Terrace converts

Hamburg's Volksparkstadion is very impressive

Germany's facilities for the 2006 World Cup will include state-of-the-art new stadiums. And, as Steve Beauchampé reports, terraces are still a key part of German fan culture.

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The rebuilding of Germany's football stadia ahead of the 2006 World Cup finals continues apace, with the official opening of Hamburg's Volksparkstadion last weekend marked by the country's 2-0 victory over Greece.

With a construction programme to rival that seen in English football, German supporters can anticipate watching their sport in some spectacular grounds in the years ahead.

What's more, many will do so standing on terraces.

When Fifa's World Cup inspection committee visited the country last October, Deutscher Fussball-Bund general secretary Horst R. Schmidt stressed the importance of providing fans with good facilities, pointing out that terraces were essential to German fan culture.

All-seater stadia have never been a legal requirement in Germany, with the issue largely absent from the political agenda.

Interchangeable

For several years, stadia in Nuremburg and Dortmund have used an interchangeable system, whereby seats are installed for European ties and other international matches and removed immediately afterwards.

Though fairly rudimentary (uncomfortable bucket seats with views of the pitch obscured by crash barriers), the process works sufficiently to keep Uefa happy while maintaining the fan's desire to stand.

The Volksparkstadion however, incorporates a considerably more sophisticated design.

Dirk Mansun, secretary of the Hamburger SV Supporters Club, explains that, working alongside both the club and its' fans, the architects developed a system whereby the terrace steps rotate through 180 degrees to be replaced by steps with seats.

"The process takes about three hours and, after roughly a year of operation, is working very well. Installation added 150DM (approximately £50) per seat with the stand's capacity reduced from 9,000 for standing to 5,000 for seats.

"But it's a one-off cost, and with seat tickets roughly double the price of terrace admission, income remains fairly constant whichever system is employed."

DFB general secretary Horst R. Schmidt

In Gelsenkirchen, early season Bundesliga pacesetters Schalke 04 are preparing to move next summer to their new Auf Schalke Arena, complete with sliding pitch, sliding roof and 18,500 terraced spaces.

English-born Stuart Dykes, a Schalke fan worker, says that the club established a stadium working group involving supporters. "There was never any question that we wouldn't include terraces.

"Everyone accepted the need for them and the club were very supportive. It was simply a case of deciding which system we'd employ.

"Hamburg's solution was considered but we're a smaller club and the occasions on which we'd need to convert may be limited, so we opted for a simpler solution.

"The terrace will incorporate fittings, on to which seats can be bolted, with the crash barriers designed so as not to impede views of the pitch."

Undoubtedly, the absence of a perimeter fence (present in Hamburg) should also help.

Conversion

With Eintracht Frankfurt, Hansa Rostock, and Wolfsburg all planning to incorporate terracing in their new stadia and Bremen, Kaiserslautern and Munich (where the seats fold away under crush barriers) amongst those converting only when games dictate, German football seems at odds with world wide trends in stadium construction.

But maybe not isolated. According to Dirk Mansun, an unnamed Austrian club recently approached Hamburg to investigate their system.

Meanwhile, the DFB sometimes seem uncomfortable discussing terracing, Horst Schmidt recently claiming that their influence within Uefa and Fifa on the subject was, "no greater than that of Moldova."

Coming from a country recently awarded the World Cup Finals, such a claim seems implausible.

It is too early to judge whether Germany's ideas on terracing retention will galvanise stadium designers, politicians and football officials into re-evaluating their stance on the subject. Undoubtedly though, many fans will be hoping it does.