Lidl Arena (until 2013 and from 2019 to 2022: Stadion Bergholz; from 2013 to 2019: IGP Arena) is located in the city of Wil in the Swiss canton of St. Gallen and is the home ground of the football club FC Wil and formerly for the Heveltic Guards. The football stadium is owned by the city of Wil.
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| Former names | Stadion Bergholz, IGP Arena (2013-2019) |
|---|---|
| Address | Feldstrasse 40 Wil Switzerland |
| Coordinates | 47°27′30″N 9°02′14″E / 47.458333°N 9.037222°E |
| Owner | City of Wil |
| Capacity | 6048 |
| Construction | |
| Built | 1963 |
| Opened | 1963 |
| Website | |
| https://fcwil.ch/wir/sportpark-bergholz/ | |
Stadium
editThe facility offers a total of 6,000 seats. Of these, 700 are seated and 5,300 are standing. The playing surface is artificial turf. The stadium has four 38-metre-high floodlight masts, which have a total of 126 lamps and provide an illuminance of 700 lux on the pitch. In the 2012/13 season, the stadium was renovated into a "Sportpark Bergholz". Therefore, FC Wil's home matches during the 2012/13 Swiss Football Championship were played at the AFG Arena in St. Gallen.[1]
In November 2013, the Wils-based company IGP Pulvertechnik acquired the sponsorship rights to the Sportpark. The football stadium was thus officially called "IGP Arena". The company paid CHF 100,000 per year for this. At the end of 2019, the name sponsor withdrew from the contract. After a three-year search, a new name sponsor was found in 2022 in the form of the retailer Lidl Switzerland. The stadium has since been called Lidl Arena.[2][3][4]
It is part of the eponymous sports facility, which also contains swimming pools and an ice hockey rink, that was newly built at the site of their old ground in 2013, for the cost of around 11 million Swiss francs. Between 2013 and 2020 it bore the name of its sponsor IGP Pulvertechnik,[5] before reverting to its initial name.[6]
References
edit- ^ "Infrastruktur / Trainingsbetrieb – FC WIL 1900" (in Swiss High German). Retrieved 2022-10-30.
- ^ "Wiler Fussballarena getauft". St. Galler Tagblatt (in German). 27 November 2013. Retrieved 2022-10-30.
- ^ "Vorzeitiger Ausstieg: IGP bald nicht mehr Bergholz-Namensgeber". Hallowil.ch (in German). Retrieved 2022-10-30.
- ^ "Lidl Schweiz wird neuer Naming-Right Partner". FC Wil, ein Sportverein, Fussball Club und Nachwuchsförderer (in German). 2022-06-08. Retrieved 2022-10-30.
- ^ "IGP sichert sich Naming-Right am Wiler Bergholz". fcwil.ch. FC Wil 1900 AG. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 28 November 2013.
- ^ "Sportpark Bergholz - FC Wil".