Ernst-Abbe-Sportfeld

Geschichte

Ernst Abbe Sportfield is a sports facility in Jena, Germany. It was dedicated on August 24, 1924 and was named after entrepreneur Ernst Abbe 15 years later. The facility is in southern Jena, directly on the Saale River. The City of Jena purchased the stadium from the Ernst-Abbe-Stiftung (The Ernst Abbe Foundation) in 1991.The soccer and track stadium in the Ernst-Abbe-Sportfeld is the home field of FC Carl Zeiss Jena. It was homestead for famous sprints, javelin throw and long jump athletes like Petra Felke and Heike Drechsler, when Sport-Club Motor Jena still existed, and it has a capacity of over 12,990. There are 6,540 seats with 4,010 covered seats in the main stands. The spectator capacity will be increased to 14,000. 1997 saw the replacement of the original wooden bleachers from 1924 (which could seat only 420 people) with the new, modern stands to accommodate more spectators. The stadium's lights were mounted on four massive, hollow steel towers and were the result of the 1974 and 1994 renovations of the facility. The steel towers were taken down in 2013. The electronic scoreboard was installed in 1978 and was the first of its kind in East Germany.The attendance record was set in 1962. Despite the then official capacity of 16,000 spectators, approximately 27,500 visitors found the way into the stadium for the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup semi-final versus Atlético Madrid.Next to the stadium are additional facilities for soccer, track, and various other sports.

"Wir sind ein Ort der Geschichte, der Gegenwart und der Zukunft. Mit der Neuausrichtung des Ernst-Abbe-Sportfelds zu einem reinen Fußballstadion entwickelt sich das Jenaer Paradies weiter – für die wichtigsten 90 Minuten, für die nächste Jahrzehnte, für Jena und eine ganze Region.Überdacht, funktional und noch näher am Geschehen – so wird sich das neue Stadion in Jena künftig präsentieren. Mehr als 15.000 Zuschauer werden dann im Paradies ihren Platz finden. Neben 9.200 Sitzplätzen können sich die Anhänger des FC Carl Zeiss Jena auf 4.800 Stehplätze, 800 VIP-Sitzplätze und 8 Logen für 112 Gäste freuen. Gästefans finden auf rund 1.500 Stehplätzen im neuen Stadion Platz."