It’s not often that a new stadium gets to host its debut match this late in the season, but if it goes well, no one complains. Mario Gomez scored the first ever goal for Beşiktaş inside their brand new Vodafone Arena, in what turned out to be a 3-2 win over Bursaspor.
The Vodafone Arena, a 41,903 seater in Istanbul, broke ground in October 2013 and is owned by the club. It replaces İnönü Stadium, which was the club’s home since 1947.
But out with the old, in with the new, and the new stadium looks fantastic, although some might complain that it’s too high-tech and modern, losing some of the appeal that old school football always has.
Beşiktaş fans didn’t seem to mind that too much when Gomez opened the scoring, finishing the match with a brace that takes his tally this season to 21 goals, making quite the comeback this year after two difficult seasons with Fiorentina.
Besides his individual success, Beşiktaş lead the league by six points, with one match played more than Fenerbahce at second. If they do hang on to win the championship (six matches left to play), it’ll be the 14th title for the club in the Süper Lig format, and their first since the 2008-2009 season.