The Lohrheide Stadium in Bochum (City in Germany) will be totally redeveloped and will be in a position to hold international sporting events in the future.
The City Council of Bochum has arrived at a decision to start repurposing work of the venue in Spring 2023. The spruce-up work is expected to be completed by Summer 2025 and the expenditure stands at 55 million euros.
‘RUHR 24’ stated that the Lohrheide Stadium in Bochum-Wattenscheid, Germany, is an iconic sports venue. Soccer players from various clubs as well as athletes undergo training sessions in the open-air stadium. Now, plans have been chalked out to completely revamp the stadium and the main focus will be on athletics. Capacity expansion of the facility will also take place and it will be lent a chic look.
The Lohrheide Stadium is a multiuse facility in Bochum-Wattenscheid, Germany. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home stadium of SG Wattenscheid 09. The stadium can hold 16,233 spectators and opened in the year 1954. The local club TV Wattenscheid also uses the facility to hold athletics activities.
SG Wattenscheid 09 is a German association football club located in Wattenscheid, Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
FISU Event
‘RUHR 24’ further stated that the objective is to transform the open-air sports facility into an opulent venue where national as well as international events can be held. Once the rejig work is over, it will be the only venue in the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia to hold open-air athletic events.
The International University Sports Federation (FISU) wants to host the FISU World University Games in the Rhine-Ruhr region in Germany in July 2025. Until recently, the event was known as the Universiade.
Lausanne, Switzerland-based the International University Sports Federation (FISU) is responsible for the organization and governance of worldwide sports competitions for student-athletes between the ages of 17 and 25.
The FISU World University Games are staged every two years in a different City. This celebration of international university sports and culture draws many thousands of student-athletes together to compete, making it among the world’s largest and most prestigious multisports events.
The Lohrheide Stadium will serve as a venue for athletics competitions in the future once renovation work is through. To be able to hold international sporting events in the future once the facility makeover work is over will be kind of an acid test for the venue.
Lavish Venue
The Mayor of Bochum, Thomas Eiskirch of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), is thrilled about the fact that once the above arena’s repurposing work is over, it will be able to stage international sporting events which will also bring a lot of pride to the City of Bochum. He hopes that the venue will carry a lot of appeal once the revamp work is done and was confident that it will turn out to be a “world-class sports and event venue”.
Rejig Work at a Glance:
- The grandstands will be expanded to accommodate 16,387 covered audience seats, including 8,020 seats;
- The North and South Stands will be covered and a new roof will be installed on the East Stand;
- The West grandstand will be rebuilt and will boast spaces for 38 wheelchairs, facilities for the visually impaired fans and a lounge area devoted to 800 exclusively invited guests;
- New parking spaces to skirt the stadium;
- New changing rooms at the gym, a new cold room and an athletic training facility will come up; and
- A wall will be set up to serve the purpose of mitigating noise pollution in the greater interests of the residents living in and around the arena.
Exercise Area
A sports and exercise area has also been planned as part of the venue revitalization work which will come up in the Southwestern part of the Lohrheide Stadium. The local clubs will stand to benefit from the sports-and-exercise zone as well as the people of Wattenscheid district. The overall goal is the holistic development of the community on which the stadium sits.
Sustainability Goals
The renovation work of the arena will be carried out keeping in mind the sustainability factor which will be accorded topmost priority. The roofs will come armed with photovoltaic panels which will help the stadium to be self-sufficient in energy supply. Eco-paving will be done to facilitate the water to seep away easily in case of heavy shower. The drainage system will be streamlined.
Picking up Tab
The entire rejig work tab will be picked up by the City of Bochum and the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. During the construction phase, the athletics and football activities of the local clubs will continue unhindered. The football club Sportfreunde Rot-Weiß Leithe 1919 will move to the municipal sports facility.
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