Stadio Moretti & Stadio Friuli

The stadium was built at the behest of the mayor, Angelo Candolini, who wanted a modern home for the city's football club, then in the lower divisions, in place of the old Stadio Moretti. Giuliano Parmegiani and Lorenzo Giacomuzzi Moore drew the design, taking their cue from the Olympiastadion in Munich and the Gateway Arch in St Louis: the bowl was set largely into embankments below ground level, a choice that sharply reduced its impact on its surroundings.

Work began in 1971. The first element to take shape was the arch carrying the roof of the central stand, about 200 metres long and 31.30 metres high. Luciano Del Zotto designed the floodlight pylons, 59.20 metres tall, painted red and white so that aircraft could pick them out. The eight-lane running track around the pitch was used on only three occasions in its whole existence.

The stadium was inaugurated on 26 September 1976 for a Serie C match between Udinese and Seregno. It was still unnamed, known locally as the stadio dei Rizzi after the district, and still unfinished: only the covered stand had concrete terracing, the curves and side stands being bare earth that could take as many as 50,000 people. The opening came ten days after the second great shock of the 1976 Friuli earthquake, and an aftershock during the match set the roof arch trembling, though not all of the 15,000 spectators noticed. It was that disaster, along with the centenary of Friulian emigration to Argentina, that suggested the name: a council resolution of 3 March 1978, carried unanimously by the forty councillors present, fixed it as the Friuli.

Through the 1980s the remaining sectors were stabilised with precast concrete beams and fitted with seats. In 1984 the Udinese president Lamberto Mazza had a giant screen, the Cosmo, put up above the south curve; unveiled on 8 May at a cost of five billion lire, it measured 8 metres by 9.45 and was reckoned the third largest inside any stadium in the world.

For the 1990 World Cup roughly five billion lire went on 5,000 parking spaces, a press room, new seats, better lighting and camera towers above the curves. The structure itself was left untouched, which allowed the ground to be certified well ahead of the other venues; Udine was the only host city not to draw all the public money allotted to it. Three Group E matches were played at the Friuli.

In 1977, when it was still the stadio dei Rizzi, the ground staged the play-off for the Italian rugby title between Petrarca and Rovigo, won 10-9 by the Padua side; a storm broke over Udine during the match and a Rovigo supporter, Fabio Rizzi, was killed by lightning in the stands. Italy's rugby side returned on 21 November 2009 and lost 10-32 to South Africa. On 3 May 1992 Pope John Paul II said mass here before 30,000 people, telling them in Friulian: “Fradis Furlàns, us invidi a tigní dur.”

Giampaolo Pozzo, the club's owner, paid for the goal-line camera system installed here, developed with the CNR in Bari for about 100,000 euro and first tested at Udinese-Reggina on 3 December 2006; the patent was then given to the Italian federation free of charge. From the 2015-16 season such equipment was compulsory throughout Serie A.

In 2013 Udinese took a 99-year surface right over the stadium from the city of Udine for 4.55 million euro. Pozzo had proposed renaming the ground after Enzo Bearzot, the Friulian former Italy manager, but the idea met protests because the name Friuli is seen as carrying the region's identity and the memory of the earthquake's dead; a council resolution of 14 November 2011 obliged any holder of the surface right to keep it.

Work began on 5 June 2013 and Pozzo laid the foundation stone on 23 June 2014. Three sides were demolished and rebuilt tight against the pitch while the west stand and its arch were preserved, staged in lots so that Udinese never had to play a home game elsewhere; the cost of about 50 million euro fell entirely on the club, and capacity came down from 41,652 to 25,144. The ground reopened in full on 17 January 2016 against Juventus, the sponsor's name Dacia Arena unveiled the same day. The city fought that name through the courts, winning more than one ruling; the club went on using commercial names, Bluenergy since 2023, while the council requires the historic name for anything other than Udinese fixtures. The UEFA Super Cup was played here on 13 August 2025, Paris Saint-Germain beating Tottenham Hotspur on penalties.