Stadion an der Hafenstraße, known as Stadion Essen until 2022, is a stadium in Essen,

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Located in the borough of Bergeborbeck, it has a capacity of 20,650 spectators. It is the home of

Rot-Weiss Essen Rot-Weiss Essen is a German association football club based in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club currently plays in the 3. Liga, at the Stadion an der Hafenstraße. The team won the DFB-Pokal in 1953, and the German championship in 195 ...

in the third-level men's

3. Liga The 3. Liga is a professional association football league and the third division in Germany. In the German football league system, it is positioned between the 2. Bundesliga and the fourth-tier Regionalliga. The modern 3. Liga was formed for th ...

and

SGS Essen SGS Essen are a German multi-sports club based in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club was founded in 2000 from the merger of ''VfB Borbeck'' and ''SC Grün-Weiß Schönebeck''. It is most renowned for its women's football team, which plays ...

in the women's Frauen-Bundesliga and replaced

Georg-Melches-Stadion Georg-Melches-Stadion was a stadium in Essen, Germany. It was built in 1923, renovated to the former state in 1939, 1948 and 1954 and had a capacity of 30,000. Due to safety reasons this was reduced to 15,000 from 1994 onwards. It was used, mo ...

History

The stadium was officially opened on August 12, 2012, with a match between the under-19s of Rot-Weiss Essen and

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional fo ...

(3-2). Afterwards the women's club SGS Essen played against

1. FFC Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt is a German women's association football club based in Frankfurt. Its first team currently plays in the German top flight, Frauen-Bundesliga. From 1998 to 2020, the club was known as 1. FFC Frankfurt. Eintracht have won sev ...

. During the latter match, the Frankfurt players were replaced after 80 minutes by eleven male players from Rot-Weiss Essen. The last stand was finished shortly before the start of the 2013/14 season. For this occasion, an opening match between Rot-Weiss Essen and

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen (), Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen, Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are best known for the ...

(0-2) was held on August 8 in front of 11,513 spectators. The stadium was sold out for the first time on April 8, 2014, for the semi-final match of the

Lower Rhine Cup The Lower Rhine Cup (German: ''Niederrheinpokal'') is a German football club Cup competition open to teams from the Lower Rhine region of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The competition is one of the 21 regional cup competitions of German foo ...

between Rot-Weiss Essen and

MSV Duisburg Meidericher Spielverein 02 e. V. Duisburg, commonly known as simply MSV Duisburg (), is a German association football club based in Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia. Nicknamed ''Die Zebras'' for their traditional striped jerseys, the club was on ...

. In November 2021, Rot-Weiss Essen purchased the rights to the stadium name. The stadium was renamed Stadion an der Hafenstraße in January 2022; the Georg-Melches-Stadion it replaced carried the same name from 1939 to 1964.

References

Football venues in Germany Sports venues completed in 2012 Stadion Essen Stadion Essen Sports venues in North Rhine-Westphalia SGS Essen {{Germany-sports-venue-stub