BayArena

BayArena
The BayArena seen from the northeast, 2009
Earlier names
Ulrich Haberland Stadium (1958–1998)
Data
place	Bismarckstrasse 122–124 51373 Leverkusen , Germany
Coordinates	51 ° 2 '17.5 "  N , 7 ° 0' 8.3"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 2 '17.5 "  N , 7 ° 0' 8.3"  E
classification	4th
owner	Bayer 04 Immobilien GmbH
operator	Bayer 04 Leverkusen Football GmbH
start of building	April 23, 1956
opening	2nd August 1958
First game	Bayer 04 Leverkusen - Fortuna Düsseldorf
Renovations	1958, 1990, 2009
Extensions	2009
surface	Natural grass
costs	€ 73 million (renovation 2009)
architect	Renovation 2009: Design : HPP Hentrich-Petschnigg & Partner Construction : Max Bögl and Köster Bau
capacity	30,210 seats
Capacity (internat.)	29,412 seats
playing area	105 m × 68 m
Societies)
Bayer 04 Leverkusen
Events
Second leg in the 1988 UEFA Cup final League Cup finals 1997-2000 Final of the Football World Cup for People with Disabilities 2006 Football Women's World Cup 2011 Bayer 04 Leverkusen matches International matches of the German national soccer team

The BayArena [ ˈbaɪ̯ʔaˌreːna ], until 1998 Ulrich Haberland Stadium , is a football stadium built between 1956 and 1958 in the Küppersteg district of the North Rhine-Westphalian city ​​of Leverkusen , where the Bundesliga club Bayer 04 Leverkusen plays its home games. The stadium is owned by Bayer 04 Immobilien GmbH, which, like Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bayer AG . The operators are Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Bayer Gastronomie and Lindner Hotels & Resorts .

prehistory

In 1923, the club's members built the first sports field facility with two courts, which was just called Bayer-Platz for short. In 1931 the Bayer soccer players achieved the long-awaited promotion to the 1st Cologne District League. A year later the square on the Dhünnaue was abandoned and the new stadium at the Stadtpark was officially opened on September 4, 1932 in Bayer-Wohnkolonie III. In 1936 the Bayer-Elf made it to the second highest German league at this location. During the Second World War , the stadium in the Stadtpark was given a wooden grandstand in 1941, increasing the capacity to 15,000 spectators. In 1949, after two promotion games against the newly founded 1. FC Köln (first derby) and Schalke 04, the team from Leverkusen narrowly missed promotion to the top German division, but the club's leaders made a forward-looking decision that was approved at a general meeting of the same year: the introduction of paid football . Bayer 04 were then placed in the 2nd division of the Oberliga West. In 1953/54 entry into the final round of the German championship was only missed by three points. Within five years, the sporting advancement was surprisingly followed by the descent into the second class. Nevertheless, the club continued to believe in sporting success and began building a new venue. On April 23, 1956, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Ulrich Haberland Stadium on Bismarckstrasse took place.

Infrastructure and arrival

The BayArena was built as a multifunctional complex and includes conference rooms as well as an official fan shop. Furthermore, the BayArena was the first stadium in Europe with a McDonald’s restaurant and a four-star hotel from the Lindner Group with 200 beds. The hotel behind the north stand has 120 box seats on the fourth floor with an unobstructed view of the stadium interior. The McDonald's branch moved to the other side of the street as part of the renovation in 2008/09 and has not been part of the stadium since then.

With a capacity of 30,210 spectators, the BayArena is one of the smaller stadiums in the Bundesliga. There are also ten VIP boxes for a total of 140 people with underground parking spaces. A VIP box costs around 10,000 euros and additional costs for annual tickets in the interior of the grandstand are 1,800 euros per person. With over 19,000 season tickets, almost two thirds of the spectators are annual ticket holders. With only 3,000 home standing places since the 2013/14 season , the BayArena has the smallest proportion of low-cost fan areas in the Bundesliga and thus positions itself in the medium and high-price range.

As is typical for a Bundesliga stadium, Bayer 04 Leverkusen's infrastructure is housed in the stadium. The office is located in the south stand of the arena, the medical area in the west stand. The training area is located on the western part of the stadium. However, the stadium's location on the edge of residential areas also entails problems with residents and the accessibility through individual motorized traffic. This is solved by a shuttle bus system that brings visitors arriving by car from the free Kurtekotten car park directly in front of the BayArena. Bismarckstrasse at the stadium will be closed to through traffic for this period. It is possible to travel by Deutsche Bahn; Leverkusen Mitte train station is about one kilometer from the stadium and can be easily reached on foot on arrival and departure. Buses of the Wupsi local transport system also enable visitors to travel from the surrounding area.

Since the 2009/10 season, smoking has been prohibited indoors, in the stands and in closed rooms.

Gastronomy / event management and payment system

The BayArena will be marketed by the newly created BayArena Plus event department .

All of the BayArena's catering areas (business club, sponsor lounges, VIP boxes, kiosks, fan meetings, restaurants and the press club) are operated by Bayer Gastronomie . In addition to the catering areas, BayArena Plus operates visitor and event management. This enables companies to hold conferences and meetings in the BayArena.

Acquisition and payment station for the BayArena-Card , behind it the guest area, 2016

All catering stands can only be used for cashless payments with Girocard, credit card ( Visa and Mastercard ), Google Pay , Apple Pay and the BayArena Card , which was introduced in the 2009/10 season and is based on the GeldKarte system , which means that food is generally distributed more quickly should. Ten euros (up to 2011 five euros) are required for a deposit card issued by the association; Customers receive this deposit back in full, including the remaining credit, when they return the card. The BayArena Card can only be topped up against cash. At mobile vendors and top-up stations, the card can be loaded with additional cash. There is no minimum top-up amount, for technical reasons there can be a maximum of 200 euros on the card at the same time. However, cash can still be used in all fan shops during and outside match days. The BayArena Card can also be used in the stadiums of Werder Bremen , FC Ingolstadt 04 and VfL Wolfsburg .

Important events

The venue for the 2011 Women's World Cup

The BayArena has hosted the league cup final as well as friendly and qualifying matches for the German national soccer team on several occasions .

As the home ground of Bayer 04 Leverkusen, it has also hosted numerous UEFA Cup and Champions League matches with opponents such as Real Madrid , FC Barcelona , Manchester United and Liverpool FC . The club also won the UEFA Cup in 1988 in the Ulrich Haberland Stadium during the renovation phase.

The city of Leverkusen applied with the stadium to host the 2006 World Cup . Due to the small chance of being considered as a venue, Leverkusen withdrew the application. Initially, it was agreed under the DFB team boss Rudi Völler that the German national team would move into Leverkusen during the World Cup instead. After Jürgen Klinsmann became national coach, Berlin was chosen as the quarter. Instead, the final of the 2006 World Cup for people with disabilities was held in the BayArena on September 16.

The BayArena was the venue for the 2011 women's soccer World Cup . Three preliminary round matches and a quarter-finals took place in Leverkusen.

Expansion electronics

1956 - The old Haberland

After many years of playing at the Bayersportplatz, it was decided to build a new stadium at a different location. The groundbreaking ceremony for the Ulrich Haberland Stadium on Bismarckstrasse took place on April 23. The work was completed in 1958 and the stadium with a capacity of 22,500 was inaugurated on August 2nd. In 1963, the Ulrich Haberland Stadium was given a floodlight system to mark the 100th anniversary of Bayer AG. However, the floodlights could only be used for a short time because a mast fell victim to a strong wind at the turn of the year 1966. Therefore, the three remaining floodlight masts were the distinguishing feature of the Leverkusen stadium in the next few years. With the promotion to the first Bundesliga in 1979, a temporary additional grandstand was built on the east side due to the large number of spectators.

1986 - The new Ulrich Haberland Stadium

Guest block of the old BayArena 2005

With the advancement and establishment in the top German league, the club decided to gradually build a new football stadium with a capacity of around 27,000 spectators. The new construction began with the west stand and was completed by 1990 with the exception of the south stand. In the south, the flat standing curve of the old stadium including the monochrome display board remained and, as Block H, was part of the area for the visiting fans. Contrary to the original concept, the south stand was built in 1996 with box seats, an office and an underground car park. Due to the unusual architecture, it is still a typical distinguishing feature of the stadium. In 1998 a hotel was built on the north stand and the name was changed to BayArena . Due to the changes in the expansion concept such. B. the box seats in the south stand and a conversion into a purely seated stadium, the capacity finally shrank to only 22,500 spectators. In 1999, 220 gas-powered radiant heaters were installed, making the BayArena the first stadium in Germany with grandstand heating. In the course of the renovation work, the radiant heaters were removed again in 2009.

2008 - expansion and modernization

After the renovation in 2009

The BayArena under floodlights

On March 30, 2007, the Board of Management of Bayer AG decided that the BayArena should be expanded to a capacity of over 30,000 spectators. The renovation work began in December 2007 and was completed at the beginning of the 2009/10 season . Because of the renovation, the second round home games of the 2008/09 season were played in the Düsseldorf LTU arena .

The previous grandstand areas have been increased and their capacity expanded from 22,500 to around 27,000 seats and a standing curve for 3,000 fans, which must be converted into seats for international games. Thus the BayArena has a variable audience capacity. The guest area is limited to the regulated lower limit of ten percent, i.e. 3,000 seats. The hospitality area with restaurants and boxes has been expanded from 812 to over 2000 seats. The number of jobs for media representatives will almost double to 228. In order to underline the solidarity with Bayer 04 Leverkusen, the green seat shells have now been exchanged for red and black seats, which form the lettering "1904" and "Bayer 04". In addition, as part of the repainting, the pillars were kept in black and red. With a total size of 2,600 square meters, the team and physical area with changing rooms, treatment and massage rooms has been more than quadrupled.

The spectator stands of the new stadium are spanned by a circular roof made of Makrolon , which protrudes far beyond the stand area on the long sides of the field and thus offers visitors protection from precipitation in front of the stadium. The roof is self-supporting and does not sit on top of the structure as is usual in other stadiums.

An oversized Bayer cross was also planned over the arena, which would have been formed with a diameter of 200 meters from 2000 transparent light-emitting diodes, which should make the company logo clearly recognizable from the air even from great distances. For reasons of cost, however, this was initially waived. In June 2015 Bayer 04 Leverkusen Managing Director Michael Schade announced that the association had abandoned the idea of ​​a Bayer cross in the roof structure and that this was "no longer an issue".

The renovation costs initially rose due to increased steel prices from 56 to 70 million euros and came to 73 million euros in the end. Because of this, the construction of a parking garage has also been postponed.

The stadium was reopened on August 15, 2009 with a Bundesliga game against TSG 1899 Hoffenheim . The unofficial first game was a test match on August 10, 2009 between Bayer 04 Leverkusen II and SV Schlebusch. The German national team also paid a visit to the renovated stadium on September 5, 2009 with a game against South Africa .

In the summer of 2012, parts of the roof had to be replaced due to the risk of fire.

In April 2013 Bayer 04 Leverkusen announced that the BayArena was to be modernized into a multimedia experience space. In cooperation with Deutsche Telekom and Cisco , over 607 HD monitors have now been installed in the entire stadium (as of August 2015). In addition, there are now 360 WLAN access points in the stadium, which ensure that 20,000 visitors can surf the Internet at the same time. A special stadium app gives fans access to exclusive content and interactive functions such as quiz competitions, games or player ratings. The system behind these extensions is called StadiumVision , which is also used in stadiums such as the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu ( Real Madrid ), the new Wembley Stadium ( London ) and the Johan Cruyff Arena ( Amsterdam ).

Games of the German national soccer team

Simon Rolfes in the friendly against South Africa on September 5, 2009

The German national soccer team has so far played the following matches in the stadium:

December 18, 1991, European Championship qualification
Germany	-	Luxembourg	4-0
October 8, 1995, European Championship qualification
Germany	-	Moldova	6: 1
4th June 1999, European Championship qualification
Germany	-	Moldova	6: 1
March 24, 2001, World Cup qualification
Germany	-	Albania	2: 1
May 18, 2002, friendly match
Germany	-	Austria	6: 2
May 30, 2006, friendly match
Germany	-	Japan	2: 2
5th September 2009, friendly match
Germany	-	South Africa	2-0
June 8, 2018, friendly match
Germany	-	Saudi Arabia	2: 1

Fan area

North curve until 2013

The stadium's fan area has changed location several times over the past few decades. Traditionally, the fans stood in the old Ulrich Haberland Stadium in the southern arch of the wooden stand, the southern curve (P-Block), which was also sung about in Henning Krautmacher's old Bayer anthem . When the stadium was then modernized with new concrete stands in the 1980s, fans switched to the standing curve of the A block in 1985 and a little later in 1991 to the north, the C block. At the end of the millennium, the British-style stadium was free of fences and standing spaces and the fans moved into their new home in 1996 in the north stand, the D-block. With the renovation in 2009, the concept of standing room was reintroduced. In the northeast corner of the stadium there was a standing block with 2000 seats until 2013. In 2013 it was moved to the lower part of the north stand and the capacity increased to 3000 seats. This is the current home of the core fan groups. This standing area is cordoned off at the sides and in front by two meter high fences.

useful information

The name Ulrich-Haberland-Stadion has been borne by the adjacent amateur stadium since it was renamed BayArena for reasons of tradition .

On March 14, 2010, the first live broadcast of a Bundesliga match in 3D took place in the BayArena with the Bundesliga match Bayer 04 Leverkusen versus Hamburger SV . The game was broadcast in HD on Sky and could be viewed with appropriate receivers and 3D glasses.

See also

• List of the largest football stadiums in Germany

Web links

Commons : BayArena  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• bayer04.de: Official website of the BayArena
• leverkusen.com: Description in the Leverkusen city guide
• Werkskultur.de: Extensive fan wiki about the history and background of the stadium
• stadionwelt.de: Stadium guide
• stadiumdb.com: BayArena (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Bayer back in the jewelry box. rp-online.de, August 13, 2009
2. ↑ Shareholdings of the Bayer Group as of December 31, 2013
3. ↑ History and history of the stadium ( Memento from June 12, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) on bayarena.de, accessed November 5, 2013
4. ↑ ^{a b} Bayer 04 increases the fan curve by 1000 standing places rp-online.de, March 22, 2013
5. ↑ No smoking in the BayArena. rp-online.de, July 29, 2009
6. ↑ Bayer 04 simplifies payments in the BayArena. Retrieved September 5, 2019 . 
7. ↑ How you can top up your BayArena Card , accessed on April 28, 2015
8. ↑ Pay cashless ; werder.de, accessed on August 15, 2017
9. ↑ The Schanzer fan card - an all-rounder ; fcingolstadt.de, accessed on December 18, 2018
10. ↑ Pay cashless ; vfl-wolfsburg.de, accessed on February 27, 2020
11. ↑ World Cup: Four games in Leverkusen. ( Memento from March 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) rp-online.de, March 20, 2009
12. ↑ Comfortable grandstand heating with bright radiators. IKZ-Haustechnik, edition 22/1999, page 44 ff.
13. ↑ In the comfort zone. ksta.de, August 14, 2009
14. ↑ BayArena expansion decided / beginning in 2007. stadionwelt.de, March 30, 2007
15. ↑ ^{a b c} Bayer 04 from the end of 2008 in Düsseldorf. kicker.de, March 4, 2008
16. ↑ BayArena is being expanded. ( Memento from April 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) bayer04.de, July 13, 2007
17. ↑ Renovation: BayArena will be ready by August , RP Online, published and accessed on June 2, 2015
18. ↑ Bayer's embarrassing roof damage. handelsblatt.com, June 5, 2012
19. ↑ BayArena is becoming a multimedia experience space. ( Memento from June 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) bayer04.de, April 16, 2013
20. ↑ Sky shows the Bundesliga game in 3D. heise.de, March 4, 2010