There’s also a ghost stadium.
Arsenal and PSG reach the final, but the crowd is elsewhere: here are the 10 hottest stadiums in Europe.
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The UEFA calendar is about to turn the final pages of the 2025/26 club tournaments. The Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League are waiting for the captains to lift the trophies after the three finals: PSG vs. Arsenal, Freiburg vs. Aston Villa, and Crystal Palace vs. Rayo Vallecano. As is customary, these matches will be played on neutral ground: at the Puskás Aréna in Budapest, Beşiktaş Park in Istanbul, and the Red Bull Arena in Leipzig, respectively.
Champions League stadium attendances: Where does the Maradona rank?
Europa League attendances: The Dall’Ara doesn’t heat up.
Conference League attendances: The Franchi challenges Rayo’s home.
Spectators in the cups: the annual ranking by average attendance.
The final act will shift the enthusiasm of fans from their home stadiums to the venues mentioned above, allowing a summary of the season’s attendance figures in European competitions.
One fact immediately stands out: none of the finalists saw their home stands fill beyond an average of 58,000. Arsenal reached a maximum of 57,094 at the Emirates Stadium, the only final contender among the 15 most-followed clubs this year.
The Puskás Aréna, host of the 2025/26 Champions League final.
At the top, as also happens when only league matches are considered, is Borussia Dortmund. The famous Yellow Wall covered the 80,000 attendance mark, surpassing all other passionate stadiums, from the Santiago Bernabéu — where the echo of disappointment and gossip from the latest Blanco dressing room events resonate — to the Meazza in Milan, where Inter’s fans bowed their heads after the heavy defeat against Bodø/Glimt.
The Olimpico in Rome also fell silent, stunned by the roar of Bologna fans at Orsolini’s extra-time goal, which shattered Gasperini and his team’s European dreams. Not the passion of the Giallorossi, which made the capital’s stadium the only Europa League venue among the top 10 for average attendance this season. More than Stuttgart’s MHPArena or Seville’s La Cartuja, the temporary fortress of Betis (awaiting the renovation of the Benito Villamarín), which shed its ghost stadium label.
