About stadium

Stadium introduction

The Hamburg Arena has undergone several name changes since it opened in 1953 with the original name of Volksparkstadion (People’s Park Stadium) lasting until 2001 until the commercial realities of running a top flight football club caught up with Hamburger SV. Volksparkstadion has had three sponsorship names: AOL Arena (2001-2007), HSH Nordbank Arena (2007-2010) and currently Imtech Arena (2010 – present). The stadium was built in 1953 to replace the crumbling Altona Stadium, and the new 65,000 capacity stadium was used as part of the 1974 Fifa World Cup. It hosted three group matches, all of which contained the host nation including a tight encounter between East and West Germany with the “away” side defeating the hosts 1 nil. Until the reconstruction in 1998 the “Old Concrete bowl” was amongst the most unpopular stadiums in Germany with fans dissatisfied with the lack of adequate roofing, and restrictive athletics track around the perimeter of the pitch. The common complaints led to the vision of a “autonomous, and purely football” Arena Project. Consequently the old stands were demolished with the pitch rotating 90 degrees to allow better sunlight onto the pitch. The estimated cost of the new stadium was €90-100 million and Hamburger SV purchased the ownership of the ground outright from the council in 1998 to symbolically mark the start of a new area. The project came in slightly over budget which may have been the driving force of the naming rights sale in 2000. The Imtech Arena today is considered a UEFA Elite Stadium, and it hosted four group games in the 2006 World Cup as well as a quarter-final match between eventual winners Italy and Ukraine (3-0), although it was referred to Fifa World Cup Stadium Hamburg for sponsorship reasons. It also hosted the 2010 Europa League Final between Fulham and Atletico Madrid with the Spanish side winning 2-1.

How to get to the Stadium

Sylvesterallee 7, 22525 Hamburg