Neckarstadion
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Neckarstadion, officially known as MHPArena for sponsorship reasons, is a stadium located in
Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...
,
Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...
, Germany, and home to
Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...
club
VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V. (), commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German professional sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's Association football, football team is currently part of Germany's f ...
. It hosted football matches in the
1974 FIFA World Cup The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the 10th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the ...
, the UEFA Euro 1988, the
2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...
, and the UEFA Euro 2024. Besides that the 1959 European Cup Final, the replay of the 1962 European Cup Winners' Cup final, the 1988 European Cup Final, and the second leg of the 1989 UEFA Cup final took place in the stadium. The stadium is the only venue in Europe to have hosted multiple World Cup, European Championship and European Cup/Champions League Final matches. The stadium hosted the 1986 European Athletics Championships and the 1993 World Athletics Championships before it was redeveloped into a football-specific stadium in 2009. Before 1993 it was called the Neckarstadion (), named after the nearby river
Neckar The Neckar () is a river in Germany, mainly flowing through the southwestern States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg, with a short section through Hesse. The Neckar is a major right tributary of the Rhine. Rising in the Schwarzwald-Baar ...
. Between 1993 and July 2008 it was called the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion . The stadium was renamed the Mercedes-Benz Arena at the beginning of the 2008–09 season, starting with a pre-season friendly against
Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...
on 30 July 2008. On 1 July 2023, the stadium was renamed the ''MHPArena''.


Location

The MHPArena is located in the Bad Cannstatt borough of Stuttgart and is the centrepiece of the Neckarpark area. Directly on the north side of the stadium is the Carl Benz Center, an elongated experience centre for football fans. The Porsche-Arena and the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle follow immediately afterwards. To the south-east of the stadium are the VfB Stuttgart club grounds with training grounds, clubhouse and the Robert-Schlienz-Stadion, where the VfB Stuttgart youth teams play their matches. About 250 metres to the west of the stadium is the
Cannstatter Wasen The Cannstatter Wasen is a 35 hectare festival area on the banks of the Neckar river in the part of Stuttgart known as Bad Cannstatt. The Cannstatter Wasen form part of the Neckar Park Fairground. Each year the Wasen hosts the Cannstatter Vol ...
, where the annual
Cannstatter Volksfest The Cannstatter Volksfest is an annual three-week Volksfest (beer festival and travelling funfair) in Stuttgart, Germany. It is sometimes also referred to by foreign visitors as the Stuttgart Beer Festival, although it is actually more of an au ...
takes place.


History

The stadium was originally built from 1929 to 1933 with the name "Stuttgarter Kampfbahn" after designs by German architects Paul Bonatz and Friedrich Scholer. After it was built, it was named "Adolf-Hitler-Kampfbahn" (). From 1945 to 1949 it was called Century Stadium and later Kampfbahn and was used by US Troops to play
baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
. The name ''Neckarstadion'' has been used since 1949. It is home to
VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V. (), commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German professional sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's Association football, football team is currently part of Germany's f ...
in the
Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...
(and to the Stuttgarter Kickers when they played in the Bundesliga). After a major refurbishment in the late 1980s and early 1990s partly financed by
Daimler-Benz Mercedes-Benz Group AG (formerly Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler, and Daimler) is a Germany, German Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive company headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is o ...
, the Stuttgart town council dedicated the stadium to
Gottlieb Daimler Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler (; 17 March 1834 – 6 March 1900) was a German engineer, industrial designer and industrialist. He was a pioneer of internal-combustion engines and automobile development. He invented the high-speed liquid petroleum-fue ...
. The inventor had tested both the first
internal combustion An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal comb ...
motorcycle and the first 4-wheel automobile there in the 1880s, on the road from Cannstatt to
Untertürkheim Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...
(now called Mercedesstraße). The
Mercedes-Benz Group Mercedes-Benz Group AG (formerly Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler, and Daimler) is a German multinational automotive company headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufacturers. Daimler-B ...
headquarters, the Mercedes-Benz Museum, and the Untertürkheim car plant are nearby. The stadium capacity was temporarily reduced to around , after one stand (''Untertürkheimer Kurve'') was demolished during summer 2009 in the process of converting it to a pure football arena. The rebuilt arena was completed in November 2011 with a new capacity of , including terracing. Due to UEFA regulations, which only allow seating, the capacity was reduced to around during international football matches. As a result of the renovation work on the main stand, the capacity of the stadium was temporarily reduced to seats in the 2022–23 season. Since construction work was completed in March 2024, the capacity is for league matches and for international matches. It is divided into four sections, * the ''Haupttribüne'' (main stand), adjacent to Mercedesstraße, housing VIP-lounges and press seats * the ''Gegentribüne'' (opposite stand), formerly named ''
EnBW EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG, or simply EnBW, is a publicly-traded energy industry, energy company headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany. History Foundation and development EnBW came into existence on 1 January 1997 as a result of the merge ...
-Tribüne'' and '' Kärcher-Tribüne'' after some of VfB Stuttgart's sponsors. * the ''Cannstatter Kurve'' (Cannstatt Curve), to the left of the ''Haupttribüne'', housing the ultras of VfB Stuttgart and one of two video walls. Before rebuilding it housed the ''A-Block'', which was the original block of the ultras. Since 2011 the lower tier of the curve contains a standing area with 8,000 terraces. * the ''Untertürkheimer Kurve'' (Untertürkheim Curve), to the right of the ''Haupttribüne'', housing lounges, the blocks for the guest team's fans and the second video wall The fabric roof construction of the MHPArena was designed by Schlaich Bergermann Partner. Made of precision-tailored membranes of PVC-coated polyester, the roof tissue is durable enough to withstand 1,000 kg of weight per square decimeter. It is suspended from an aesthetic steel frame that runs around the entire stadium weighing approximately 2,700 metric tons. The steel cables connecting the roof to the frame alone weigh about 420 tons. The roof was added during the refurbishment preceding the 1993 World Athletics Championships.


International matches

The Neckarstadion hosted four matches of the
1974 FIFA World Cup The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the 10th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the ...
, two matches of the 1988 UEFA European Football Championship (a 1st Round match and a semi-final) and six games of the
2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...
, including a Round of 16 game and the third-place playoff match (see below for details). The stadium also hosted the finals of the
European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...
(now known as UEFA Champions League) in
1959 Events January * January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the ...
(
Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...
vs. Stade de Reims) and 1988 (
PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional association football, football department, which has pla ...
vs. S.L. Benfica).


Trivia

*
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
's first international football match after
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
in 1950 (against Switzerland) was played at the stadium. The official match attendance of is the stadium record. Journalists estimated that more than people attended the match. The first match with players from West and East Germany after the
German reunification German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...
in 1990 (also versus Switzerland) took place at the Neckarstadion as well. *
Klaus Fischer Klaus Fischer (born 27 December 1949) is a German former professional footballer and coach. He was a key player on the West Germany national team that lost the 1982 World Cup final to Italy. As a forward, he was noted for his bicycle kicks, ...
scored Germany's " ARD Goal of the Century" here against the Swiss in 1977, with a bicycle kick ("Fallrückzieher"). * With 115 m2 each, the stadium's two video walls before rebuilding were the largest in Europe. * The Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion was one of the four stadiums hosting games during the
2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...
whose name were ''not'' changed to ''FIFA World Cup Stadium XYZ'', as the dedication to Gottlieb Daimler was not interpreted as advertisement (i.e. for
DaimlerChrysler Mercedes-Benz Group AG (formerly Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler, and Daimler) is a German multinational automotive company headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufacturers. Daimler-B ...
). All others, such as the
Allianz Arena Allianz Arena (; known as Munich Football Arena for UEFA competitions) is a Association football, football stadium in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, with a 70,000 seating capacity for international matches and 75,000 for domestic matches. Widely kno ...
in
Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
or the AOL Arena in
Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
were obliged to remove all visual references to their stadiums'
name A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A person ...
sponsors.


Sports other than football

The 1986 European Athletics Championships in which the hammer throw world record by Yuriy Sedykh was set, and the 1993 World Athletics Championships were held in the stadium. The stadium was the host of the
IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...
World Athletics final from 2006 to 2008, after which the stadium underwent redevelopment in order to build a football-only arena. The arena has also been the venue of four Eurobowl finals of
American Football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...
from 1994 to 1997.


Renovations and redevelopment into football-specific stadium

In 1993 the fabric roof of the stadium was constructed. From 1999 to 2003 the upper tier of the main stand was demolished and rebuilt. In 2005 the opposite stand received a new upper tier as well. The redevelopment into a football-specific stadium was announced along with the stadium's name change in late March 2008. The first computer images of the new arena were released at the same time, also showing a large cube with four video scoreboards above the centre circle, similar to the one in the Commerzbank-Arena in
Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...
. Starting in 2009, the Mercedes-Benz Arena has been redeveloped into a football-specific stadium. New stands were constructed, after the running track was demolished and the pitch level was lowered by 1.30 metres in time for the beginning of the 2009–10 season. Both curves were completely demolished and rebuilt closer to the pitch during the next two years. After the interior redevelopment finished, the roof was expanded to cover all the new rows of the seats. The entire construction was completed by the end of 2011. Within the first couple of weeks of the redevelopment, 18 undetonated bombs left over from the air raids on Stuttgart during the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
were found on the construction site. During the 2017 summer break, the stadium roof was replaced at a cost of €9.75 million, as the membrane that had covered the stadium since the 1993 World Athletics Championships had reached the end of its service life after 24 years. From 2022 to 2024, various construction measures were carried out in the run-up to the UEFA Euro 2024. The lower level of the main stand, which dates back to 1974, was completely rebuilt and the main stand was extended up to the roof supports. This resulted in new team cabins, sports function rooms, a new media centre, another business area and a modern production kitchen. The planned construction costs originally totalled around €98.5 million. However, they rose to €139.5 million over the course of the project. The conversion was completed at the end of March 2024.


International tournaments matches

''All times local ( CET)''


1974 FIFA World Cup

Stuttgart hosted the following matches at the
1974 FIFA World Cup The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the 10th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the ...
:


UEFA Euro 1988

These UEFA Euro 1988 matches were played in Stuttgart:


2006 FIFA World Cup

The following games were played at the stadium during the
2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...
:


UEFA Euro 2024

The stadium hosted four group stage matches and one quarter-final match at the UEFA Euro 2024:


2025 UEFA Nations League Finals


UEFA Club Competition Finals


Concerts

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...
performed at the stadium on 25 June 1989 as part of their 1989 Another Lapse European Tour (A Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour). English rock band Genesis continued their Turn It On Again: The Tour at the stadium in a sold-out crowd of fans in attendance.
Depeche Mode Depeche Mode are an English electronic music, electronic band formed in Basildon, Essex in 1980. Originally formed with the line-up of Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Andy Fletcher (musician), Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke, the band currently consists ...
performed at the stadium on 3 June 2013 during their Delta Machine Tour, in front of a sold-out crowd of about people.


See also

* List of football stadiums in Germany *
Lists of stadiums The following are lists of stadiums throughout the world. Note that horse racing and motorsport venues are not included at some pages, because those are not stadiums but sports venues. Combined lists *List of stadiums by capacity * List of c ...


References


External links


Stadium website
{{Authority control VfB Stuttgart Football venues in Germany Football in Stuttgart Defunct athletics (track and field) venues in Germany Sports venues in Baden-Württemberg Tensile membrane structures Sports venues completed in 1933 1933 establishments in Germany Buildings and structures in Stuttgart