Commerzbank-Arena (Frankfurt)

Commerzbank-Arena is a retractable roof sports stadium in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. Commonly known by its original name, Waldstadion (English: Forest Stadium), the stadium opened in 1925. The stadium has been upgraded several times since then; the most recent remodelling was its redevelopment as a football-only stadium in preparation for the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup and 2006 FIFA World Cup.

With a capacity of 51,500 spectators for league matches and 48,500 for American Football and International Football matches, it is among the ten largest football stadiums in Germany. The stadium was one of the nine venues of 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup, and hosted four matches including the final.

The sports complex, which is owned by the city of Frankfurt, includes the actual stadium and other sports facilities, including a swimming pool, a tennis complex, a beach volleyball court and a winter sports hall. The arena has its own railway station, Frankfurt Stadion, on the national rail network.

The Commerzbank-Arena is home stadium of football club Eintracht Frankfurt whose offices are also located on the premises.

General information

Official website: https://www.commerzbank-arena.de/

Arena capacity: 51,500 spectators

Address: Mörfelder Landstraße 362, 60528 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

GPS coordinates for the navigator: 50°4′7″N 8°38′43″E

Year of construction: 1925

Construction cost: €150 million

Field: grass lawn with dimensions of 105 × 68 m

Seating plan of Commerzbank-Arena

Away fans who make the trip to the Commerzbank Arena are housed within the stand located behind the eastern goal-end.

Usually shared with some home supporters, the away fans usually occupy the southernmost section of the stadium through sections 20 in the lower tier and section 17-21 in the upper section. The stadium becomes a cauldron of noise on matchdays when both sets of supporters exchange chants.

The out of town location set amongst a lush-green forestry background is easy on the eye and the architecture whilst not the most exciting, is very practical with the design permitting a good circulation of air and natural light onto both the concourses/stands and pitch.

When choosing a place in the stadium, use the Commerzbank-Arena scheme above.

Where to buy tickets?

Tickets for Eintracht Frankfurt matches can be bought online, at the Fan-Shop at the Commerzbank-Arena, at the Fan-Shop at the An der Hauptwache 1 in the city centre, or at one of the other sales points.

If tickets remain available, these can also be bought on the gate on the day of the match, though Eintracht do sell out a few of their home matches in a season so booking in advance is recommended.

If you do miss out and the match is sold out, secondary ticketing websites like viagogo are a generally reliable alternative, though expect to pay well over face value.

Eintracht have divided their home matches into five pricing categories. Tickets in the most expensive category (A) range in price from €40.00 for an upper-tier seat in one of the corners to €85.00 for a central seat at the main stand.

Tickets in the cheapest category (E) cost between €23.00 and €55.00. A ticket for the standing area costs €15.00 irregardless of the category. Tickets are €2.00 more expensive if bought on the day.

How to get there?

The Commerzbank-Arena is located in the south of the city of Frankfurt at about 5 kilometres from its city centre.

By car & where to park

If you come by car, the address of the Commerzbank-Arena is “Mörfelder Landstrasse 362, 60528 Frankfurt am Main, Deutschland”.

You’ll be arriving either via the A3 or A5 and once you reach the junction ‘Frankfurter Kreuz’, you can follow the signs with the football. There are three parking lots close to the stadium, the ‘Waldparkplatz’, the ‘Parkplatz am Gleisdreieck’ and the ‘Parkplatz an der Isenburger Schneise’. Traffic routing will guide you the parking spaces, for each of them the fee is 5 € (4 GBP) per car.

For each of the parking lots, you have to walk quite a bit, so you might just as well head to ‘Börostadt Niederrad’, where you can park free of charge. Coming from the motorway, follow the signs towards ‘Niederrad’ and find a parking space, officially recommended streets are ‘Lyoner Straße’, ‘Herriotstraße’ and ‘Hahnstraße’. Depending on where you actually park, your walk can be around two miles and anyway, as there is a lot of traffic coming both from the motorway and the city, it’s recommended finding a parking spot well in advance.

By public transportation

If you already have a ticket for the match, you can travel to the game inside the huge Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (Rhine-Main traffic association) free of charge, so just leave your car parked and travel by public transportation if you can.

If using public transport, the stadium can be reached with S-Bahn lines S7, S8, and S9. From the main station take the S-Bahn S8 or S9 the direction of Mainz or Wiesbaden to the stop ‘Stadion’, (the journey should take just about 6 minutes) or S7 in the direction of Goddellau.

An alternative is tram 21, which leaves from the main rail station and crosses directly to the south bank on its way to the stadium. Get off at stop Stadion, which is the last on the line. On matchdays tram 20 follows the same route as tram 21.

Frankfurt probably has the best connection of any stadium to an airport. If you come by plane to Frankfurt, just go to terminal 1, platform 1 and board either an S8 towards ‘Hanau’ or an S9 towards ‘Offenbach Ost’ and exit 3 minutes later at the next stop, which already is ‘Stadion’.

From Frankfurt’s southern rail station (Südbahnhof) you can take bus 61 to the stadium. Take the bus in the direction of Flughafen and get off at stop Stadion/Osttribüne.

Walking directions

You can reach the stadium completely on foot, but it’s not really recommended. The walk is not great but long, at least three miles. Have a look at the route on Google Maps if you fancy a walk.

Where to eat?

The Commerzbank-Arena is part of a sports complex that is located on the edge of the city and bordered by forests. It’s a pleasant area if it’s a nice summer’s day, but otherwise there is not much around and eating and drinking is best done in central Frankfurt.

If you wish to stay close to the arena, then the adjacent Lindner Hotel will be an excellent choice. The Holiday Inn Frankfurt Airport, Melia Frankfurt, and Sheraton Frankfurt Congress are decent alternatives, but require some walking to get to the stadium.

Food wise the club, along with several others operate a car system where you have to buy a card for a 2 Euro deposit as they do not accept cash anywhere. There is also a 2 euro deposit should you wish to use a plastic glass, though you can get your money back. With the prices being jacked up anyway, it’s recommended eating outside.

There are a huge variety of stalls on the walk from the station to the ground, with the fare being reasonable value and varied choice. You can even bring your own cans and food should you so wish, with various cars being used as impromptu tables. There’s also a lot of unofficial merchandise stalls selling a huge range of ‘Frankfurt’ scarves.

History

Current usage

The new Waldstadion is primarily designed as a football arena, but can be used for other turf sports like American football and major events. The grandstand offers rooms that are for meetings, conventions and other events in external markets.

The new arena was officially opened at the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup, the test run for the 2006 World Cup. Both the opening match (Germany 4–3 Australia) and the final (Brazil 4–1 Argentina) were hosted at the stadium.

Football

The main users of the stadium is the football team Eintracht Frankfurt, which has used the stadium as its home base since 1963.

In addition, the stadium also serves occasionally as an alternative venue for home games of other teams: 1. FSV Mainz 05 played their qualifying matches for the 2005-06 UEFA Cup against the Armenian representatives Mika and against Keflavík ÍF from Iceland and for the 1st Round proper against Sevilla FC in the Commerzbank Arena.

The women of the local football team 1. FFC Frankfurt defeated Umeå IK 3-2 in the stadium on 24 May 2008 in the final second leg of UEFA Women’s Cup, winning the European Cup for the third time and setting up a record for women’s club football of 27,500 spectators

The Turkish Football Federation has also staged several games in the arena, as Turks form a significant ethnic minority in Germany. Beşiktaş won the Turkish Super Cup with a 1-0 win over Galatasaray. Due to the suspension by UEFA of the Turkish national stadium, the qualifying matches for UEFA Euro 2008 against Malta (final score 2–0 to Turkey), against Moldova (5–0 for the Turks) and against Norway (final score 2–2) were also played here.