Guide to Bundesliga stadiums

As the last World Cup hosts, Ger­many unsur­pris­ingly have an array of impres­sive sta­di­ums. There are no fewer than 11 foot­ball sta­di­ums with a capac­ity of at least 50,000, 10 of which are called home by Bun­desliga clubs.

This is com­pared to only four Eng­lish foot­ball grounds, includ­ing Wem­b­ley, to have a capac­ity above 50,000. There is clearly a lot of work for the FA to do if their bid to host a forth­com­ing World Cup is to be taken seriously.

Germany’s biggest foot­ball sta­dium is Sig­nal Iduna Park, home of Borus­sia Dort­mund. Most foot­ball fans know it as West­falen­sta­dion, but the mod­ern com­mer­cial neces­sity for sta­di­ums to have spon­sor­ship agree­ments has resulted in a recent name change.

How­ever, the ground has man­aged to keep a tra­di­tional feel by retain­ing a stand­ing area for league matches (inter­na­tional fix­tures are fully seated). This results in a size­able capac­ity of 80,552 for Borus­sia home matches, with an obvi­ous by-product being an excel­lent atmosphere.

The Südtribüne ter­race that holds nearly 25,000 stand­ing home sup­port­ers is the largest stand­ing area in Euro­pean foot­ball and is held up as the exam­ple of how stand­ing on a large scale can be viable in top level club foot­ball. The ground hosted the 2006 World Cup semi final between Ger­many and Italy, which the hosts lost 2–0 after extra time.

Ger­many had bet­ter luck in the nation’s sec­ond largest foot­ball sta­dium in 2006, win­ning a quar­ter final penalty shootout against Argentina at Berlin’s Olympias­ta­dion. Hertha Berlin’s home ground has a capac­ity just under 75,000.

Famous for host­ing the 1936 sum­mer Olympics, the 2006 World Cup final and the Ger­man cup final, the Olympic sta­dium, with it’s uni­form bowl shape and tra­di­tional run­ning track, is one of the most Europe’s most recog­nis­able sta­di­ums. With Hertha closely involved in this season’s title race, the sta­dium could soon have the Bun­desliga tro­phy in its cab­i­net for the first time.

Munich’s Allianz Arena (capac­ity 69,901) is one of the world’s best mod­ern sta­di­ums. Dis­tin­guish­able by its lat­tice shell exte­rior, the arena is seen as an archi­tec­tural mas­ter­piece, although it was shrouded in con­tro­versy before its open­ing in 2005 when lead­ing fig­ures were charged with cor­rup­tion con­cern­ing con­struc­tion contracts.

Bay­ern Munich and 1860 Munich share the ground (as they did at Munich’s Olympias­ta­dion, now the fourth largest Ger­man sta­dium used for football).

The last Bun­desliga sta­dium with a capac­ity above 60,000 is FC Schalke 04’s Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen. Like West­falen­sta­dion it accom­mo­dates stand­ing sup­port­ers for league matches, but the most notable fix­tures (the 2004 Cham­pi­ons League final and five 2006 World Cup fix­tures) to have taken place at the ground have been in front of the smaller all-seater capac­ity of 54,000.

The Veltins-Arena is notable for its retractable roof and slid­ing pitch, which makes it a use­ful venue for other events such as ice hockey, speed­way and rock concerts.