Wankdorf Stadium () is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

stadium in

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

, Switzerland. The second largest all-seater football stadium in Switzerland, it is the home ground of

BSC Young Boys Berner Sport Club Young Boys (YB by short abbreviation, ) is a Swiss professional sports club based in Bern, Switzerland. Its first team has won 17 Swiss league championships and eight Swiss Cups. YB is one of the most successful Swiss footbal ...

. It was also one of the venues for

UEFA Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial association football, football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA ( ...

History

The present-day Stadion Wankdorf was built on the grounds of the former Wankdorf Stadium, which hosted the 1954 FIFA World Cup final (''The Miracle of Bern''), and was then demolished in 2001. The new stadium has a capacity of 32,000 spectators, all seated. Integrated into the roof are

solar panels A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that produce excited electrons when exposed to light. These electrons flow through a circuit and produce direct ...

with a yearly production of 1,200,000 kWh. The stadium was officially opened on 30 July 2005, although the first match in the new stadium had already taken place on 16 July 2005. Young Boys played against

Olympique de Marseille Olympique de Marseille (, ; , ), also known simply as Marseille, or by the abbreviation OM (, ), is a French professional Association football, football club based in Marseille which competes in Ligue 1, the French football league system, top f ...

and lost 2–3 with 14,000 spectators watching. The match was considered an "infrastructure test", which is why no more than 14,000 tickets were sold. The stadium was used by

FC Thun Fussballclub Thun 1898 is a Swiss association football, football team from the Bernese Oberland town of Thun. The club plays in the Swiss Super League from 2025–26, the top tier of the Swiss football league system, following promotion from the ...

for three Champions League home matches in 2005, and for one home match in the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

round of 32 in 2006. Fifteen years after the new stadium opened in 2005 (back then called ''Stade de Suisse''), it was renamed ''Stadion Wankdorf'' in June 2020, in an effort to return to the stadium's roots.Bern hat wieder ein Wankdorfstadion
''bernerzeitung.ch'', 29 June 2020 (in German) The Wankdorf stadium before a match between Young Boys and Red Star Belgrade

The Wankdorf stadium before a match between Young Boys and Red Star Belgrade

Concerts

Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", Springsteen has released 21 studio albums spanning six decades; most of his albums feature th ...

performed at the stadium on 30 June 2009 as part of the Working on a Dream Tour in front of a sold-out crowd of 36,538 people.

AC/DC AC/DC are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1973. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock and Heavy metal music, heavy metal, although the band calls it simply "rock and roll". They are cited as a formativ ...

performed at the stadium on 8 June 2010 as part of their

Black Ice World Tour The Black Ice World Tour was a 2008–2010 concert tour by Australian rock band AC/DC, in support of their fifteenth studio album '' Black Ice'', which was released on 20 October 2008. This tour had 8 legs around the world lasting more than 2 ...

and on 29 May 2016 during the Rock or Bust World Tour with

Axl Rose W. Axl Rose ( ; born William Bruce Rose Jr., February 6, 1962) is an American singer and songwriter. He is the lead vocalist and lyricist of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, and has been the band's sole constant member since its inception in ...

as lead singer. P!nk performed at the stadium on 10 July 2010 during The Funhouse Summer Carnival Tour.

Muse In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, the Muses (, ) were the Artistic inspiration, inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric p ...

performed a sold-out show at the stadium on 15 June 2013 as part of their The 2nd Law World Tour.

Bon Jovi Bon Jovi is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Sayreville, New Jersey in 1983. The band consists of singer Jon Bon Jovi, keyboardist David Bryan, drummer Tico Torres, guitarists John Shanks and Phil X, percussionist Everett Bradley ...

performed at the stadium on 31 May 2006 during their Have a Nice Day Tour, in front of a sold-out crowd of 38,762 people. The band performed at the stadium for the second time on 30 June 2013 during their

Because We Can "Because We Can" is the first single released from Bon Jovi's twelfth studio album, ''What About Now (album), What About Now''. The single premiered on radio on January 7, 2013. Richie Sambora characterized the new material as a compilation of "di ...

, in front of a sold-out crowd of 28,868 people.

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 7 June 2013 during their The Delta Machine Tour, in front of a sold-out crowd of 39,241 people.

One Direction One Direction, often shortened to 1D, were an English-Irish pop boy band formed in London in 2010. The group consisted of Niall Horan, Zayn Malik (until his departure in 2015), Liam Payne, Harry Styles, and Louis Tomlinson. The group sold o ...

performed at the stadium on 4 July 2014 during their Where We Are Tour. On 15 July 2017,

Celine Dion Céline Marie Claudette Dion (born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Power Ballads", Dion's powerful, technically skilled vocals and commercially successful works have had ...

brought her Celine Dion Live 2017 tour to the stadium. She performed her sold-out show to 23,143 people, with a mixed set list of English and French. On 5 June 2019

Rammstein Rammstein (, "ramming stone") is a German band formed in Berlin in 1994. The band's lineup—consisting of lead vocalist Till Lindemann, lead guitarist Richard Kruspe, rhythm guitarist Paul Landers, bassist Oliver Riedel, drummer Christoph ...

performed in Bern during their Europe Stadium Tour 2019. The concert was sold out in several hours.

The Hot Seat

A peculiar feature of the Wankdorf Stadium is the presence of a single, red seat (the other seats are black and yellow). This was the first seat installed at the stadium, on 20 January 2005, and the honour of unveiling it was given to former Young Boys player and manager Walter Eich. There are no tickets available for this seat; every game the seat is occupied by a notable personality, often with ties to Young Boys.

Ice hockey attendance record

The Wankdorf Stadium with its artificial turf surface was an ideal candidate to provide Europe its first "new era" outdoor attendance record for ice hockey.Joeri Loone
Unique occasion sets new European visitor record
EuroHockey.Net, 15 January 2007 On 14 January 2007, the massive local rivalry of

SC Bern Schlittschuh Club Bern ('' Ice-skating Club Bern'' in English) is a professional ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rin ...

and

SC Langnau The SC Langnau Tigers are a professional ice hockey team from Langnau im Emmental, Switzerland. They play in the National League (NL). The team plays its home games in the 6,050-seat Emmental Versicherung Arena, which is currently one of the sma ...

managed to fill the Stade de Suisse with 30,076 fans, an event which was sold out within 53 hours of tickets going on sale. These two rivals regularly fill SC Bern's home venue Bern Arena with over 17,000 spectators.

Matches

UEFA Euro 2008

The stadium was one of the venues for the

. The

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

played all three games at the stadium during the tournament:

International matches

UEFA Women's Euro 2025

The stadium was one of the venues for the UEFA Women's Euro 2025.

References

External links

Stadion Wankdorf
bscyb.ch (in German)
Events
bscyb.ch (in German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Stadion Wankdorf Football venues in the Canton of Bern

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

Buildings and structures in Bern Sports venues in the Canton of Bern Sports venues completed in 2005 2005 establishments in Switzerland 21st-century architecture in Switzerland