Make a Wish
Johan Cruijff Arena

Our guest already had several of the existing LEGO football stadiums in his room, so the same scale was preferred. This is also convenient, as it allows the existing printed football pitch pieces to be used. In this case, we opted for the 8x16 tiles from the Real Madrid – Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, set no. 10299.

The set was designed entirely digitally, with the details shown above first designed in various ways and sizes, together with our guest of honor. Ultimately (see below), the entire stadium was designed in many separate modules. This allows it to be built by many people simultaneously, which was a real boon for the construction afternoon!

Of course, a real Lego set is also ultimately released in a box, so we also designed an AJAX-colored box.

As a nod to the existing stadium Lego sets, this set also includes a players' bus and equipment truck.

One of the trickier parts is the roof structure. The arches and roof panels are all curved, making them difficult to fit into the square Lego blocks. It was a great challenge, and we—including our guest—are very pleased with it!

Some screenshots of parts of the station, in Stud.io: the digital LEGO CAD program.

The Johan Cruijff ArenA is already well underway, after an afternoon of construction in a skybox of the actual stadium! What a fantastic experience to be able to build the ArenA within the ArenA!

After the construction afternoon, we were ready for the press conference...