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Rare stadiums you can tick off during pre-season

Written by Andy Delaney
Last Update: July 9, 2025

Pre-season friendlies are often looked at as a bit of a chore by football fans, with many just counting down the weeks until the competitive stuff starts again.

It's understandable, these friendlies are rarely played at match pace, managers use them to give as many players as possible a chance, and there are absolutely no stakes involved.

On way to make pre-season more exciting is to forget who your own team is playing, and instead take it as an opportunity to visit some of the weirdest and most wonderful stadiums in the world.

Below, we cover four rare stadiums that will be in use this pre-season and explain what makes them so unique.

Rare stadiums you can tick off during pre-season
Braga's stadium is one of the most unique in the world – Photo by Imago

Rare stadiums to visit during pre-season 2025 – The top four

Estadio Municipal de Braga

While there are a few stadiums in the United Kingdom that have one end unused by fans, most of them are ugly-looking empty spaces. While the Estadio Municipal de Braga also has one end unused, it is that end of the ground that makes this stadium so stunning and unique.

Braga's home has often been described as the most beautiful stadium in Europe. Built in 2003, the stadium was effectively carved into the side of a giant hill, and instead of stripping away the entire landscape, architects decided to leave part of the hill intact for the south end of the stadium.

Football fans have a golden opportunity to visit the Estadio Municipal de Braga this summer for Braga's pre-season fixture with Moreirense on 16 July.

Centennial Ataturk Stadium

The Centennial Ataturk Stadium is the home of Turkish side, Bursaspor, and it opened in 2015. The stadium has one of the most unique designs in the world, with the exterior designed to look like a crocodile, leading to many people simply nicknaming it the ‘Crocodile Stadium‘.

To nail the crocodile design, the exterior of the stadium is made of green membranes and panels of glass to make it truly look like a crocodile's skin. The reason for the crocodile design isn't completely random, as Bursaspor's nickname is the Crocodiles.

No pre-season matches in Turkey have been confirmed yet, but Bursaspor typically play at least one game here before their season begins.

Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo

The Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo is the home of the Italian club, Venezia. What makes this stadium so unique is its location, overlooking the famous Venetian Lagoon.

Venice is a city that is famed for its waterways, so it was only appropriate that the city's main football team used water as a selling point of their stadium. In fact, the easiest way to get to the stadium is often by boat as it isn't located in the city itself, but rather on the island of Sant'Elena.

The trip to the stadium couldn't be more of a Venetian experience and is a far cry from the journeys many of us take to get to stadiums in the UK.

Venezia's pre-season hasn't yet been confirmed, but they often play at least one match here each summer.

Stadion Shopping Center

The Stadion Shopping Center may not be a thing of beauty like the stadiums we've already listed but it is certainly unique. As the name suggests, the stadium is built on the roof of a shopping centre in Belgrade and is the home of FK Vozdovac, who compete in the second tier of Serbian football.

The stadium only has a small capacity of 5,200, but any bigger than that and you would begin to get concerned about the shoppers below.

FK Vozdovak are set to play a friendly at the stadium against FAK on 9 August. When else will you be able to say that you watched a football match on the roof of a shopping mall?

Avatar of Andy Delaney

Andy Delaney

Andy is a freelance sports writer with ten years of experience covering major sporting events across Europe. He has also been a season ticket holder at Old Trafford since 2008 and has visited over 40 football stadiums in the United Kingdom and abroad following the Reds.

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