Eintracht-Stadion () is a

multi-purpose stadium A multi-purpose stadium is a type of stadium designed to be easily used by multiple types of events. While any stadium could potentially host more than one type of sport or event, this concept usually refers to a specific design philosophy tha ...

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to 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 betwe ...

. It is currently used for football and

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

matches and is the home stadium of Eintracht Braunschweig and the

New Yorker Lions The New Yorker Lions are an American Football team from Braunschweig, Germany. Until late 2010, the team was known as the Braunschweig Lions.

. The stadium is able to hold 24,406 people and was built in 1923.

History

Up to the early 1920s, Eintracht Braunschweig played its home games at ''Sportplatz an der Helmstedter Straße'', which held 3,000 people. The need for a bigger stadium lead to the construction of the Eintracht-Stadion, located at the ''Hamburger Straße'' in the northern part of the city, one of Braunschweig's main

arterial road An arterial road or arterial thoroughfare is a high-capacity urban road that sits below freeways/motorways on the road hierarchy in terms of traffic flow and speed. The primary function of an arterial road is to deliver traffic from collector r ...

s, in 1923. The new stadium was opened on 17 June 1923 with a friendly against 1. FC Nürnberg. In 1955, the Eintracht-Stadion hosted the final of the

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considered ...

, the German Football Association Cup, between

Karlsruher SC Karlsruher SC is a German association football club, based in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg that currently plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of German football. Domestically, the club was crowned German champion in 1909, and won the DF ...

and FC Schalke 04. Karlsruhe won the match 3–2. Originally, the stadium held up to 24,000 people, but with the introduction of Germany's new nationwide

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 footba ...

in 1963, the capacity was increased to accommodate 38,000 spectators. In 1981, financial difficulties forced the club to sell the stadium to the city of Braunschweig. Subsequently, the stadium's official name was changed into ''Städtisches Stadion an der Hamburger Straße'' ("Municipal Stadium Hamburger Straße"). The stadium was renovated again in 1995, reducing the capacity to 25,000. In 2008, a group of local companies bought the

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization whereby a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event, typically for a defined period of t ...

to the stadium from the city and changed the name back into the original Eintracht-Stadion. Eintracht-Stadion-Pano2014

From 2009 until 2010 the northern stand was roofed and expanded. From 2011 until 2013, the stadium was under reconstruction again, this time the main stand was modernized. The stadium's official capacity was reduced from 25,540 to 24,406.

Athletics

The Eintracht-Stadion, which is one of the few remaining stadia with a

running track An all-weather running track is a rubberized, artificial running surface for track and field athletics. It provides a consistent surface for competitors to test their athletic ability unencumbered by adverse weather conditions. Historically, v ...

in German professional football, is also used as a venue for

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

. The stadium hosted the

German Athletics Championships The German Athletics Championships (german: Deutsche Leichtathletik-Meisterschaften) are the national championships in athletics of Germany, organised annually by the Deutscher Leichtathletik-Verband. The competition features track and field eve ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

, 2004, and 2010. In 2012, the

European Athletic Association The European Athletic Association (more commonly known as European Athletics) is the governing body for athletics in Europe. It is one of the six Area Associations of the world's athletics governing body World Athletics. European Athletics has 51 ...

awarded Braunschweig the 2014 European Team Championships.

Concert venue

Since 1998, Eintracht-Stadion has also been used as an outdoor concert venue. The first open-air concert at the ground was performed by Eros Ramazzotti on 3 June 1998.Historie
, accessed: 30 March 2013

Gallery

Image:EintrachtStadionSuedkurve.jpg, South stand Image:StadionStraßenansicht.jpg, Eintracht-Stadion from the outside in 2006. Image:Eintracht-stadion-panorama.jpg, Eintracht-Stadion, before the construction of the new north stand in 2010. Image:EintrachtStadionHaupttribuene.jpg, Main stand before the 2012–13 reconstruction. Image:Block9 BTSV-Sonnenschein.JPG, Eintracht Braunschweig supporters on the south stand in 2007.

References

External links

* {{German Football League Stadiums Football venues in Germany American football venues in Germany Athletics (track and field) venues in Germany Multi-purpose stadiums in Germany Sport in Braunschweig Buildings and structures in Braunschweig Eintracht Braunschweig Sports venues in Lower Saxony Sports venues completed in 1923 1923 establishments in Germany