Düsseldorf City Council has approved investments worth €40 million to upgrade the Merkur Spiel-Arena.
In addition to the redesign of the business club, the LED boards in the upper tier are set to be expanded.
Rheinische Post said in the past calendar year, the stadium has played host to two European championships.
After the European Handball Championship opened in January 2024 with a record number of spectators in the stadium, the European football elite were guests for five games in the summer of 2024.
The Merkur Spiel-Arena is a football stadium in Düsseldorf, Germany. It has a retractable roof and can host up to 54,600 spectators for soccer games and up to 66,000 fans for concerts. The arena is the home of the 2. Bundesliga team Fortuna Düsseldorf.
Fortuna Düsseldorf is a German football club in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia. Founded in 1895, Fortuna entered the league in 1913 and was a fixture in the top flight from the early 1920s up to the creation of the Bundesliga in 1963.
The Merkur-Apiel Arena stadium’s special heating system allows the venue to keep spectators warm even when it is bone-chillingly cold during winter and it can host events all year round.
Even before UEFA EURO 2024, investments were made in the infrastructure of the stadium with over 4,000 padded VIP folding seats added.
New rooms were also created with the so-called “Caves” and the glazed player tunnel “The Tunnel”.
The Merkur Spiel-Arena is a fine example of the top-class stadiums that can be found around Germany, even in the second tier.
Although it didn’t host group games at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the 54,600-seater arena was a venue at Euro 2024.
Previously known as the LTU Arena and Esprit Arena, the Merkur has also hosted several Wladimir Klitschko boxing bouts, countless concerts, the Eurovision Song Contest and the 2010 Race of Champions, which featured Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel.
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