Stadium of Friendship (Frankfurt (Oder))
| Friendship Stadium | |
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| The main stand of the stadium | |
| Data | |
| place |
 Frankfurt (Oder) , Germany
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| Coordinates | 52 ° 19 '57.1 " N , 14 ° 33' 22.1" E |
| owner | City of Frankfurt (Oder) |
| operator | City of Frankfurt (Oder) |
| start of building | 1948 |
| opening | July 12, 1953 |
| First game | SV Dynamo Frankfurt – Gwardia Kraków |
| Renovations | 2012-2014 |
| surface | Natural grass |
| capacity | 12,000 |
| Societies) | |
| Events | |
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The Stadium of Friendship is a multi-purpose stadium in Frankfurt (Oder). Among other things, the local 1. FC Frankfurt E / V plays its home games.
history
The stadium was opened on July 12, 1953 after a five-year construction period as part of the city's 700th anniversary. The first football match was played between Dynamo Frankfurt and Gwardia Kraków in front of 25,000 spectators.
Over the years the stadium has been steadily expanded. In 1955, a side square was built and a new running hall in 1962. A year later the floodlight system was modernized. In the following years a new west grandstand was built. Improvements were also made to the reporters 'booths, the parking lots and the players' tunnel. A bust of Werner Seelenbinder by Walter Kreisel was placed in the entrance area.
From the 1974/75 season onwards, European Cup games were played repeatedly in the Stadium of Friendship. The ASK Vorwärts delegated to the city played in the first main round of the UEFA Cup against Juventus Turin . 20,000 spectators came to the game, for which an additional grandstand was built. Up until the 1984/85 season, the ASK Vorwärts played irregularly in the UEFA Cup and played its home games in the Stadium of Friendship. While these European Cup games were largely sold out, only a few thousand spectators came to the home games in the GDR Oberliga . After the club was relegated to the 2nd division in 1988 , the number of spectators continued to decline. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, FC Viktoria 91 from Frankfurt was newly or spun off from the previous club and qualified for the third division, the Oberliga . The stadium's infrastructure deteriorated in the 1990s.
The sports facility was the scene of two international matches. On October 9, 1974, the GDR national football team played in front of 2,000 spectators against Canada and on April 17, 1985 the GDR national team played against Norway in front of 6,000 spectators. In addition, two were U 21 -Länderspiele played in the stadium. 7,000 spectators came in 1995 to the 7-0 victory in the European Championship qualification against Bulgaria two years later, the U21 team separated from Portugal with 1: 1. In 2015, the stadium no longer complies with the DFB safety regulations and is considered dilapidated. The floodlights were dismantled like the display board because of the risk of collapse. In addition, the seating capacity has been reduced from 10,000 to 6,000.
renovation
On September 4, 2012, building minister Jörg Vogelsänger handed over a funding decision of 1.9 million euros from the European Union for the construction of a new functional building. The stadium was converted into a sports and leisure park. A total of around 2.6 million euros was invested in the renovation of the stadium. The showpiece of the renovation is the new two-story functional building with an outside grandstand. It houses a restaurant and offers much more space than the old building. It was opened as part of the home game of 1. FC Frankfurt against Stahl Eisenhüttenstadt on September 13, 2014. Over 1,000 spectators came to the opening game. Since then, 1. FC Frankfurt has been playing all of its home games in the stadium again, and not on the artificial turf pitch next to the stadium, as it often did before.
Web links
- Stadium of Friendship on the website of FC Frankfurt
- Visitor report from 2005 on the website of groundhopping.de