Wedaustadion
- Duisburg SpV
- Meidericher SV and MSV Duisburg
- German Athletics Championships 1922
- Athletics Junior Championships 1973
- Universiade 1989
The Wedaustadion was a football stadium in Duisburg Wedau Sports Park. It was built in 1921 and was with a capacity of 40,000 spectators after the Berlin Grunewald stadium only the second major sports facility in Germany.
The Wedaustadion was demolished in 2003. On the same site, the MSV - Arena today Schauinsland-Reisen - Arena was built.
The beginnings
1922, the stadium was used on the occasion of the German Athletics Championships for the first time sporty. The official inauguration took place only in 1926 by the then Mayor Karl Jarre.
The pioneering role of the battle site was short-lived. Already at the inauguration had been caught up in Elberfeld, Cologne and Dusseldorf and it created more attractive venues in the west of Germany.
Chronic lack of funds prevented the construction of a large grandstand. It was enough only for a short 50 meter wide canopy of seats on the west side. So the Wedaustadion was the venue of only two A- caps: On November 23, 1924 played the German national football team, which at the time belonged to Sepp Herberger, in front of 40,000 spectators for the first time on German soil in Wedaustadion against an Italian national team. Although the stadium was not fully completed at that time, the DFB decided to stage the international match in Duisburg. In 1933, a match of the German national team against Belgium.
Internationals in Wedaustadion
- . 7449060597523 Nov. 1924: German Empire German Empire - Italy 1861 Italy 0:1
- . 7483582175022 October 1933: German Empire Nazi German Empire - Belgium 8:1
The stadium in the district of Duisburg Neudorf was initially the home ground of Duisburg SPVs, the 1904-1927 ten times won the West German Championship, but failed again and again to the German championship.
Venue of the MSV Duisburg
Even before the founding of the football league was decided, the Council of the City of Duisburg decided in the early 1960s for a modernization of the Wedau stadium.
From 1962 to 1964 according to the design and under the direction of architect Franz Kurowski Mülheim ( 1928-1981 ) was at that time the modern large stands of West Germany with 6,500 covered seats and 3,428 additional seats on the Vortribüne. At the same time, the then graduate engineer Julius Dedy built a new floodlights.
As clearly was that the MSV Duisburg ( the then Meidericher SV called) should belong to the Bundesliga 's founding members, the city made it clear that this club would unsubscribe from the suburb to the north on the first football field Duisburg its home games.
Planning from the 1970s
The planned in the 1970s, full canopy of the stadium was never executed.
In 1973 the European Championships in Athletics were held in the Junior Wedaustadion. For this event, the stadium received a plastic sheet, which was founded in 1989 on the occasion of the Universiade, replace with a new one.
The Universiade was also the occasion for the most extensive renovation and expansion work in and around the stadium. In addition to a new career Vortribüne, an electronic scoreboard and a color-coded system was built that allowed the audience to easily find their places. Shortly before the general admission ranks had already been renewed.
In his last state of development, the stadium had a capacity of 30,112 spectators, including about 10,000 seats on the main and Vortribüne.
But even with these measures, the stadium was a below-average performance venue that no longer corresponded to the standard.
Demolition and new beginnings
However, it took many years until it had decided to demolition and construction of the stadium beginning of the new century. A special role was played by the contractor Walter Hellmich, who took over the presidency of the MSV Duisburg in 2002. The demolition was carried out from July 2003 to May 2004 train to train. At the same place then the MSV - Arena was built (now Schauinsland-Reisen - Arena) as the sites of MSV Duisburg.