The Gelsenkirchen Stadium or Arena Auf Schalke or...

This one is amazing.

The Gelsenkirchen Stadium, also called Arena Auf Schalke or Veltins-Arena, is the home of the Bundesliga club FC Schalke 04.

It was built from 1998 to 2002 in particular for the World Cup and set new standards in the art of building stadia.

Fifa President Sepp Blatter praised, "Such a stadium did the world not see yet. This stadium is a pilot project for the whole world. Amazing!"

The European football federation UEFA classified the multi-functional play place, which has a capacy of 56,804, under its highest to assigned category as a "five-star stadium." They said, "This place of event meets all requirements more than enough and could even be evaluated as a Six Star Stadium."

Within a short period of time, the stadium became established as the most modern place of event on the continent.

Outstanding: The drive outable lawn field, the lockable roof, the adjustable south grandstand and the oversize video cube under the arena roof are the technical highlights in the multi-function arena.

The stadium can be converted into a hall by means of its lockable roof if necessary. In the time between soccer games, the playing field lawn will be pushed outside for regeneration in a procedure lasting several hours by means of hydraulics from the arena. For this purpose, the south grandstand was built free-floating like a bridge over the passage.

In addition, the stadium is the only one in Germany equipped with a chapel, in which baptisms and weddings regularly take place.

A further characteristic is the central beer supply over a 5 kilometers long pipeline that is connected to 32 kiosks. Well, Germans love beer!

In the center of the stadium hangs a several tons of heavy television cube with four 35m² large announcements. Also, 367 televisions are spread throughout Arena Auf Schalke.

But the Gelsenkirchen Stadium is not built only for soccer events but also for live concerts (Pur, Robbie Williams, Bruce Springsteen, Herbert Grönemeyer, U2, etc), operas (Aida, Carmen, Turandot, etc), Biathlon competitions as well as several TV events.

You can take a sight-seeing tour outside times of events. Here you gain additional information about the building and the technical equipment characteristics existing in the Gelsenkirchen Stadium.

Right behind the Gelsenkirchen Stadium you are going to find the Sport Paradies (you can see it at the first photo here above). It is opened throughout the year and you are going to find a swim paradise, a sauna paradise, a scating rink as well as areas with fitness facilities. Awesome!

As I already told you, the FIFA World Cup 2006™ was a gift for this city and its stadium (and its visitors!). YOUR gift now is to have the opportunity to pick another interesting city to stroll through... (what a decision, hugh?)

Warmly,