Mercedes-Benz Arena doll up for Euro 2024

Article posted by Coliseum, June 15^th, 2022

Image: VfB Stuttgart @VfB (Twitter)

Futuristic touch is being lent to the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Stuttgart, Germany, and the price tag of the entire repurposing work stands at circa 100 million euros.

The ‘SWR Sport’ stated that the arena is being all dolled up as it will stage five matches of Euro 2024.

The 2024 Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2024 or simply Euro 2024, will be the 17^th edition of the UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men’s football championship of Europe organized by UEFA. The host country is Germany and it will be held from June 14^th to July 14^th, 2024.

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The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) is one of FIFA’s six continental governing bodies for association football. It administers football, futsal and beach soccer in Europe as well as Israel in Asia and the Euroasian transcontinental countries of Russia, Turkey, Cyprus, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, and Kazakhstan. It is one of six continental confederations of world football’s governing body FIFA. UEFA consists of 55 national association members. Because of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, FIFA and UEFA suspended all Russian national representative teams and club teams from any FIFA and UEFA competitions.

The 60,441-capacity Mercedes-Benz Arena is a stadium located in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, and is home to the German Bundesliga club VfB Stuttgart. Before 1993 it was called Neckarstadion, named after the nearby river Neckar and between 1993 and July 2008 it was called the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion.

The VfB Stuttgart is a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The club’s football team is currently part of Germany’s first division, the Bundesliga. VfB Stuttgart is one of Germany’s most successful clubs. The Mercedes-Benz Arena serves as their home arena.

The ‘SWR Sport’ further stated that extensive construction work on the main grandstand began recently. The City of Stuttgart is investing 97 million euros for the grandstand construction work. Photovoltaic (PV) roof will be installed the price of which will come to 1.5 million euros. The renovation of the main grandstand is expected to be completed by the end of November 2023, six months before the start of the UEFA showpiece.

Five fixtures at Stuttgart

During Euro 2024, five fixtures will take place at the Mercedes-Benz Arena – four preliminary round games and one quarter-final match.

Remarked VfB head honcho Alexander Wehrle, “The entire redecoration work of the facility will open up floodgates of marketing opportunities for us.”

With the rehabilitation of the grandstand, the portion of the stadium which dates back to the year 1974 will be given a new look. The Press area will be upgraded and new rooms for newsmen will be built, new changing rooms, a canteen kitchen and the ‘Tunnel Club will also come up. Those sitting in the VIP zone (around 200 spectators) will be able to see the football players walk from the locker room towards the pitch.

Capacity reduction

The construction work is being carried out parallel to the VfB Stuttgart playing their Bundesliga matches. The revamp work will see the capacity of the venue coming down by almost 10,000 seats from the present 60,483 seats. The seats that were dismantled recently were allowed to be picked up by the respective season ticket holders as a souvenir. Post-rejig work, the stadium will hold 60,030 spectators for Bundesliga games and 54,244 for international games.

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