9. Stadium

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The 9th stadium, photo from Seltisberg

The 9th stadium was a public viewing area (called the stadium) and a tent site (called the fan camp) between Bad Bubendorf and Liestal ( Switzerland ) on the occasion of the 2008 European Football Championship . It had a total of 8,500 places. The operator was Swiss Exhibition . The project failed to live up to expectations and ended in a million dollar loss.

investment

On the site between Bad Bubendorf and the city of Liestal, various provisional facilities with a fan camp with 350 plots and around 2,000 overnight stays as well as a provisional stadium with 6,500 seats and 2,000 standing places. Initially, a total capacity of 10,000 places was planned.

The 9th stadium, which was part of the host city Basel, should have been the largest public viewing facility outside the venues and the largest stadium ever temporarily built in Switzerland, which was not the case due to the significant reduction in size. The model for the system was the Adidas World of Football from the 2006 World Cup , where a “9. Stadium »was built. It was a replica of the Olympic Stadium in Berlin on a scale of 1: 5 (Adidas: 1:10). The costs were estimated at around seven million francs and were mainly borne by the host city of Basel and sponsors. The city of Liestal contributed 150,000 francs. In addition, the canton of Baselland assumed a deficit guarantee of 1.2 million francs. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on March 5, 2008. On May 30, 2008 the site was opened. Outside the season, various cultural and sporting events were planned, such as a. Performances by the Scorpions and DJ Bobo , both of which were canceled due to lack of demand.

Six years earlier, in the summer of 2002, the site, which is usually arable land, was used as the center of the Federal Gymnastics Festival , which attracted over 70,000 visitors.

Fan camp

Part of the 9th stadium was a fan camp with 350 lots for around 2,000 people. Overnight stays in a rental tent or in a large tent (dormitory) as well as parking spaces for tents, caravans and motorhomes were offered.

traffic

The 9th stadium was built near Bad Bubendorf because of the favorable traffic situation. Immediately next to the site, the main road H2 leads over the Hauensteinpass , approx. 100 meters from the entrance is the Bad Bubendorf train station of the Waldenburgerbahn . During the European Championship, Autobus AG Liestal set up a bus connection every 15 minutes, and the area was connected to Liestal and Basel by the Waldenburgerbahn.

Surname

The name «9. Stadium »alluded to the fact that the site should be an adequate complement to the eight football stadiums in which the Euro games were played. The inventors of the UBS Arena , whose 16 facilities served the same purposes and which were also known as “5. Swiss Stadium ».

Problems

Downsizing in the run-up to the EM

In the run-up to the European Football Championship in 2008, the project turned out to be far too big and had to be reduced significantly due to a lack of interest. Although sales started in December 2007, only around a quarter of the tickets had been sold by mid-May 2008, even after the stadium had been reduced from 10,000 to 6,500. No buyer was found for the naming rights.

Lack of public interest during the EM

During the European Football Championship in 2008, the so-called 9th stadium met with extremely little interest and had to contend with a massive shortage of spectators from the start. Because of the lack of fans, the organizers were forced to lower the prices for seats from an initial 50 francs to 20 francs. In contrast to other public viewing offers with an entry price of 5 francs, the standing room was still chargeable. For the Italy - Romania match on June 13, 2008, only around 500 of the 6,500 tickets were sold. Even in the preliminary round game against Turkey , which was all decisive for Switzerland, two days earlier, only 3,000 tickets were sold, which corresponded to a utilization of less than 50 percent.

With the exception of the first two group matches in Switzerland, the so-called 9th stadium never exceeded the 1,000-seat mark. It reached its absolute low point on the occasion of the Austria-Poland game on June 12, 2008, when only 50 people watched the game in the facility.

Lack of public interest in the supporting program

The announced supporting program also met with extremely little interest. The concert planned for June 5, 2008, at which the Scorpions should have performed, had to be canceled due to a lack of public interest. The concert by DJ Bobo planned for June 27, 2008 was also canceled due to a lack of demand. The other announced concerts, at which a total of around 30 bands from the region performed, took place in front of almost empty stands.

Low utilization of the fan camp

Together with the number of visitors to the 9th stadium, which was well below the expectations of the organizers, the occupancy rate of the associated fan camp was also very low. No figures were known after the European Championship, but with the exception of the penultimate European Championship weekend on the occasion of the quarter-final game Netherlands - Russia , the fan camp was only very weakly attended, sometimes almost empty. The operator of the second fan camp in Pratteln , which also belongs to the host city Basel, even had to file for bankruptcy immediately after the EM.

Financial consequences

In January 2009 it was announced that the lack of interest had resulted in a loss of millions. Expenses of just under eight million francs were offset by income of just under 3.5 million francs. The loss of 4,335 million francs was borne by the canton of Basel-Landschaft, the operator of Swiss Exhibition and a patron .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Basler Zeitung, January 13, 2009: «9. Stadium »-flop leaves a deficit of over 4 million francs
  2. ↑ a b Camp Bubendorf. In: www.fancamps.net. FANCAMPS.NET, archived from the original on May 4, 2008 ; accessed on July 6, 2013 .
  3. ^ Basler Zeitung: EURO 2008: Basel for the fans
  4. ↑ news.ch: EURO 2008: Building permit for the «9. Stadium » (accessed on February 18, 2008)
  5. ↑ Liestal news: Liestal supports Euro 08 fan zone (accessed on February 18, 2008; PDF; 698 kB)
  6. ^ Basler Zeitung: Construction of the fan system in Bubendorf started
  7. ↑ TNW.ch: EURO 08: Public transport around the clock ( Memento from June 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on February 19, 2008)
  8. ↑ 20 minutes, May 15, 2008: The Olympic Stadium in Bubendorf
  9. ↑ Empty ranks in the 9th stadium. In: www.20min.ch. 20 Minuten, June 14, 2008, accessed July 6, 2013 .
  10. ↑ Dark clouds over the red arena. In: www.sonntagbz.ch. Sunday bz June 15, 2008; archived from the original on August 27, 2008 ; Retrieved July 6, 2013 .
  11. ↑ Neue Luzerner Zeitung Online, June 24, 2008: Little interest in DJ Bobo
  12. ↑ Basler Zeitung, June 30, 2008: Company operating the Pratteln fan camp files for bankruptcy

Coordinates: 47 ° 27 '36.7 "  N , 7 ° 44' 17.7"  E ; CH1903:  622,592  /  256644