Signal Iduna Park (Westfalenstadion)

Signal Iduna Park is the name the Westfalenstadion carries from December 2005 until June 2011. It is a football stadium in the German city of Dortmund (7th biggest German city). It is the home ground of the BV Borussia Dortmund football team and hosted several matches of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, including a semi-final.

It has a league capacity of 81,264 (standing and seated), and an international capacity of 67,000 (seated only). The stadium was named after the former Prussian province of Westphalia, which is now part of the German state North Rhine-Westphalia. It is Germany’s biggest stadium and established the European record in fan attendance in 2004/2005 with a total of almost 1.4 million fans. Famous for the intense atmosphere it breeds, the stadium has been nicknamed “The Opera House of German Football.”

History

Plans to construct a new stadium were drawn up in the 1960′s, as the need arose to expand and refurbish the traditional ground of Borussia Dortmund, the Stadion Rote Erde (“Stadium Red Earth”). Following the historic triumph in the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup 1966 (Dortmund was the first German team to win a European club title), it became clear that the Stadion Rote Erde was too small for the increasing number of Borussia Dortmund supporters. The city of Dortmund, however, was not able to finance a new stadium and federal institutions were unwilling to help.

In 1971, Dortmund was selected to replace the city of Cologne, which was forced to withdraw its plans to host games in the 1974 FIFA World Cup. The funds originally set aside for the projected stadium in Cologne were thus re-allocated to Dortmund. However, architects and planners had to keep an eye on the costs due to a tight budget. This meant that plans for a 60 million DM oval stadium featuring the traditional athletic facilities and holding 60,000 spectators had to be discarded. Instead, plans for a much cheaper 54,000 spectator football arena, built of pre-fabricated concrete sections, became a reality. Ultimately, the costs amounted to 32.7 million DM, of which 1.6 million DM were invested in the refurbishment of the Stadion Rote Erde. The city of Dortmund, initially burdened with 6 million DM, only had to pay 800,000 DM, and quickly profited from the stadium’s high revenues.

In the 1974 FIFA World Cup, the Westfalenstadion hosted 3 Group games and 1 Final Group game, during which the stadium was almost always filled to its maximum capacity of 54,000.

On the 2nd of April 1974, Borussia Dortmund officially moved into their new home and has played in the Westfalenstadion ever since. Having been relegated in 1972, the BVB was the only member of the 2. Bundesliga (second Division) to host the 1974 World Cup games in a completely new stadium. In 1976, after promotion to the Bundesliga, Borussia Dortmund played its first game in Germany’s highest division in their new home stadium.

(source .. wikipedia) reproduced under GFDL

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