Berlin football club Hertha BSC intends to build a dedicated football arena with a capacity of 55,000 spectators in the city’s Olympic Park – directly next to the Olympic Stadium. “Wholly privately financed and without a listed building being affected,” the club’s president Werner Gegenbauer explained at the presentation of the initial location analysis.

On behalf of the club AS+P examined over 50 possible locations within and beyond the Berlin city limits with regard to their suitability. The most important criteria were the size of the site, transport connections, the surroundings, public perception, image, land availability, conflict potential, and infrastructure. The result:

1. Many of the locations that at first sight looked suitable were out of the race after the first examination round, and following more detailed analysis the number of possible locations was considerably reduced again.

2. The Olympic Park best fulfills the criteria set by Hertha BSC and by which it sets great store. The Olympic Park, a site next to the Olympic Stadium, is also the club’s location of choice (details of the location analysis).

The background: Hertha BSC is the last club in the German Bundesliga not to have a dedicated football-only stadium. Capacity utilization for the Olympic Stadium stands at just 64 percent, while the Bundesliga average comes to 92 percent. “For everyday Bundesliga life, which accounts for 95 percent of our matches, the Olympic Stadium is no longer suitable or viable in the long term,” Hertha BSC President Gegenbauer says. “As a club and SME we intend to, and indeed can put up with the disadvantage of an aging Olympic Stadium that is far too big and that does not belong to us.”

The current rental contract for the Olympic Stadium runs out in 2025, by which time Hertha’s new stadium should be up and running. On this, the club’s various committees are fully agreed. According to the study, Brandenburg Park in Ludwigsfelde, nine kilometers south of Berlin’s city limits and an 18-minute train ride from Potsdamer Platz, is an alternative to the Olympic Park, the preferred location. This location is the best possible alternative. The club, however, is banking on the Berlin Senate supporting the choice of the Olympic Park. The next step will involve the club and the firm of architects and planners AS+P together drawing up a reliable cost estimate, which, it goes without saying, will be independent of the location.

Press coverage:

Berliner Morgenpost, kicker, Spiegel Online, Berliner Zeitung