Augsburg Arena, currently known commercially as the WWK Arena (German pronunciation: [ˌveːveːˈkaː ʔaˌʁeːnaː]; officially stylised as WWK ARENA, also "Schwabenstadion"), is a football stadium in Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany. It is used mostly for football matches and hosts the home matches of FC Augsburg.

WWK Arena
Map
Former namesAugsburg Arena (2006–2009)
Impuls Arena (2009–2011)
SGL Arena (2011–2015)
LocationAugsburg, Germany
Coordinates48°19′23″N 10°53′10″E / 48.32306°N 10.88611°E / 48.32306; 10.88611
OwnerFC Augsburg
Capacity30,660[1] (league matches),
28,367 (international matches)
Surfacegrass
Construction
Opened26 July 2009
Construction cost€45 million
ArchitectBernhard & Kögl
Tenants
FC Augsburg (2009–present)
Germany national football team (selected matches)

The stadium has a capacity of 30,660 with 19,060 seats and standing room for 11,034. A second phase of construction could expand capacity to 49,000 in the future.[2] It replaced the club's previous home stadium, Rosenaustadion. FC Augsburg played their first match in the new stadium in 2009

During the time of designing and constructing the stadium, it was called "Augsburg Arena" [ˈaʊksbʊʁk ʔaˌʁeːna]. It was opened as "Impuls Arena" ([ɪmˈpʊls ʔaˌʁeːna], officially stylised as impuls arena), and was renamed "SGL Arena" ([ˌɛsɡeːˈʔɛl ʔaˌʁeːna], officially stylised as SGL arena) after SGL Carbon acquired the naming rights for the structure in May 2011. The contract had a term of seven years and began on 1 July 2011.[3] On 1 July 2015 the stadium naming rights were acquired by WWK, an insurance company, changing the official name of the stadium to "WWK ARENA".[4]

Augsburg was one of the official host cities of the 2010 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup and the subsequent 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup. The Impuls arena was the location of several matches during the group stage and the quarterfinals. During the FIFA-competitions it was renamed "FIFA Women's World Cup Stadium Augsburg". The stadium has hosted one Germany national team game and was nicknamed the "Anfield of the B17 highway" following FCA's 2016 Europa League Last 32 First Leg clash with Liverpool.

WWK Arena is the first climate-neutral football stadium in the world. The carbon neutrality was achieved by six ecological heat pumps (40 m deep), which produce the desired temperature via heat exchangers. A bio natural gas boiler also supplies the necessary energy during peak load times at a game.[5][6] In 2017, a new stadium facade will be made for the WWK Arena.[7]

2011 FIFA Women's World Cup

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Date Time (CET) Team #1 Result Team #2 Round Spectators
29 June 2011
15:00
Norway  
1–0
  Equatorial Guinea 12,928
2 July 2011
14:00
North Korea  
0–1
  Sweden 23,768
5 July 2011
18:15
England  
2–0
  Japan 20,777
10 July 2011
13:00
Sweden  
3–1
  Australia 24,605
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The SGL Arena in 2009

References

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  1. ^ "World Stadiums - Stadiums in Germany". Worldstadiums.com. Archived from the original on 1 September 2020. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  2. ^ "BAM to build football stadium in Augsburg". PropertyEU. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  3. ^ "impuls arena wird zur SGL Arena". Official website (in German). FC Augsburg. Archived from the original on 22 April 2016. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  4. ^ "FCA spielt künftig in der WWK ARENA". Official website (in German). FC Augsburg. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  5. ^ Lechwerke AG: Präsentation zur Klimaneutralität der impuls arena Archived 24 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine (PDF) Gemeindezeitung.de
  6. ^ Agentur für Erneuerbare Energie: Bundesliga-Winterpause: Die Erneuerbaren Energien bleiben am Ball. Pressemitteilung vom 29. Dezember 2014
  7. ^ "Germany: WWK Arena finally getting its facades – StadiumDB.com". Stadiumdb.com. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
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