On 8 September 2008, the final decision on the naming of the stadium was given to
Sture Allén—member and former secretary of the
Swedish Academy and retired professor in
computational linguistics—in cooperation with the
municipal naming committee. Their decision was presented on 1 October 2008 and supported the idea of naming the stadium Gamla Ullevi, the name used by the demolished stadium formerly located on the same place. The proposed name was then approved by the
municipal executive committee on 15 October 2008. A plan to sell the names of the four main stands to four companies was also presented. The name Ullevi itself consists of two parts. The first part of the name, "Ulle-" is the genitive form of
Ullr ( or
Uller) which is one of the
Æsir—a god in
Norse paganism—associated with traits such as skiing, archery, hunting and justice, all connected to sports in one way or another. The second part of the name, "-vi" is a generic term used in several Swedish place names that refers to a
shrine, a sacred place or a
thing. The name thus means something along the lines of "Ullr's shrine". There is another large stadium in the Nordic countries named after Ullr, the national stadium of the
Norway national football team,
Ullevaal. == Controversy ==