Yes, according to the company that was in charge of demolishing Galatasaray’s old Ali Sami Yen stadium. Because apparently the stadium was so poorly constructed that it was on the verge of collapse.
I cannot recall having read about this back in May 2011, when the article in Turkish newspaper Today’s Zaman came out. And a quick Google search suggests that it indeed did not make international news headlines. Still it seems interesting enough to give it some attention.
Early 2011 Galatasaray moved into their brand new Türk Telekom Arena, after having played at the Ali Sami Yen for several decades. The old stadium, which in the end could only hold about 22,800 fans, was notorious for its intimidating atmosphere, and many European top teams left the stadium without a result.
In April 2011 company Aşçıoğlu Construction started with the demolition of the stadium, however where they had planned 75 days to do the job, they already finished after a mere 15 days, such was the state of the stadium.
From Today’s Zaman:
[…] While there are 250 kilograms of iron per square meter in the Türk Telekom Arena, Galatasaray’s new stadium, Ali Sami Yen had 57 kilograms of iron per square meter, Aşçıoğlu told reporters, adding: “People [narrowly] escaped death. This building avoided falling down with the help of God. Even without any knowledge of construction, you can understand what was going on here. … Only one-fifth of the steel beams required and one-fifth of the concrete required were used. This means the building was 10 times weaker than it should have been.”“We demolished the building in 15 days but had originally planned to do it in 75. This means we tore it down like we rip up paper. Although it was built in 1964, it’s not bad — it is horrible. […].”
True enough, the company may be exaggerating, or it may just be a dig to a competitor, but nonetheless if you as a fan stood there every other weekend, it must be pretty disconcerting to know that the stadium could have collapsed any time.