Bielefelder Alm () is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

Bielefeld Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Detmold and the ...

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 betwee ...

. The stadium, which has a capacity of 26 515, is owned by the football club DSC Arminia Bielefeld and mostly used for the club's matches. Formerly named Stadion Alm , it is currently known as SchücoArena due to a sponsorship deal with the Bielefeld-based window and solar panel manufacturers.

History

The football ground was opened in 1926, with land acquired from a farmer named Lohmann. The stadium got its former name (''Alm'') because it did not look like a football stadium in the first years and so one of Arminia's members said that just a few cows were missing in order to look like an ''Alm'' ( en,

alpine grassland Montane grasslands and shrublands is a biome defined by the World Wildlife Fund. The biome includes high elevation grasslands and shrublands around the world. The term "montane" in the name of the biome refers to "high elevation", rather than th ...

). In 1957, it got its grass cover and the first grandstands were constructed. Until 1971 the stands were all terraced, but with Arminia Bielefeld winning promotion to the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footb ...

, the first stand with seating was constructed. By 1978 3 new stands had been built and the stadium's capacity was 34,222. By 1985 serious structural problems had reduced the capacity to 18,500, and later to 15,000.

Rebuilding

In 1996 rebuilding work began, first the North Stand was rebuilt and then the West Stand, bringing capacity to 22,512. In 1999 the South Stand was rebuilt increasing capacity to 26,601, and in June 2007 the capacity reached 28,008 following completion of the East Stand. The East Stand features a state-of-the-art glass roof that contains photo voltaic elements built into the glass (as opposed to mounted on it) that generate electricity for the club.

Sale

In November 2018,

Arminia Bielefeld DSC Arminia Bielefeld (; full name: ; commonly known as Arminia Bielefeld (), also known as ''Die Arminen'' or ''Die Blauen'' ), or just Arminia (), is a German sports club from Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. Arminia offers the sports of ...

announced the sale of the stadium to "3BO GmbH" and "STBO GmbH" (each 50 percent) in order to further improve the club's financial situation. Shareholders include Dr. August Oetker KG and Gauselmann AG. However, the club will retain all rights such as rental incomes and naming rights.

Transport

The stadium is well serviced by public transport. The

Bielefeld Hauptbahnhof Bielefeld Hauptbahnhof is the main station in the region of Ostwestfalen-Lippe, in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is an important station because of the size of the city of Bielefeld and its location at the Bielefeld Pass, which ...

is only a few minutes away using line 4 (The red line) of the

Bielefeld Stadtbahn The Bielefeld Stadtbahn is a metre gauge light rail (i.e. ''Stadtbahn'') network in the German city of Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The system does include some segments built to rapid transit standards. It is operated by moBie ...

tramway. Stadium parking is provided at

Bielefeld University Bielefeld University (german: Universität Bielefeld) is a university in Bielefeld, Germany. Founded in 1969, it is one of the country's newer universities, and considers itself a "reform" university, following a different style of organization ...

Video games

Schüco Arena is included in the

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedba ...

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 ''Pro Evolution Soccer 2008'' (''PES 2008''), known as ''World Soccer: Winning Eleven 2008'' in Asia and sometimes called ''World Soccer: Winning Eleven 11'' (PS2) in North America, is an association football video game in the ''Pro Evolution So ...

'', due to lack of licensing rights appearing as "Blautraum Arena".

References

External links

Collection of historical staidium photos at the Arminia Bielefeld website

World Stadium guide to Bielefelder Alm
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bielefelder Alm Football venues in Germany Buildings and structures in Bielefeld Sports venues in North Rhine-Westphalia Sports venues completed in 1926 Arminia Bielefeld