Stadium of Friendship (Gera)

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Friendship Stadium
Gera Stadium.JPG
The Stadium of Friendship: View from Osterstein Castle
Data
place GermanyGermany Gera , Germany
Coordinates 50 ° 52 '47.4 "  N , 12 ° 4' 2.4"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 52 '47.4 "  N , 12 ° 4' 2.4"  E
owner City of Gera
opening 17th August 1952
First game BSG Motor Gera - BSG Motor Jena (4: 2)
surface Natural grass
capacity 15,900
Societies)

BSG Wismut Gera, 1st SV Gera / Athletics, LV Gera eV Athletics Club, Eastern Province Rugby Club Gera eV

Events

The Stadium of Friendship is a municipal grass and athletics stadium in Gera . It is currently the training and competition facility for athletes from 1. SV Gera eV and LV Gera.

history

The Stadium of Friendship was built from 1952 to 1955 (at that time it had a capacity of 35,000 spectators). It was officially opened on August 17, 1952 during the construction work in the form of a large sports festival with athletics , football and handball . For decades it was the home of BSG Wismut Gera , which among other things played its games in the GDR Oberliga in the seasons 1966/67 (average attendance 7,577) and 1977/78 (6,785) in this stadium.

Home game of Wismut Gera in August 1989
View of the interior of the stadium in 2007

On February 24, 1962, the quarter-final second leg in the European Cup Winners' Cup between Motor Jena and Leixões SC took place in the Stadium of Friendship after the Jena Ernst Abbe sports field was flooded by the Saale . A few more games of the Jena in the Intertoto Cup followed later .

The first international match in Gera took place on September 21, 1966, with the GDR winning 2-0 against Romania in front of 20,000 spectators . In the following years, four more international matches were played in the Stadium of Friendship: 1971 GDR– Luxembourg 2-1, 1983 GDR– Bulgaria 3-0, 1984 GDR – Romania 2-1 and 1987 GDR– Tunisia 2-0.

The Stadium of Friendship received attention from outside not only in football, but also, for example, as part of the International Peace Tour , where it was a stage goal on several occasions.

In the second half of the nineties, the stadium was extensively renovated, of which the State of Thuringia contributed around 6 million DM. After the renovation, the stadium offers space for 15,900 spectators, of which 5,000 are seats. 1,000 seats are located on the covered main grandstand, 4,000 on the uncovered back straight. There are 10,900 standing places in the curves. This makes the Stadium of Friendship the third largest stadium in Thuringia after the Altenburger Waldstadion and the Steigerwaldstadion in Erfurt . The stadium also has a running track, facilities for athletics competitions and an electronic scoreboard.

In 1991, 2001 and 2005 the final of the Thuringian State Cup took place in Gera. On May 17, 2001, the German national soccer team played their first home game in Gera (1: 1 against Russia ), again on August 2, 2007 (5: 0 against the Czech Republic ). From 2006 until the bankruptcy in January 2012, the home games of 1. FC Gera 03 in the NOFV Oberliga were played in the Stadium of Friendship.

On April 27, 2007, the opening ceremony of the Federal Garden Show 2007 took place in front of around 10,000 spectators in the Stadium of Friendship. The stadium was located directly on the Exhibition Grounds Hofwiesenpark and was therefore partially closed to gaming operations.

On May 6, 2009, a game of the U-17 European Football Championship 2009 took place in Gera - England and the Netherlands separated 1: 1. From June 19 to 20, 2010 the Thuringian Athletics Association held its state championships in the Stadium of Friendship. Since the beginning of the 2012/2013 season, the first team of the BSG Wismut Gera played their home games again in the Stadium of Friendship.

As a result of the floods in June 2013 , the stadium's playing area was flooded for several days.

See also

Web links

Commons : Stadium of Friendship  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Millions in damage due to flooding in sports facilities in Gera. Ostthüringer Zeitung, June 20, 2013, accessed on September 10, 2018 .