The Stadium – The Veltins Schalke Arena The Veltins Arena is the new name for Schalke’s futuristic stadium. Since it was constructed in 2001, it has been known under various names including the SchalkeArena and the AufArena. Now the club have signed a multi-year deal with the Brewers Veltins to sponsor the stadium, although for the World Cup Finals it will revert to a simply titled World Cup Stadium Gelsenkirchen. During Bundesliga matches, Schalke will have over 61,000 fans in the stadium, but as part of this stadium is a standing area, the capacity will be reduced for the tournament. The stadium was recently graded by UEFA as a 6-star venue, the first of its kind in Europe. This was in recognition of the magnificent job the stadium did in hosting the 2004 Champions League Final, where Jose Mourinho’s Porto easily beat Monaco 3-0.
So what makes it so special? The Stadium has a retractable roof, which opens and closes in just 20 minutes – offering complete cover for all spectators. This therefore enables them to host indoor events such as concerts and exhibitions – a fact made easier by the ability to remove the pitch completely in one section, unlike the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, by lifting one of the end seating sections up slightly and sliding it out on casters. This means that the Arena will never suffer the issues that enclosed stadiums such as the San Siro, Old Trafford and the Amsterdam Arena have experienced. The stadium was also one of the first to eliminate the use of cash in the stadium by implementing a chip and pin card.
What makes the stadium even more impressive is that Schalke actually had a perfectly good ground located next door to the Veltins Arena. The Park Stadion was their home from 1974 until 2001, built on the waste from the regions coal mines in time for the 1974 World Cup Finals. The club regularly filled the 70,000 capacity stadium, but facilities were basic for the majority of fans, with huge banks of terracing exposed to the harsh Ruhr elements. The reward for the loyal fans was the commencement of construction on the Schalke Arena in 2000. However, the ParkStadion still sits idly beside the new Arena, and is now used as a venue for practice matches. Part of the old south terrace has been demolished to make way for a hotel and a conference centre, but plans have still not been drawn up to determine the fate of this old ground, that would put many other current stadiums being used in Europe to shame. The club also has half a dozen training pitches located around the stadiums which are used by the youth academy teams.
The club’s original ground – the Glückauf Kampfbahn, - where Schalke played in front of capacity crowds from 1904 until 1974 can still be seen on Berliner Brucke Strasse, half way between the new stadium and the town centre. This venue was renowned throughout the land as the home of the most passionate fans, and despite their relatively recent baron past, the crowds intensity has not waned at all – last season Schalke averaged 61,341, second only to rivals Borussia Dortmund in terms of quantity, but with a total capacity of 61,524 it had a utilisation of 99.9% - easily the highest in Germany, and in Europe.
On non matchdays, tours are available around the stadium, normally being run twice a day. They start in the Museum which is on the 2nd level at Gate 18. The tour gives visitors access to the pitch level, dressing rooms and media centre. Admission is €8 for Adults and €4 for Children. You may need to prebook these by either emailing the tour team at tour@veltins-arena.de, or by calling them on +49 209 3892 900. All tour guides speak excellent English. The Arena website also gives details of the stadium in English at http://www.veltins-arena.de.
Who Plays There? The club were originally formed under the name of FC Westphalia in 1904, drawing its support and players from the local mining community in the Ruhr valley. In 1924 the club merged with TV Schalke 1877 to become the club as we know it today. Just 4 years later the club moved into its new Glückauf Kampfbahn ground and fans flocked to one of the most modern grounds at the time. However, economic conditions in Germany during the early 1930’s was dire, none more so than in the industrial regions of the Ruhr where unemployment was as high as 66%. The club’s players were drawn from this section of society and so they felt they needed to assist them in making ends meet. The German Football association ruled these payments as excessive and classed them as professional, and thus suspended them from the amateur German league. In a move of unexpected solidarity, over half of the clubs playing in the Oberliga threatened to strike in sympathy of Schalke’s plight, and so the DFB was forced to allow the club to compete in the league a year later.
In hindsight the majority of them would probably wish they hadn’t petitioned on Schalke’s behalf. In the next ten years, Schalke became the most feared team in German football. They captured their first German Championship in 1934, beating the seemingly invincible Nuremberg 2-1, and then followed it up with further wins in 1935, 1937, 1939, 1940 and 1942. In fact it was only in 1936 when they failed to make the final. In 1939 they set the record score for the Championship final when they beat Admira Vienna (Austrian teams were allowed to play as Austria had been annexed by Hitler under his Anschluss plan) 9-0.
They added a German Cup win to these titles in 1937 (and the first ever double in German history), as well as being runners up on four occasions between 1935 and 1942. The major stars of this team were Fritz Szepan and Ernst Kuzorra, local men who became the idles during the hard pre-war times.
The club found itself after the war lagging behind Borussia Dortmund in the Oberliga Westphalia., and actually did not compete for any titles until 1955 when they lost the Cup Final to Karlsruhe. Three years later they claimed their last ever title when they beat Hamburg 3-0. The match fixing scandal which rocked the league in 1970 hit the club hard and almost sent them to the wall. The decision to build the new Parkstadion in 1972 for the World Cup gave the club some fresh momentum, but they couldn’t translate this onto the pitch. In 1977 they came so close to winning the title when they finished 1point behind Mönchengladbach, even after they beat a Bayern Munich team fresh from winning their third European Cup 7-0 in the Munich Stadium.
As the club entered the 1990’s they found themselves in the 2nd division, struggling to break the regional monopoly held by Borussia Dortmund. Eventually promotion followed and the momentum saw them finish in the top 6 for the first time in years and thus gain a place in the UEFA Cup. The club at last found its feet in Europe the following season and in a close two legged match against Inter Milan they captured their first European title 2-1 on aggregate. The following season it looked as if they would go all the way until they met Inter again, this time going down in extra time.
Two seasons followed where the club fought it out at the top with Bayern Munich and Leverkusen right up until the last day of the season. With the final whistle sounding on Schalke’s 5-3 victory over Bayern’s city rivals Unterhaching and Hamburg beating Munich, the celebrations started in the Schalke Arena. However, with the last kick of the season in the fourth minute of injury time, Bayern equalized in the AOL Arena and thus took the title with the slimmest of margins and left the Schalke fans with a lot of egg on their face. There was some consolation a week later when they managed to win the German Cup with a 2-0 win over Union Berlin. The following season they retained the cup after they beat Bayer Leverkusen in the final 4-2.
The 2004/05 season saw the club hanging onto Bayern Munich’s coat tails from just before Christmas, and even saw them top the league for a week in mid March. However, Munich’s reluctance to drop even so much as a single point saw them win the title by 14 points come the end of the season. Schalke’s second place did however give them automatic entry into the Champions League where they will be facing AC Milan, PSV Eindhoven and Fenerbahce.
The summer signing of Kevin Kuranyi from Stuttgart in July 2005 should give the club a dozen or so more goals, and hopefully close the gap on Bayern Munich. His partnership with fellow German international Gerald Asamoah is certainly one the fans will be looking forward to seeing. The omens looked good as Schalke won the pre-season Premiere-Ligapokal Shield by beating Werder Bremen 2-1 in the semi-finals and then Stuttgart 1-0 in Leipzig’s Zentralstadium. The club doesn’t have a Fan Shop in the town centre – instead there is one at the North end of the Veltins Arena, close by gate 5. Their website has a small amount of English content at http://www.schalke04.de.
How to get to the Veltins Arena The stadium sits around 5 kilometres to the north of the town centre, close to the Autobahn A2 which runs from Dortmund to Oberhausen. There is very little in terms of facilities in the proximity of the stadium, although current construction works will see a new “fans” village ready for the World Cup finals next year.
There is currently only one way to reach the stadium via public transport and that is by taking the 302 Tram which runs from the Hauptbahnhof to the Arena stop on Schumacher Strasse. On exiting the tram, walk across the pedestrian bridge and you will be in front of the stadium’s outside concourse. Tickets for the tram can be bought from machines onboard, and a single journey to or from the stadium costs €1.10.
Tram line 301 runs almost parallel to Schumacher Strasse, past the Zoo to a stop at the Elisabeth hospital. From there the ground is a 10 minute walk down Neu Strasse.On match days, the organising committee may also arrange for buses to run from the station to the Arena. A taxi from the town centre should cost around €15 and take no more than 15 minutes.
For a more detailed view as to who plays where in the Ruhr Region, go to Footiemap.com.
Getting around Gelsenkirchen is not so much of a city, or even a town but more of a extension of Bochum to the south and Essen to the west. The centre of the town is very small and is served by a small range of trams. The S-Bahn network across the Ruhr does allow fast access to and from the town from nearby towns.
Nearest Airport – Dortmund and Dusseldorf Gelsenkirchen sits in the middle of the Ruhr valley industrial conurbation. Whilst it doesn’t have an airport of its own, it is close enough to both Dortmund and Düsseldorf airports for easy access. Dortmund airport (http://www.flughafen-dortmund.de) is located approximately 35 miles to the east of the Gelsenkirchen. It has one terminal that serves mainly budget carriers including Easyjet from London Luton.
From Dortmund airport, the easiest way to travel to Gelsenkirchen centre is via the special bus service to Dortmund Hauptbahnhof which takes journey 25 minutes and costs €5 each way (€2 for children), and then catch the hourly S-Bahn line 2 train to Gelsenkirchen Hauptbahnhof. The train ticket will cost €3.70 each way and takes around 25 minutes (Enter code 1126 into any of the machines at Dortmund station for a valid ticket).
Düsseldorf Airport (http://www.duesseldorf-international.de) is the biggest and busiest in the Rhine / Ruhr conurbation. It has its own S-Bahn railway stop, located adjacent to the terminal building, where trains run both to the city centre and beyond. In order to reach Gelsenkirchen then you will need to travel to the latter station and catch a RE3 train. The journey should take around 40 minutes and cost €8. A taxi from the airport to the stadium will take around 35 minutes, and cost approximately €60.
Currently Air Berlin fly to Düsseldorf from London Stansted and British Airways fly from Heathrow, Birmingham and Manchester. You may also find Lufthansa flying into the city from Newcastle and Birmingham. There is also the Ryanair option into Düsseldorf Weeze airport which is around 40 miles north west of the city centre and linked by a regular bus service.
Click here and here to view a short video of the Veltins Arena.
The Stadium – The Veltins Schalke Arena 