Stunning Sports Venues: Ranked!

Sports venues are cathedrals for passion, delight, despair and fun. Whether surrounded by thousands of fellow fans cheering on your favourite football team or a small indoor venue watching a contest with a bookmaker live stream, these venues help bring the sport to life. While there is not always beauty in the sport you are watching, the venues themselves can be jaw-dropping and stunning. 

Stadiums and other venues can be beautifully designed, iconic due to their history, or even just situated in a beautiful location. But which sports venues are the most beautiful in the world? After previously studying TripAdvisor reviews and Instagram data for stadiums worldwide to determine the world’s most ‘Stunning Sports Venues’, we have compiled a revised list of stadia where fans are watching sports surrounded by beauty. 

India’s HPCA Stadium ranks as the most beautiful sports venue in the world, according to TripAdvisor reviews

To find the most beautiful and awe-inspiring sports venues, we searched TripAdvisor for reviews containing the words ‘beautiful’ and ‘stunning’ and discovered the stadiums with the highest percentage of these reviews. 

HPCA Stadium, 38.5% of reviews containing ‘stunning’ or ‘beautiful’: 

The Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HCPA) Stadium is a cricket ground in northwest India. It is home to the Punjab Kings and hosted games in the 2023 Cricket World Cup. 38% of reviews for the 21,000-seater stadium contained our relevant keywords, and the stunning backdrop of snow-capped Himalayan mountains is a significant factor in the beauty of the stadium, allowing fans a beautiful view during the many breaks in a cricket match. This stadium was not included in the last report as it shot to fame during the Cricket World Cup where a much bigger global audience tuned in to see it on TV.

Asgiriya Stadium, 30.8% of reviews containing ‘stunning’ or ‘beautiful’: 

Asgiriya Stadium was top of the rankings in our previous Stunning Sports Venues report but has now lost its crown to the HPCA Stadium. Despite its percentage of reviews with the keywords dropping by just over 1%, it was still one of just two stadiums with a score of more than 30%. Stunning mountains also surround this stadium, although the climate is very different, as it is located in the tropical Indian Ocean rather than high altitude Himalayan plains. 

Folsom Field, 28.6% of reviews containing ‘stunning’ or ‘beautiful’: 

Folsom Field is by far the largest stadium in the top three most beautiful and is also in a mountainous region. Colorado is home to the stunning Rocky Mountains, which can be seen behind the stadium. They look particularly stunning for evening games at sunset. Operated by the University of Colorado, this 50,000-capacity stadium is home to the Colorado Buffaloes, a college football powerhouse. 

Folsom Field takes the title as the most beautiful sports venue in North America for the 2nd year running

Folsom Field, 28.6% of reviews containing ‘stunning’ or ‘beautiful’: 

Not only is Folsom Field the third most stunning stadium in the world, but it is also the top-ranking one in North America. Despite stiff competition, it has almost 4% more reviews containing the keywords. The stadium was opened in 1924, meaning it will celebrate a big centurion birthday later this year. 

LaVell Edwards Stadium, 25% of reviews containing ‘stunning’ or ‘beautiful’: 

A theme is indeed developing around the most stunning sports venues, and that is the backdrop of mountains. The massive 62,000-seater stadium is home to the BYU Cougars, the college football team of Brigham Young University. The stadium was renamed after the late legendary coach LaVell Edwards in 2000, just before his retirement after 29 seasons at the helm. 

PNC Park, 17.8% of reviews containing ‘stunning’ or ‘beautiful’: 

PNC Park is the baseball stadium with the highest percentage of reviews containing the keywords (17.8%), and it is also the third most stunning sports venue in North America. Home to the Pittsburgh Pirates, this stadium is located in downtown Pittsburgh and has a spectacular view of the city’s skyline and the iconic Sixth Street Bridge. 

Instagram posts relating to Barcelona’s Spotify Nou Camp have surpassed 2.1 million

Spotify Camp Nou, 2.1 million Instagram posts:

Just as in the last report, Camp Nou in Barcelona has the most Instagram posts with over 2 million. Recently renamed after the club's chief sponsor, Spotify, Camp Nou is undergoing significant renovations that will see the stadium have a capacity above 100,000 when reopened. However, with this substantial work, the once iconic La Liga stadium is currently partly demolished, awaiting its rebirth from the ashes when it promises to be even more stunning. 

San Siro. 1.43 million Instagram posts:

Another iconic European football stadium ranks second, the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza or San Siro, which has two different names as it is home to two different clubs of similar renown and prowess. Inter and AC Milan are two powerhouses of Italian and European football and have thus brought great success to the distinctive-looking stadium since it was renovated with its current iconic look in 1990. Despite its iconic shape, both Milan clubs are pushing to move away from or redevelop San Siro due to its high running costs, but if they do, one of football's great icons will be lost. 

Old Trafford, 1.36 million Instagram posts:

The third most Instagrammable stadium in the world is the hallowed theatre of dreams, Old Trafford. Home to Manchester United since 1910 and still the largest club football stadium in the UK, Old Trafford has been home to legends of the game, such as Sir Bobby Charlton, George Best, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Cristiano Ronaldo. 

Just like Camp Nou and San Siro, Old Trafford is iconic yet old-fashioned and as a result, plans are in place to either redevelop or rebuild the famous old ground to carry its legacy on for many more years to come. Jim Ratcliffe hopes the potential new stadium could become the ‘Wembley of the North’, and coincidently, Wembley ranks down in 7th place for Instagram posts.

The Dodger Stadium is the most Instagrammable sports venue in North America

Dodger Stadium, 640,489 Instagram posts:

Dodger Stadium is a baseball park that is home to the LA Dodgers. Since 1962, the giant ground has been able to seat 56,000 fans to watch the ball game. It is also the most popular ground in North America, with Instagram users, and there were over 640,000 posts for the stadium. 

MetLife Stadium, 301,351 Instagram posts:

The MetLife stadium is once again in second place in the rankings and now has over 300,000 Instagram posts. The stadium is home to two football teams, the New York Jets and the New York Giants.

Estadio Azteca, 236,233 Instagram posts:

It was recently announced that the Estadio Azteca will host the opening match of the 2026 Fifa World Cup, hosted by Mexico, the US, and Canada. It will not be the first time the iconic ground has hosted a World Cup, as it was the venue where Diego Maradona combined sublime skill and outrageous cheating to score two of the most iconic goals ever in 1986. 

What else have we learned about the world’s most stunning sports venues?

Since our last report, we have learnt a lot about the most beautiful stadiums in the world. Most of the stadiums that were considered beautiful last year still fall into that same category, only dropping down the rankings when compared to new venues that have gained notoriety for their aesthetics. 

The size of the stadium is no guarantee of being a stunning sports venue. Of the ten stadia with a capacity of over 100,000, there is just one (Bryant-Denny Stadium) which features in the top ten. The same can be said when it comes to Instagrammability, the largest stadium (Michigan Stadium) has just 11,495 posts which is over 2 million fewer than Spotify Camp Nou. 

Football (soccer) is the sport which dominates the most Instagrammable stadiums, as seven of the top ten are football grounds. It is also European stadiums that are the most popular on Instagram with six of the top ten located in that continent. 

Methodology

We created a new seed list of stadiums using various articles of the most beautiful sports venues, adding to the established stadiums from last year's study which were chosen from similar articles as well as the list of stadiums by capacity. This gave us a list of 50 stadiums which was reduced to 40 as some had no data. 

We used Instagram to find the number of posts for each stadium using the #ofeachstadium.

We looked at the reviews for each stadium on TripAdvisor to find the percentage of total reviews containing the words beautiful and stunning.

The data is all correct as of the 8th of March, 2024.