Bruno Plache Stadium

Bruno Plache Stadium
	"Bruno"
	The Bruno Plache Stadium with grandstand on September 27, 2019
Earlier names
	Probstheidaer Stadium (until 1949);
Data
place	Connewitzer Str. 21 04289 Leipzig , Germany;
Coordinates	51 ° 18 '10.5 " N , 12 ° 25' 9.3" E Coordinates: 51 ° 18 '10.5 " N , 12 ° 25' 9.3" E
owner	1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig
operator	1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig Spielbetriebs mbH
start of building	1920
opening	August 5th to 13th, 1922
First game	VfB Leipzig - SC Victoria Hamburg 2: 3
Renovations	1935, 1946-1949, 1995-1996, 2017
Extensions	1932, 1946-1949, 1997
surface	Natural grass
capacity	10,900 seats
Societies)
	1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig (since 2004);
Events
	Final German Football Championship 1921/22 ;

The Bruno-Plache-Stadion is a football stadium with an athletics facility in Leipzig , Saxony . It is the venue for the home games of the 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig soccer club . The facility is located in the Probstheida district within sight of the Monument to the Battle of the Nations . The venue from the 1920s officially holds 15,600 visitors, but is limited to a maximum of 10,900 spectators for security reasons. It is generally just called "Bruno" by the fans .

The stadium was given its current name in 1949. It was named after the workers' sports official Bruno Plache . Previously the stadium was called Probstheidaer Stadion , but was mostly called VfB-Stadion in the media after the club VfB Leipzig .

When it opened in 1922, the venue was the largest club-owned stadium in Germany with a planned capacity of 40,000 visitors. The wooden grandstand, which was built in 1932 and is still in use today, has largely been preserved in its original state. This makes it an important architectural example of a large grandstand in German football stadiums of that time.

history

1920 to 1945

At the end of 1920, an 80,000 square meter estate in Probstheida was acquired for VfB Leipzig in order to build a new stadium there. After almost two years, a stadium for 40,000 spectators was completed. It already had a small grandstand with 800 seats and a 400-meter running track. The spectator embankment was designed as a grass wall, similar to today's Leipzig festival meadow .

The VfB Stadium was inaugurated with a festival week from August 5 to 13, 1922. 50,000 spectators attended the premiere, with SC Victoria Hamburg defeating hosts VfB 3-2. During the festival week, the DFB hosted the second final of the never decided German championship between 1. FC Nürnberg and Hamburger SV, with around 50,000 to 60,000 spectators.

In 1932 the covered wooden grandstand was expanded, which takes up a large part of the west straight. Today it is probably the largest wooden stand in its original condition and still in function in a German football stadium from that time. In addition, the dams were widened - a prerequisite for the international match against Switzerland on March 6, 1932 in front of 50,000 spectators. On the night of February 16-17, 1935, a storm destroyed parts of the stands and the south gate.

After the air raid on Leipzig on April 6, 1945 , bodies that had been collected were placed on the VfB sports field without a coffin because the storage capacity in the nearby southern cemetery was exhausted. “They lay here for many days in rain and sunshine. A terrible smell of corpses polluted the area. "

The Probstheidaer Stadion remained its property until VfB was dissolved in 1945.

1946 until today

Bruno Plache Stadium 1952

Women in line at a sporting event, 1949

From May 1946 the stadium was used for popular sports events . The first high point after the Second World War were the finals for the Eastern Zone Championship in football and field handball on July 4, 1948, which were held as a double event.

Until the III. Parliament of the FDJ at Whitsun 1949, further war damage was removed and the stadium, now named after Bruno Plache, modernized. Among other things, the lawn dam was replaced by the concrete-edged standing trusses that are still present today. 70,000 spectators attended the FDJ sports show in the totally overcrowded stadium - the absolute record number of visitors.

Another high point was recorded in 1952. The sold-out for weeks stadium was (55,000 visitors) on 7 May milestone for the first time by the leading GDR Peace Race of cyclists. Also Chemie Leipzig avoided in those years in important games after Probstheida. After Unity East, the footballers of the SC Rotation Leipzig in 1954 in the Bruno-Plache-Stadium at home.

However, the spectators in the Bruno-Plache-Stadion rarely experienced the really big football matches, as 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig played its top matches in the central stadium. The best games played in the Plache Stadium are:

the 1966 IF Cup final against IFK Norrköping in front of 20,000 spectators,
IF Cup game 1967 against Hannover 96 in front of 35,000 spectators,
the promotion game to the GDR league on May 31, 1970 against Wismut Gera , which in front of 30,000 spectators meant the absolute record number of spectators in the GDR league ,
the league game on September 3, 1977 against Dynamo Dresden in front of 32,000 spectators and
the 1983 European Cup against Girondins Bordeaux and Werder Bremen in front of (officially) around 25,000 spectators.

The filled Bruno Plache Stadium in June 2007

At the beginning of 1992 the DFB closed the Bruno-Plache-Stadion for games of the 2nd Bundesliga . The venue did not meet the safety requirements for the second highest national German soccer division. That is why the games of VfB Leipzig , which was re-established in 1991, took place in the central stadium. As of the 1995/96 season, the safety deficiencies were eliminated, which was associated with a strong reduction in audience capacity, and in 1997 a floodlight system was installed. Since then, VfB has played in Probstheida again until it was dissolved in 2004. There were plans to convert the stadium into a pure football stadium, but VfB's weak finances did not allow this project.

The newly founded 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig has played its games in the stadium since 2004 . The home games in the 3rd district class in 2004/05 were attended by an average of 3,000 spectators, which is unique in the history of German football for this division. In a friendly against Hertha BSC on May 23, 2005 the stadium was almost sold out again for a long time (13,098 spectators).

Since VfB went bankrupt in 1999, the stadium has been owned by the City of Leipzig. The heritable building right has been with 1. FC Lok since July 1, 2015.

The stadium is now dilapidated and for safety reasons the capacity is limited to 10,900 spectators.