The Allianz Arena is a football stadium in the north of Munich and offers 75,021 seats for national games, made up of 57,343 seat; 13,794 standing seats, 1,374 box seats, 2,152 business seats (including 102 seats for guests of honor) and 966 sponsor seats. FC Bayern Munich has played its home games in the Allianz Arena since the 2005/06 season. Until the end of the 2016/17 season, the Allianz Arena was also the venue for TSV 1860 Munich . It was also the venue for the 2006 World Cup and the venue for the final of theUEFA Champions League 2012 . The stadium was first jointly owned by FC Bayern München AG and TSV München von 1860 GmbH & Co. KGaA. FC Bayern München AG later acquired the shares in TSV München from 1860 GmbH & Co. KGaA and is now the sole owner.
Table of Contents
Location
The stadium is located at the northern end of Munich’s Schwabing-Freimann district in the Fröttmaninger Heide and about 9.8 km as the crow flies from Marienplatz . Due to the direct location on the junction Munich-Nord ( A 9 / A 99 ) a speedy traffic to and from the play in connection with the is located directly on the Arena about 11,000 Car parking garage guaranteed. In the south, the connection is via the Munich-Fröttmaning-Süd junction (A 9). In the north, the arena can be reached from the west via the Munich-Fröttmaning-Nord (A 99) junction or from the east via the Munich-Nord motorway junction and the Munich-Fröttmaning-Süd junction.
The Fröttmaning underground station can be reached from the stadium by taking a 15-minute walk across the esplanade. The Munich underground line U6 runs here. The journey to and from Munich city center takes around 16 minutes. Travelers arriving via Munich Central Station have to change to the S-Bahn (with a change at Marienplatz ) to reach the U6. Alternatively, you can take the U1, U2, U7 and U8 underground lines (change at Sendlinger Tor ) or the U4 and U5 underground lines (change at Odeonsplatz) to be used. The journey via Munich’s Ostbahnhof also requires changing to the S-Bahn or the U5 underground line. For a journey from Munich Airport, there is an additional 40-minute S-Bahn ride to Marienplatz station. To relieve the subway, there is also a free bus connection from the Donnersbergerbrücke S-Bahn station to get to some of Bayern’s home games.
Characteristics of the stadium
With the exception of the non-closable open roof, the Allianz Arena is a closed, pure football stadium, which distributes its international capacity of 69,344 seats (66,000 until August 2012) almost evenly over three tiers: lower ≈25,000, middle ≈24,000 and upper ≈22,000 seats .The angle of inclination varies from 24 ° in the lower tier to 30 ° in the middle to 34 ° in the upper tier. The 67,812 seats include the 2,152 business (middle tier) and sponsor seats (lower tier) and around 400 press seats (live commentator seats and writing press in the lower tier), the 106 boxes of different sizes with up to 62 seats (between middle and and upper tier) with 1,374 places as well as the 227 places for people with disabilities and their companions on the main access level without changing levels. The number of press seats varies as required and consists of 176 seats with a table, 98 without a table and 90 commentator seats for regular Bundesliga matches, making a total of 364 press seats. During the 2006 World Cup 2,600 seats were made available, of which 1,000 were with a table and 1,000 without a table in the lower tier west and 600 commentator seats in the upper tier west.
For Bundesliga and cup matches, around 5,200 seats in the north and south curve of the approximately 25,000 seats in the lower tier are converted into 6,800 standing places (the capacity was reduced by the conversion of the sponsors’ stand on the lower tier west, where the sponsor seats were replaced by standard seats about 1,000 places increased).The higher capacity spectators thus obtained was initially offset by a total of about 4,000 that these sites were not sold to other parts of the stadium. On January 16, 2006, the authorities approved the increase to 69,901 seats, so that after the deduction of all media and work cards since the beginning of the second half of the 2005/06 Bundesliga seasonThere is room for 69,000 spectators at league and DFB Cup games. Blocks 112 and 113 (south curve) have been standing room blocks at national games since the 2006/07 season; Only at international matches are the seats attached to trusses installed in accordance with UEFA and FIFA requirements, but are generally not used.
All seats are covered, but due to the wind suction it can happen that rain can fall on parts of the tiers. During the winter break in 2005/06, in order to further increase comfort, the entrances to the main distribution level were provided with gates which are shut down during games. As a result, the wind no longer blows so strongly over the spectator stands during the games. When the gates are raised, the lawn is better aerated.
At the beginning of the 2012/13 season, two more rows of seats were installed in the upper tier, increasing the stadium capacity to 71,137 spectators, and for international games to 67,812 spectators.
In April 2013 it was announced that the capacity for international games will also be increased to 71,000 spectators. This should be possible through better use of the space on the south and north stands.
In August 2014, the arena was expanded again by a good 2,200 standing and around 1,500 seats.
The lower tier of the south curve was equipped with a combination system. Foldable seats for international games are available in metal boxes that can be lowered into the floor. This so-called “Stuttgart model” was first used in the renovation of the Stuttgart stadium.
This was also done with a view to Munich’s application for the 2020 European Football Championship , for the final of which a capacity of at least 70,000 seats is required. A final release of the use of these additional places was approved in January 2015 bringing the Arena in the Bundesliga and German Cup games now 75,024 and at international matches holds 69,344 spectators. According to Jan-Christian Dreesen, CFO of FC Bayern München AG, a further increase in capacity through the installation of a fourth rank would, however, still be a long way off.
For safety reasons (buffer block between home and guest fans in the south curve), only 71,400 spectators were allowed at home games of TSV 1860.
The sponsor and business seats as well as the box seats can also be reached from the parking garages S0 / S1 via escalators and separate admission controls. The accreditation for press representatives is issued in the so-called press club, which is located on level 0 under the visitor entrances. This can be reached via car park S1 or via a ramp.
The Esplanade and Kurt-Landauer-Platz
The four- story car park to the south of the arena is the largest car park in a football stadium in Europe with around 9,800 parking spaces. The esplanade “lies” on top of it and serves as a walk to and from the arena for stadium visitors. The curved paths on the green esplanade connect over a width of 133 m and a length of 600 m or a width of 136 m and a length of 543 m the underground station Fröttmaning and the multi-storey car park (two stairwells per car park section) with the arena. At the same time, the streams of visitors are to be unbundled and directed in a targeted manner. The building begins at ground level at the level of the northern pedestrian bridge to the underground station, leads over the multi-storey car park and leads to the Kurt-Landauer-Platz, named in 2015, in front of the southern stadium entrances. To the north of the stadium and at the southern end of the esplanade there is a total of 350 parking spaces for fan buses and 130 for people with disabilities . In the stadium or directly at the stadium there are another 1,200 parking spaces on two levels, making a total of 11,000 parking spaces available.
Facade and roof
The façade, which is characteristic of the arena, consists of 2,760 foil cushions, each 0.2 mm thick, made of ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene , of which the 1,056 pillows in the area of the outer façade are illuminated, the 1,704 in the area of the roof are not illuminated. They result in a total area of 66,500 m². The diamond-shaped cushions, which are attached 45 ° counterclockwise, could be illuminated autonomously and exclusively in red, blue or white and in several brightness levels until August 2015. For this purpose, a flat 3.5 m long metal box was attached to each side, the fluorescent tubes included, which radiated their light through parallel glass panes in white, red and blue. The facade begins at a height of 3.5 m above the Esplanade access on level 2.
The arena shines in red and white for home games of FC Bayern Munich and in white for international matches. At home games of TSV 1860 the lighting was blue and white. On March 17, 2013, the Allianz Arena was illuminated green for the first time on the occasion of St. Patrick’s Day . This was done with green headlights. On the occasion of Croatia’s accession to the EU on July 1, 2013, the arena shone on June 30 from 10:00 pm to July 1 at 2:00 am in a red and white checkerboard pattern based on the Croatian coat of arms .With lighting costs of around € 50 per hour, the luminosity is so great that the Allianz Arena can also be seen from Austrian mountain peaks on clear nights H. is clearly visible from a distance of over 75 kilometers.
On May 22, 2014, FC Bayern announced on its website that the air-cushion facade of the Allianz Arena will soon be retrofitted by the electronics group Philips with 8,000 lights with a total of 380,000 LEDs . Every single point of light on the approximately 29,000 square meter illuminated outer shell can be controlled specifically and in real time. B. color gradients can be displayed. The three available colors increase to a color spectrum of 16 million colors. This retrofit will also improve the arena’s environmental balance, which will save up to 60% in energy costs. On August 12, 2015, the new lighting system, which began to be installed in October 2014, was inaugurated at the start of the 2015/16 season. More than 300,000 LEDs were distributed over an area of 26,000 square meters.This makes the arena one of the largest LED facades in the world, alongside the Burj Khalifa in Abu Dhabi and the T-Center in Vienna .
As part of the international match Germany – Italy on March 29, 2016, the arena shone for the first time in the German national colors black, red and gold. On July 4, 2016, the national holiday of the USA , the exterior facade shone in the colors of the US flag. Three weeks later, FC Bayern went on a trip to the USA. On the occasion of Christopher Street Day 2016, the stadium was illuminated for the first time with the colors of the rainbow flag on the night of July 9-10, 2016 .
A textile false ceiling is attached under the roof, which was initially only closed during games to protect against sunlight and to improve the acoustics. On days when there were no games, this ceiling was partially opened in order to be able to better illuminate the playing field through the translucent cushions located there. In the meantime, the suspended ceiling remains permanently closed, as the lawn is artificially illuminated.
There is an LED light strip underneath. When FC Bayern Munich plays, it lights up permanently in red. After a goal is scored, it pulsates in red and white.
Due to its shape, the Allianz Arena is often referred to as a rubber dinghy , car tires or air cushion.
Lawn
On June 2, 2013, for the first time in the history of the stadium, a game had to be canceled due to the pitch being unusable.
Until the summer break of 2014, the almost 8,000 m² lawn area consisted of 2.2 m × 15 m large pieces of lawn, each weighing 1.2 tons. The turf has had to be laid more than ten times since it opened. This procedure took up to two and a half days and cost around € 100,000 each time. In between it was necessary to replace smaller areas due to heavy loads.
Before the 2014/2015 season, a hybrid turf was laid, which consists of natural turf with woven artificial turf fibers. This had a fungal infestation in September 2016, which made holes in the lawn and thus restricted the playability. Large brown spots formed in the lawn. On September 23rd, the owner of FC Bayern Munich decided that the lawn should be completely removed and new grass rolled out. It was also decided to return to the old natural grass; there should no longer be a new hybrid turf in the Allianz Arena.
The floor is built up of several layers: Below the 2.3 cm thick lawn a Dicksode, then the upper turf layer, the lower layer lawn with water retention capacity, a drainage layer of sand, and finally antifreeze gravel.
Gastronomy, shops and facility management
All catering areas in the Allianz Arena (business club, sponsor lounges, VIP boxes, kiosks, fan meetings, à la carte restaurants and press club) are operated by Arena One , a subsidiary founded exclusively for the Allianz Arena by E.ON Facility Management, which in turn was wholly owned by the E.ON AG energy group. In 2014, Arena One was taken over by the Austrian premium catering company DO & CO Aktiengesellschaft. Next to the food court also operates the visitor management, event management and investment management. All of the catering stands, which cover an area of around 6,500 m², can only be used for cashless payments using the ArenaCard . The card can be topped up at six ArenaCard machines, ticket counters, top-up stations and at mobile vendors. In all fan shops and in the Arena Bistro , however, you can also pay with cash. Payment with Apple Pay was introduced in December 2018 . However, e-tickets can also be stored in wallets .
From the 2018/19 season, drinks in the arena will only be served in reusable cups . The aim of the change is to avoid waste and use energy resources even more efficiently. FC Bayern is working with the Bavarian Ministry of the Environment .
There are also two day-care centers, the Lego World and the FC Bayern Munich megastore with 800 m² of retail space. This is located inside the stadium, where originally there was also a fan shop from 1860 Munich and shops and exhibition areas from Medion, Telekom, and Audi. In this area, the FCB World of Experience was created in July 2011 and opened in May 2012. In addition, there are kiosks all around on the outside of the stadium.
Ownership
Interior, DFB Cup quarter-finals 2008: FC Bayern – 1860 Munich
The builder and owner of the arena is Allianz Arena München Stadion GmbH, which was founded in 2001 and is now a 100% subsidiary of FC Bayern München AG. The Alpine Holding built the stadium. Since the “stadium affair” from 2004 to 2010, managing director was Peter Kerspe (until June 15, 2005 together with Bernd Rauch). Jürgen Muth then took over this position. Originally, FC Bayern München AG and TSV München von 1860 GmbH & Co. KGaA each held 50 percent of the stadium company. The rental income paid by the two clubs to the GmbH is intended for the repayment of liabilities from the stadium construction. Due to the financial problems of the shareholder TSV München von 1860 GmbH & Co. KGaA, he had to sell his shares on April 27, 2006 for eleven million euros to FC Bayern München AG, which has since been the sole owner of the stadium company and thus the Allianz Arena. There was an option for TSV München von 1860 GmbH & Co. KGaA provided for a buyback of the shares by 2010. In November 2007, TSV München waived 1860 GmbH & Co. KGaA but on the option right. In return, according to media reports, it was agreed that the proceeds from two friendly matches between the clubs would be split in half and that, contrary to the original contractual arrangement, the proceeds would not go to Allianz Arena München Stadion GmbH.
On February 11, 2014, FC Bayern announced that the money raised from the sale of 8.33% of the shares in FC Bayern to Allianz SE will be used to repay Allianz Arena liabilities. The original financing plan assumed a 14 years long term until 2028. When the insurance company acquired shares, it was agreed that the FC Bayern venue will be called Allianz Arena by 2041. According to the UEFA statutes, the stadium sponsor may not be named at international matches (international matches, Champions / Europa League, etc.). In these cases, the name “FIFA WM-Arena München”, “Fußball-Arena München” or just “Arena München” is used as an alternative. The construction costs of the stadium amounted to around 286 million euros (total costs including financing costs: 340 million euros). The financing took the form of project financing via Eurohypo AG, Dresdner Bank AG, a closed fund of the KGAL group from Grünwald near Munich, and FC Bayern München AG. In addition, the public sector has paid around 210 million euros for site development and infrastructure. In addition, the property was rededicated from an industrial park to a special-purpose area for the construction, which reduced the value from 84 million euros to 14 million euros. The ground rent also fell due to the lower property value. Martin Runge, a member of the state parliament, saw it as anti-competitive aid and lodged a complaint with the EU Competition Commission.
History
Allianz Arena under construction (August 2004)
On October 21, 2001, a referendum took place on the construction of the stadium, which should clarify the question of whether a new stadium should be built at the current location and whether the city should provide the necessary infrastructure. A renovation of the Olympic Stadium had previously been rejected by its architect Günter Behnisch. The vote went out with 65.8 yes to 34.2 percent no in favor of a new building, with which the quorum of at least ten percent of yes votes was achieved. The voter turnout of 37.5% was a value that has never been reached in a referendum in Bavaria. Thereupon there was an architectural competition in which two designs were to be voted on from originally eight models.
Construction site of the Allianz Arena in November 2004
The Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron were awarded the contract and thereupon developed the concept that is comparable to the St. Jakob-Park in Basel – a stadium with a transparent cover made of ETFE foil cushions that can be illuminated from the inside and are self-cleaning . Construction of the stadium began in autumn 2002, the foundation stone was laid on October 21, 2002. Construction work was completed at the end of April 2005 and the handover by Alpine Bau GmbH took place on April 30, 2005. Because he passed on inside information to the Alpine construction company and received 2.8 million euros in return, Karl-Heinz Wildmoser junior was sentenced to several years imprisonment. He was the representative of TSV 1860 in the management of Allianz Arena München Stadion GmbH.
The underground stations Fröttmaning and Marienplatz on the U6 line were expanded as part of the stadium expansion. The Fröttmaning station was moved to the north and expanded from two to four tracks, an additional pedestrian bridge was built at the north end of the station and the parking facility was expanded so that trains could be made available for transporting visitors as quickly as possible after the game. Marienplatz station was provided with additional pedestrian tunnels along the existing platform tunnels to make it easier to change to the S-Bahn. After the positive outcome of a feasibility study, an extension of the U6 to the Neufahrner S-Bahn station was investigated, but was rejected after a preliminary investigation. TheA 9 was partially expanded to six or eight lanes and the A 99 was given a half connection north of the arena.
After the first 2005/06 season, the operators were able to look back on 49 games in the arena, which were attended by a total of 2,633,080 spectators, with Bayern having an average of 67,588 and the Lions on one of 41,932 spectators. In detail, these were 17 national, 17-second division, 4 cups (2 × Bayern, 2 × lions), 4 Champions League, 1 league cup (Bavaria), 3 friendship (1 × Bavaria, 1 × lions, 1 × each other), 2 opening games and a test game.
Opening and first games
Before the official opening game, the traditional teams of the two Munich clubs played a test match in front of a good 30,000 spectators on May 19, 2005, in which the sixties won 3-2 and served as a test run for the stadium operations. Bernd Rauch stated that “despite the all-round successful test run, there is still a lot of work to do for everyone involved”
The arena was then officially opened on May 30th with a friendly game between TSV 1860 Munich and 1. FC Nürnberg. Patrick Milchraum scored the first goal for TSV 1860; the game ended 3-2. The following day, Bayern Munich played an unofficial friendly against the German national team, which Bayern won 4-2. Both games were sold out and 66,000 spectators were the opening game I or opening match II titled.
The first competitive game in the Allianz Arena took place on July 26, 2005 as part of the 2005 DFL League Cup . Here FC Bayern Munich lost to VfB Stuttgart 1: 2.
The first Bundesliga game in the arena was the 3: 0 Bayern Munich on 5 August 2005 compared Borussia Mönchengladbach on Matchday 1, and the first second-division game was that of 1860 against Hansa Rostock on August 12 that the TSV won 4-1. The first away win in a league game at the Allianz Arena managed to defeat Dynamo Dresden on 9 September 2005 at 2: 1 over 1860 Munich.
The first international game was the Champions League match on 27 September 2005 between Bayern and the Belgian representatives FC Bruges, which Bayern 1: won 0th.
