In the past, football stadiums were sometimes also called Kampfbahn, today the name usually ends with arena, park or simply stadium in a less martial manner. In general, the names: In the first decades of the Bundesliga, the name of a stadium usually had a connection to its location or its function: Westfalenstadion, Waldstadion, Olympiastadion or Volksparkstadion, for example. Occasionally an arena has been named after a club legend, such as the Fritz Walter Stadium.
Later, when professional football was commercialized down to the last niche, sponsors then came up with the idea of buying naming rights as well as advertising space on the jersey. So the Westfalenstadion in Dortmund became the Signal-Iduna-Park, the Waldstadion in Frankfurt became the Deutsche Bank Park, and the Müngersdorfer Stadion in Cologne became the Rheinenergiestadion. This could also be quite cute at times – the home ground of the SpVgg Greuther Fürth was sometimes called the Playmobil Stadium (but was always a stadium for real big people).
It wasn’t just the names that changed: the old arenas and stadiums were often still drafty buildings with the wind whistling through them. Since the grandstands were often unroofed, perhaps with the exception of the main grandstand, the fans got soaking wet when it rained and often had poor vision because there was a wide running track between the grandstands and the square – the venues were also used for athletics competitions .
Today’s newly built arenas usually keep at least the spectators dry, sometimes they are even completely covered. They are pure football stadiums, which are also used and marketed for concerts, as a congress center or other spectacle. Sometimes the lawn, which is usually heated, can even be rolled out so that it is not damaged. There are restaurants, family grandstands, fan shops, club museums.
But one thing has remained in all the change and modernization: the arenas of the Bundesliga have remained places of pilgrimage for fans. Nowhere else are joy and sorrow so close together every two weeks, the beer flows out of pleasure or frustration. How well do you know the arenas of the republic? Take the test above.
