Aspen moss
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| The Espenmoos in St. Gallen | |
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| place | Heiligkreuzstrasse 16 9008 St. Gallen , Switzerland
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| Coordinates | 747 670 / 255982 |
| opening | 1910 |
| First game | October 16, 1910 FC St. Gallen - Brühl St. Gallen 1-0 |
| Renovations | 2008 |
| capacity | 5'700 seats |
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The Espenmoos is a football stadium in Heiligkreuz in the east of the city of St. Gallen . It served as the home stadium of FC St. Gallen from 1910 until the 2007/08 season . The name of the venue goes back to the Middle High German word Ezzisch for seed field and stands for a field that is only built on every other year.
Up until the last game on May 20, 2008, only 11,300 spectators were admitted to the games because the structural condition and the rest of the stadium infrastructure no longer met the requirements. The Espenmoos with its almost 9,000 standing room was dismantled in summer 2008 (only the main grandstand with its distinctive arch remained) and is now used as a public sports facility for the city of St. Gallen.
On September 14, 2005, after almost ten years of planning, the groundbreaking for the AFG Arena , today Kybunpark, took place in the west of the city , with a capacity of around 14,000 seats and standing room for 7,000. It replaced the Espenmoos stadium in the 2008/09 season .
Technical specifications
Before the demolition, the capacity of the Espenmoos stadium was made up as follows: 3,186 covered seats, 84 uncovered seats, 7,800 covered standing and 230 uncovered standing, resulting in a total capacity of 11,300 spectators. The fans of FC St. Gallen were accommodated on the standing ramp in the “Sector Green”, the opposite stand was named “Sector Blue”.
history
Since the Kreuzbleiche, which was often not available, could only be charged twice a year, the question of the sports field became topical. An official project on the Weiherweid, with systems for the football and ice club, as well as the school children, was rejected by the people. The club, which in 1910 had 338 members, sent six active teams and a veteran eleven to the championships and played a total of 88 games without a seat of its own, now took matters into its own hands and solved the sports field issue on Espenmoos, which belongs to the political community , in a wonderful location. The budget of 12,000 francs was exceeded by 3,000 francs, the civil engineering cost 2,200, the building construction 11,700 and the furniture 1,000. 8,360 francs had been collected from voluntary donations, the rest had to be generated from the income, with the game against International Milan (2: 2) with 1,050 francs resulting in a record collection. The sports field with a neat, 600-seat grandstand was inaugurated on October 16, 1910 with a match against Brühl, who had risen to Serie A for the first time and was beaten 1-0. In May 1912, the first international match in St.Gallen took place on this model layout, which Germany won 2-1. A short time later, the green and white celebrated the record victory in their club history in Espenmoos when they defeated FC Luzern with a 17-0.
During the Second World War , the Espenmoos was intended as a field for growing potatoes. The FCSG managed to prevent this; instead, sheep grazed on the field until the 1950s. When Espenmoos did not have a scoreboard , the players were forced to read the time on the nearby church tower or had to ask a supervisor. That only changed in 1947 when a football clock was installed for the first time. A Totomat board followed in 1954.
In the meantime, the Espenmoos also served the SC Brühl as a (provisional) home. After the main grandstand in the Krontal stadium fell victim to a fire on the night of October 12th to 13th, 1958, FC St. Gallen gave its city rivals refuge until 1960. It was precisely in this phase that Brühl played in the national league B, during the FCSG was third class.
The attendance record in Espenmoos dates back to October 2, 1985. At that time, the St. Gallen team met Inter Milan in the UEFA Cup . Thanks to the additional grandstands, there were over 16,200 spectators in Espenmoos.
The first speaker in the early 1960s was Aubey Naef, who was replaced by Jeannot Lucchi in 1968. Afterwards, the sisters Monika and Helen Schlegel were speakers at the home games of FC St. Gallen in Espenmoos for 18 years. Then they were deposed by the then club president Hans Hurni . Richard Fischbacher has been active as an FCSG speaker since 1994.
On March 6, 2002, over 11,000 spectators waited for the kick-off of a game against FC Basel that never kicked off. The reason for the game being canceled was the failure of a generator that should have supplied the floodlights with electricity. The two teams had to leave the semi-dark Espenmoos without having achieved anything. The duel was rescheduled. The editorial of the St. Gallen club president in the match sheet was ironically titled “Lichterlöschen”.
In 2004, the Espenmoos received an inglorious honor when it was nominated with FC St. Gallen for the “ Big Brother Award ”, which is presented annually to private individuals and institutions for “outrageous data collection”. The reason for the nomination was a container that was set up in front of the guest area and in which spectators sometimes had to strip down to their underpants during an identity check.
A very special “theft” caused a lot of astonishment in the media in April 2008: Unknown perpetrators managed to secretly stab the penalty spot on Espenmoos lawn. They recorded their deed on video and provided amusement with the announcement that they would offer the penalty spot a dignified asylum with a sunny spot in the garden.
The last Super League game in Espenmoos was played on May 20, 2008. FC St. Gallen would have needed a home win in the relegation ("Barrage") against AC Bellinzona to ensure they would remain in the Super League. Instead, the "Espen" were defeated by the Ticino with 0: 2 and had to take the path to the second division at the Dernière. After the final whistle, clashes broke out in the stadium between fans of FC St. Gallen and the police. There were numerous arrests and a large-scale manhunt on the Internet. In addition, property damage in the amount of 150,000 Swiss francs was found.
Fan cult
Match books have been sold in Espenmoos since the 1920s. From the simple “newsletter of FC St. Gallen”, which was followed by “Espenpost” and “Espen Sportmagazin”, the name changed to “Espen-Magazin” and the name “Inside”, which is still valid today.
Since moving out of the Espenmoos stadium, the fans of FC St. Gallen have tried to preserve the identity of the past. Both the club and the players are still nicknamed «Espen». The fan curve in the new venue, the AFG Arena in the west of the city, is therefore nicknamed the “Espenblock”. The Espenmoos also adorns a number of fan articles (T-shirts, scarves, etc.) with lettering or motif and lives on during the games in the chants in the new stadium.
The Espenmoos today
The city of St. Gallen rebuilt the Espenmoos stadium in summer 2008 after FC St. Gallen moved out in July 2008. All stands except the main stand were demolished. The cloakrooms have been completely refurbished and now bear the names of former FC St. Gallen players ( Charles Amoah , Tranquillo Barnetta , Beat Rietmann , Hugo Rubio , Marco Tardelli , Jörg Stiel , Iván Zamorano and Marc Zellweger ). The sanitary facilities were also brought up to date and new paths laid out around the stadium. In addition, an artificial turf field was created in the area of the demolished grandstands, which enables training in all seasons. The users of the facility today include the women's team of FC St. Gallen-Staad , which currently (2020/21) plays in the top division ( Women's Super League ) in women's football, and the club's U21 team. Today the Espenmoos is also available for rugby , American football and company sports.
The renovated sports facility was ceremoniously opened on May 18, 2010 by the former FCSG players Tranquillo Barnetta and Marc Zellweger and released for popular sports.
literature
- Daniel Torgler, Daniel Ryser, Matthias Frei: Espenmoos - Football and Fan Culture Appenzeller Verlag, Herisau 2007, ISBN 978-3-85882-463-9 . (Out of stock)
gallery
Südkurve / "Sector Green", 2008
Opposite stand / “Sector Blue”, 2008
The Espenmoos - photographed from Harzbüchelstrasse, 2005
Web links
- stadt.sg.ch: Stadium Espenmoos
- OFV: Stadium Espenmoos
Individual evidence
- ^ Sanktgallen.ch: stadium opening
- ^ Daniel Torgler, Daniel Ryser, Matthias Frei: Espenmoos - Football and Fan Culture , page 149, section «Home win»
- ^ Daniel Torgler, Daniel Ryser, Matthias Frei: Espenmoos - Football and Fan Culture , page 151, section "Krontal"
- ↑ Daniel Torgler, Daniel Ryser, Matthias Frei: Espenmoos - Football and Fan Culture , page 155, section "Record attendance"
- ^ Daniel Torgler, Daniel Ryser, Matthias Frei: Espenmoos - Football and Fan Culture , page 151, section «Lichterlöschen»
- ↑ July 29, 2004: Nomination of the month , Big Brother Award Switzerland 2004
- ↑ Josef Osterwalder: Wil means big effort. (No longer available online.) Appenzeller Zeitung, April 2, 2004, formerly in the original ; Retrieved July 24, 2011 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Andreas Kneubühler: Except for the swimming trunks. (No longer available online.) Weekly WOZ, July 29, 2004, archived from the original on February 4, 2009 ; Retrieved July 24, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ YouTube video: Disappeared penalty point
- ↑ Bellinzona triumphs - St. Gallen is relegated
- ↑ St. Gallen Hooligans: Many references
- ↑ Toggenburger Tagblatt: «It's seething in the fan curve»
- ↑ DV 1879: “Espen” scarves ( memento of the original dated December 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ City of St. Gallen: Baudoku Espenmoos ( Memento of the original from November 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ New Espenmoos inaugurated ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
