Voith Arena
| Voith Arena | |
|---|---|
| Albstadion | |
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| The Voith Arena in Heidenheim (April 2011) | |
| Sponsor name (s) | |
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| Data | |
| place | Schloßhaustraße 162 89522 Heidenheim an der Brenz , Germany
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| Coordinates | 48 ° 40 ′ 6.7 " N , 10 ° 8 ′ 21.5" E |
| owner | 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 eV |
| operator | 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 eV |
| opening | 1972 |
| Extensions | 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014 |
| surface | Natural grass |
| costs | approx. 20.6 million euros |
| architect | Dietbert E. Träger |
| capacity | 15,000 seats |
| Societies) | |
| Events | |
The Voith-Arena , originally and in parlance also Albstadion , is a football stadium in the Baden-Württemberg town of Heidenheim an der Brenz . It is the home ground of the second division soccer team 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 . The facility currently has 15,000 seats (of which approx. 6000 seats). It is located on the Heidenheimer Schlossberg, not far from Hellenstein Castle at 555 meters above sea level , making it the highest stadium in German professional football. 1. FC Heidenheim has been the owner of the soccer arena since April 4, 2019. The club paid the city two million euros .
history
In 1970 the city of Heidenheim decided to build a football and athletics stadium on the Schlossberg. The Albstadion was inaugurated a year later. In 1972 the Heidenheimer Sportbund played its first soccer game in the amateur league of North Württemberg in the Albstadion. A year later the first grandstand was completed. At that time it had 700 seats and today it forms the core of the south stand.
It was only with the promotion of 1. FC Heidenheim to the regional league that further significant construction measures followed. On the north side of the Albstadion, fixed standing bars were installed on the previous grass hill, which were later used for the construction of the west and east stands. On February 17, 2009, the Heidenheim municipal council decided to build a new football stadium on the site of the aging Albstadion. Original plans to build the stadium in a north-south orientation or to build a new stadium near the motorway entrance to the A7 at Seeberg were abandoned because of the high costs. After the conversion plan initially provided for a capacity of 8,000 spectators, it was changed after the promotion of 1. FC Heidenheim to the third division, as the DFB stipulates a minimum capacity of 10,000 spectators here. The cost of the renovation rose to around 14.1 million euros. This was largely borne by the city of Heidenheim, which continued to own the stadium, and FCH as the main user. The renovation began just one day after the last game of the season against 1. FC Nürnberg II in June 2009. The first home game of the 2009/10 season against Wuppertaler SV was held again in Heidenheim.
The right to name the new stadium was initially acquired by the real estate company GAGFAH . Thus the stadium was named GAGFAH-Arena for about a year and a half . At the home game against Dynamo Dresden on April 30, 2010, the 6 × 4 meter video wall was put into operation. It comes from the old Aachen Tivoli and is located in the corner between the west and south stands. The official inauguration after the renovation took place on September 4, 2010 with a friendly game between 1. FC Heidenheim and first division club VfB Stuttgart (2: 3). The first live broadcast from the stadium was the 2-0 victory of the German U20 men's national team on October 7, 2010 against Switzerland. At the home game against VfR Aalen on March 19, 2011, the stadium was sold out for the first time with 10,000 spectators at the time. On February 24, 2011, the name of the stadium was changed to Voith-Arena after the local mechanical engineering company Voith had acquired the naming rights for the next ten years. By the end of 2013, the stadium's south stand had been expanded and the two adjacent curves closed. The stadium now offers space for 13,000 spectators. On the forecourt of the east stand a stadium restaurant as well as a fan article and ticket sales were built. A young talent center has been located behind the south-east curve since July 2014. The main sponsor of the second division, Paul Hartmann AG , acted as the bearer of the name . On July 26, 2014, the youth performance center was inaugurated as part of a test match against VfB Stuttgart. The total costs of these expansion measures amounted to approx. 6.5 million euros, of which the city of Heidenheim contributed 3.6 million. The rest was covered by the club and sponsors. Due to the promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga, the stadium had to have 15,000 spectator seats by May 2015, according to the DFL . The DFL tied the issue of the second division license for 1. FC Heidenheim to this condition. For this purpose, the two corners between the main grandstand in the north and the east and west grandstand were built on. On July 29, 2014, the Heidenheim City Council approved a subsidy for the stadium expansion of 2.5 million euros. The association itself contributed a further two million euros. For the game against FC Ingolstadt on April 10, 2015, all 15,000 seats were available for the first time.
Following a proposal from the city administration, the local council approved the sale of the stadium to 1. FC Heidenheim on July 19, 2018 for two million euros. The lease contract until 2039 will be terminated. So far, the club has paid a lease of 2,900 euros a year. The contract was negotiated during the league times. The arena includes the parking lot, the fan meeting point as well as two grass and two artificial turf fields and a recently created grass field with changing rooms and sanitary facilities. The site has an area of 102,000 m² and, according to the report, is worth 18.4 million euros. If one subtracts the future losses (12.4 million euros), investments (2.7 million euros) and money from sports sponsorship (725,000 euros), the price is 2.5 million euros. Further investments would result in around 475,000 euros. Ultimately, the city saves money with the sale. On April 4, 2019, 1. FC Heidenheim announced that the purchase contract with the city of Heidenheim for a sum of two million euros had been signed.
On November 26, 2019, Toralf Haag, CEO of Voith GmbH & Co. KGaA, announced at the general meeting of 1.FC Heidenheim that Voith had reached an agreement with the club to extend the sponsorship contract, which runs until 2024, by a further ten years until 30 June 2034 known.
Furnishing
After completion of the expansion work, the stadium will have a total of 15,000 covered spectator seats and 37 business boxes.
| Seats | Standing room | Boxes | Wheelchair spaces | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (Main) north stand | 2000 | - | 17th | 45 |
| (Opposite) south stand | 1775 | - | - | - |
| East Stand | - | 3500 | - | - |
| West Stand Home Area | - | 1600 | - | - |
| West stand guest area | 330 | 1200 | - | - |
| Southeast curve | 1600 | 750 | - | - |
| Northeast curve | 100 | 1000 | 10 | - |
| Northwest curve | 100 | 1000 | 10 | - |
| total | 5905 | 9050 | 37 | 45 |
The main stand houses the FCH Business Club with 1,000 seats and 17 boxes. The club's office and the stadium's event office are also located here. In the entrance area to the business club there are hundreds of names of the donors of a building block campaign. In addition to the approximately 25 football matches per year, more than 100 corporate and private events as well as stadium tours take place in the stadium.
The landmark of the stadium are the distinctive floodlight masts that protrude diagonally over the field. The playing field is provided with underfloor heating . Other special features are the proximity of the spectator seats to the playing field, which are a maximum of seven meters away from the sideline, as well as the steeply inclined grandstands.
When building the arena, the aim was to build the first energy-neutral stadium in German professional football. For this purpose, solar collectors were installed on all grandstand roofs and a rainwater storage pond was created behind the west grandstand for irrigation of the lawn.
Above the stadium there are a total of four club's own training grounds, two of them with artificial turf and one with turf heating. The first and currently only so-called kick-back system in Germany was installed on this artificial turf pitch. The ball hit the concrete wall comes back at different speeds and trajectories and challenges the shooter to react quickly, with a very high training effect being achieved. The 42 meter long system was developed and built by Scos GmbH .
gallery
The Albstadion 2008 before the renovation
Remodeling and ...
... expansion of the south stand
See also
Web links
- Official website of the Voith Arena
- stadionsuche.de: Voith-Arena ( Memento from May 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- stadionwelt.de: Conversion guide 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 / Albstadion ( Memento from January 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- Stadium on the website of 1. FC Heidenheim ( Memento from May 4, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
- Visitor report from 2004 before the renovation
Individual evidence
- ↑ Data and facts. In: voith-arena.de. Retrieved April 5, 2019 .
- ↑ Purchase agreement signed - FCH acquires the Voith Arena from the city of Heidenheim for two million euros. In: fc-heidenheim.de. 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 , April 4, 2019, accessed on April 4, 2019 .
- ↑ Football: The former Albstadion is now the Voith Arena ( 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. , February 25, 2011. Retrieved February 26, 2011.
- ↑ David Hitzler: Heidenheimer Voith-Arena will be expanded to 13,000 seats. In: liga3-online.de. April 8, 2013, accessed April 5, 2019 .
- ^ Stadium finally owned by the club. In: stadionwelt.de. July 20, 2018. Retrieved July 25, 2018 .
- ↑ Andreas Uitz: Voith-Arena: A bargain for two million euros? In: swp.de. Heidenheimer Zeitung , July 18, 2018, accessed on July 25, 2018 .
- ^ 1. FC Heidenheim extended with naming right partner. In: stadionwelt.de. November 27, 2019, accessed November 27, 2019 .
