Hardturm Stadium will not be ready for Euro 2008

The new stadium was planed for the 2008 tournament which will be jointly hosted by Austria and Switzerland. Although the Zurich people voted in favor of the project, there have been appeals by local residents and environmental groups against planning permission for the arena, on the grounds that the construction of the venue would lead to traffic congestion in the area. The matter has created administrative and legal issues, meaning the stadium will not be ready by the summer of 2007, when the necessary pre-tournament testing would be carried out. The building authorities decided three years ago to construct a multifunctional 30,000-capacity football stadium on the site of the current Hardturm Stadium, home of Nationalliga club Grasshoppers Zurich, with additional offices, retail space, restaurants and a hotel complex. The loss of Zurich as a hosting city now means that seven stadiums instead of the eight planned will be used to play the tournament games across the two countries.