Mercedes-Benz Arena

The Mercedes-Benz Arena is a stadium located in Stuttgart, Germany. Before 1993 it was called Neckarstadion, named after the river Neckar, which is only a short distance away.

History

The stadium was originally built in 1933 to designs by German architect Paul Bonatz. After It was built, it was named “Adolf-Hitler-Kampfbahn”. The name Neckarstation was used since 1949. from 1945 to 1949 it was called Century Stadium and later Kampfbahn and was use from US Troops to play baseball. It is home to VfB Stuttgart of the Bundesliga (and of the Stuttgarter Kickers when they also played in 1st Bundesliga )

After a major refurbishment in the late 1980s and early 1990s partly financed by Daimler-Benz, the Stuttgart town council dedicated the stadium to Gottlieb Daimler. The inventor had tested both the first motorcycle and the first 4-wheel automobile there in the 1880s, on the road from Cannstatt to Untertürkheim (now called Mercedes-Straße). The new museum, the headquarters and a factory of Mercedes-Benz are nearby.

The stadium capacity is currently around 58,000, after completion of the current refurbishment of the Eastern stand in 2005.

International matches

The Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion hosted four matches of the 1974 FIFA World Cup, two matches of the 1988 UEFA European Football Championship (a 1st Round match and a semi-final) and six games of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, including a Round of 16 game and the third-place playoff match (see below for details).

The stadium also hosted the finals of the the European Cup (now known as UEFA Champions League) in 1959 (Real Madrid vs. Stade de Reims) and 1988 (PSV Eindhoven vs. SL Benfica).

Trivia

* As Stuttgart is located relatively close to Germany’s southern neighbors Switzerland, it has hosted a total of seven international football matches versus the Swiss since 1911.

* Germany’s first international football match after World War II in 1950 (against Switzerland) was played at the stadium. The match attendance of 103,000 is the stadium record. The first match after the German reunification in 1990 (also versus Switzerland) took place at Daimler Stadium as well.

* Klaus Fischer scored Germany’s “ARD Goal of the Century” here against the Swiss in 1977, with a bicycle kick (“Fallrückzieher”), his trademark move with which he also scored the important 3:3 equalizer in overtime (108th minute) at the 1982 FIFA World Cup vs France, but this was not among the Top 10 of the WC Goal of the Century.

* Known to the Irish as the “Ray Houghton” stadium, it hosted the EURO 2008 qualifying match between Germany and the Republic of Ireland on 2nd September 2006, which Germany won 1-0. It was Ireland’s first match at the stadium since the 1988 European Championships, when, on June 12th, they beat England 1-0 in their first ever appearance in the finals of a major tournament.

Sports other than football

The European Athletics Championships of 1986 and the World Athletics Championships of 1993 were held there, and the Daimler-Stadium will be the host the IAAF World Athletics final from 2006 to 2008. The arena has also been the venue of several Eurobowl finals of American Football in the 1990s.

(source .. wikipedia) reproduced under GFDL

[ Anything to add? Spotted an error? Click here to improve this entry ]

Why not add your own photos?

VfB Stuttgart official website
Deutscher Fußball-Bund
wikipedia entry
Football Ringtones
Bet with Paddy Power

[ Anything to add? Spotted an error? Click here to improve this entry ]