AWD-Arena - Modern Redevelopment

Modern Redevelopment

Although the stadium has seen many changes through the years, none were as extensive and impacting as the redevelopment of 2003/04 by Schulitz & Partner Architects, which cost €65 million.

There had been much controversy within the club's fanbase over suggestions of building a new football arena for many years before. Eventually this led to the decision to preserve and comprehensively redevelop the existing stadium in 1997/98. When Germany was somewhat unexpectedly awarded the hosting of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the major stadium work was finally put into action.

During 2003/04, major parts of the stadium were rebuilt and thus the maximum capacity was reduced to 49,951 (of which around 8,000 are standing spaces). Before 2003, the stadium had had high floodlight masts (referred to by locals as 'toothbrushes'), track and field facilities inclusive and about 60% was open plan. The redevelopments transformed it completely into a football arena and removed approximately 70% of the previous building. The roof and about 25% of the area at the outer edges of the west grandstand were demolished like the north, south and east grandstand.

Instead of the previous scoreboards, the arena gained two modern video boards and replaced the old floodlight masts with 160 modern single headlights, which were integrated into the roof structure, supplying a light density of 1500 lux.

The pitch, under which a high performance drainage system and a cabin ground heating system was installed, was moved closer to the spectators than ever. With the removal of the track and field facilities, the pitch was moved directly to the west grandstand and the remaining grandstands were then built around it. This necessitated the stands behind the goals be designed in such a way that the upward gradient becomes larger gradually from west to east, creating a rather peculiar asymmetry, as the original west grandstand possessed such small angles of inclination and the new east grandstand was as constructed as steeply as possible.

The new inner roof was constructed using ETFE (ethylene tetrafluoroethylene) to allow sunlight through and thus allow the grass the grow naturally, whilst also protecting all spectators from bad weather . This care for the pitch helps avoid the constant need to re-lay it as in many other roofed stadiums and was designed by Hanke Loköter who helped construction the Allianz Arena as well.

The new business and corporate packages of the AWD-Arena are just like the press area in the east grandstand. There are approximately 1,250 business seats, 29 VIP boxes for 10-12 people and 96 press places.

Work on the stadium finished ahead of schedule in December 2004. The first football match held following the redevelopment was on January 23, 2005, where Hannover 96 lost 0-3 to Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga.

In June 2008, it hosted the 2008 Hannover Sevens, the European Sevens championship in rugby union.

On November 15, 2009, the stadium was filled to capacity as the funeral site for 32 year old Hannover 96 goalkeeper Robert Enke, who took his own life on November 10, 2009.

The stadium is one of few actual stadiums to be named on FIFA 12 when it was released of 28th Sept 2011