Excavators broke ground on the Al-Hussein bin Abdullah II International Stadium on Sunday, launching what the state-owned developer calls the first practical step toward Jordan’s largest sports venue. The 46,000-seat stadium is the keystone of Amra City, a 25-year, 500-square-kilometre planned city tied to Jordan’s Economic Modernization Vision. The Jordan Cities and Facilities Development Company, a wholly state-owned enterprise under the Jordan Investment Fund, said preliminary infrastructure work and excavation have officially commenced on the project.
Vertical construction on the stadium itself is scheduled to begin in early 2027, with the developer targeting a late 2029 opening. The first phase of Amra City also includes an international exhibitions centre, an entertainment city and an Olympic-standard sports complex, all stitched into a Bus Rapid Transit corridor roughly 40 kilometres east of central Amman. The state-backed project is structured to lift the construction, contracting and manufacturing sectors, with project leads forecasting hundreds of jobs in the build and long-term operations. The developer says the venue is intended to give Jordan a home ground for major regional and international sporting events.
Excavation Begins on Jordan’s Largest Stadium
The Jordan Cities and Facilities Development Company announced on Sunday that preliminary infrastructure work and excavation have officially commenced on the Al-Hussein bin Abdullah II International Stadium project, marking the practical rollout of the lead sports venue within Amra City’s phase-one master plan. Current site operations include logistical preparation, land grading and deep foundation excavations, according to a statement carried by the state news agency. The official announcement of the excavation start confirms the project as the first practical step toward building Jordan’s largest national sports venue.
The state-backed project aligns with Jordan’s Economic Modernization Vision, a government blueprint for lifting the country’s growth sectors. Developers have set a completion and grand opening target for late 2029, with structural engineering and vertical construction scheduled to break ground at the start of 2027. Project leads describe the stadium as a national sports landmark intended to consolidate Jordan’s position as a host for major international tournaments. The site footprint spans 1,000 dunams in the southern part of the future city, near Highway 40. The project is one of the first to enter physical construction in Amra City, ahead of the exhibition centre, entertainment city and Olympic-standard indoor arenas planned for the same phase.
A 46,000-Seat Venue With BRT on the Doorstep
The Al-Hussein bin Abdullah II International Stadium will seat 46,000 spectators on a 1,000-dunams plot, according to the developer’s statement. The venue will be the largest sports facility in the Kingdom, ringed by landscaped green zones planted with native flora.
The development pairs the bowl with two dedicated training pitches and a transit hub with parking for 6,000 cars and coaches, the company said. The site links into public transit networks and the Amman-Madaba BRT route launched in 2025 Bus Rapid Transit corridor. Energy and water efficiency standards sit at the core of the design, alongside high-tech game-day operations infrastructure used in world-class stadiums.
Architecturally, the design merges modern sports engineering with elements drawn from Jordanian cultural and architectural heritage. The structural bowl will be bordered by extensive green buffer zones featuring native plants and flora compatible with the surrounding desert. The stadium is being engineered to meet international specifications, with a focus on water and energy efficiency. The company frames the architecture as a modern, contemporary style built around a cutting-edge framework.
Current works at the site cover logistical preparation, land grading and deep foundation excavations. Construction will transition to vertical building at the start of 2027, with the developer targeting a late 2029 grand opening. The late 2029 target is the first fixed date the company has set for the venue since the project was announced on November 29, 2025.
| Attribute | Al-Hussein bin Abdullah II International Stadium | Amman International Stadium |
|---|---|---|
| Capacity | 46,000 | 17,000 |
| Year opened | 2029 (targeted) | 1968 |
| Anchor role | Amra City Phase 1 lead sports venue | Jordan national football team home |
Why a Stadium Anchors a 500 Square-Kilometre New City
Amra is a planned city in Jordan located roughly 40 kilometres east of Amman, between Highway 30, which runs toward Azraq and Saudi Arabia, and Highway 40, which runs toward the Iraqi border. The site is uninhabited desert, part of the central sector of the Jordanian Badia, and takes its name from the nearby Umayyad-era monument Qusayr Amra. Approximately 500 square kilometres of land has been designated for the city, with the first phase covering 40 square kilometres in the southern part near Highway 40. The wider project area sits in a strategic position between the two highways, with estimated commuting times of 45 to 50 minutes to Amman and 40 minutes to Zarqa. The Amra City master plan and population projections estimate the eventual city will hold between 1 and 1.5 million residents, with the first phase expected to be completed by 2029.
The driving pressure is demographic. The Amman-Zarqa conurbation stood at roughly 6,150,000 in 2025 and could reach 11 million by 2050 if growth continues at its current pace, a growth trajectory the Amra project is intended to ease across housing, transport and utilities in the two existing cities. It is positioned as a model city rather than a new administrative capital, with a dedicated investment law and a unified smart utility billing system.
Prime Minister Jafar Hassan launched Amra City on November 29, 2025, following directives from King Abdullah II in the Letter of Designation. The land was transferred to the Jordan Investment Fund, which established the Jordan Cities and Facilities Development Company, the state-owned entity leading implementation. The launch made Amra the first purpose-built planned city in Jordan. Both public funding and private capital will be deployed, with a partial public listing of the project’s shares planned after the first phase. The 2017 announcement of what was then called the New City Project marked the start of the planning cycle that became Amra.
- Al-Hussein bin Abdullah II International Stadium, 46,000 seats, opening targeted for late 2029
- International exhibitions and conferences centre, target 2027
- Entertainment city, target 2028
- Olympic city with Olympic-standard indoor arenas, motor racing circuit, and a 1,000-dunum environmental park
- Extension of the Royal Automobile Museum, technology hub, and education district
Filling the 17,000-Seat Gap Before the 2026 World Cup
The Amman International Stadium has hosted the Jordan national football team for decades, with a current capacity of 17,000 in a bowl that opened in 1968. The new venue will add significant headroom for major national fixtures. The upgrade coincides with Jordan’s first FIFA World Cup qualification, sealed on June 5, 2025.
Jordan qualified for the FIFA World Cup for the first time on June 5, 2025, beating Oman 3-0 in Muscat to seal its place in the 2026 tournament. The June 2025 World Cup qualification victory over Oman arrived a year before excavation began on the Al-Hussein bin Abdullah II International Stadium. The national team, runners-up at the 2025 FIFA Arab Cup, is preparing for a group-stage debut at the 2026 finals. Those 2026 matches will be played abroad, since the new stadium is not yet open.
JOD 200 Million and a State-Owned Developer
A January 2026 government estimate put the cost of constructing the Al-Hussein bin Abdullah II International Stadium at JOD 200 million, as part of the projects to be launched within the Amra City development. Tenders for the stadium’s preliminary works were scheduled to be issued during the first half of 2026, according to the January 2026 cost estimate for the stadium.
Project leads forecast the generation of hundreds of direct jobs across the construction phase and subsequent long-term stadium operations. The estimate covers both the build and the operational phases of the venue. The forecast is part of the developer’s broader pitch for Amra City as a high-retention employment zone. The developer is also running the procurement process for stadium design, construction and operating partners, with a tender schedule tied to the first half of 2026.
On a macroeconomic level, the project is structured to stimulate high-retention domestic sectors including civil construction, engineering contracting and specialized industrial supply chains. The stadium falls under the Quality of Life sector within the government’s Executive Program for 2026 to 2029, a public-private partnership initiative. The program is designed to encourage investment in projects aimed at improving quality of life for Jordanians. The stadium project is one of the lead investments under that umbrella. Amra City itself, including the stadium, was framed in the November 2025 launch as a direct response to the vision’s call for new urban centres able to host major regional events.
The developer behind the project, the Jordan Cities and Facilities Development Company, is a wholly state-owned enterprise operating under the Jordan Investment Fund. Its mandate covers monitoring and facilitating project milestones, opening up investment prospects, engaging with developers and forging partnerships to attract local and foreign investment. The entity is also responsible for procurement and joint-venture partnerships across the wider Amra City program.
The Wider Phase-One Pipeline
The stadium is one of several openings on a defined schedule in Amra City’s first phase. The wider 40-square-kilometre first phase also includes an international exhibitions and conferences centre, an entertainment city, an Olympic-standard sports complex, a motor racing circuit and a 1,000-dunum environmental park. State-owned land, originally identified in 2017 plans, was transferred to the Jordan Investment Fund ahead of the November 2025 launch. Both public funding and domestic and foreign private capital are being deployed, with a partial public offering of the project’s shares planned after the first phase. The stadium’s late 2029 opening sits within a 25-year master plan, with construction of the wider city scheduled to conclude by 2050 and Amra designed to hold between 1 and 1.5 million residents at full build-out.
Ten percent of the Amra land has been allocated to the armed forces, which will participate in construction through the Royal Engineering Corps. The wider 40-square-kilometre first phase is now under construction, with the World Cup-qualifying Jordan team still playing at the Amman International Stadium until the new Amra City venue is ready. The state-owned developer is targeting a grand opening for the stadium, with vertical construction on the bowl scheduled to start at the beginning of 2027.
- International exhibitions and conferences centre: 2027
- Entertainment city: 2028
- Al-Hussein bin Abdullah II International Stadium: late 2029
- Olympic-standard indoor arenas and motor racing circuit: by 2029
- 1,000-dunum environmental park: within the first phase
