Detail

The 30,000 capacity Volkswagen Arena was built between May 2001 and December 2002 in order to replace Wolfsburg’s outdated VFL-Stadion am Elsterweg which dates back to to 1947. Although the post-war VFL-Stadion was initially closed in 2002 when the new stadium opened, it has since been used by Wolfsburg’s reserve and women’s team. The long overdue arena cost approximately €53 million to build and is named after the Volkswagen car company who run the club as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group. Similar to PSV Eindhoven and Bayer Leverkusen, VFL Wolfsburg grew out of a sports club set up for workers of the company based in the local city, and the two have become intertwined ever since. The seating arrangement is very flexible and it permits a crowd of 30,000 for matches in the Bundesliga but for matches in the UEFA Cup and Champions League where standing is not permitted, 8,000 of the terraced places become 4,000 seats which brings the capacity down to around 26,000. The practical solution, in addition to the 2,500 capacity Wölfi curve for family and children’s block underlines the kind of forward thinking approach Germany clubs are famous for. Lastly, the Volkswagen Arena became an International venue after hosting a match between Germany and Canada on 1st June 2003 (4-1). Before the 2006 World Cup the ground also hosted a friendly between Poland and Croatia although Wolfsburg’s stadium was sadly not used for the tournament.

DRIVING The stadium is probably best accessed from the A39 stretch of motorway which is connected to the stadium either by L321 (exit 3 Wolfsburg-West) or the B188 stretch of road from Weyhausen junction. The address for satnav is as follows: In den Allerwiesen 1, 38446 Wolfsburg Car Parks There’s lots of on-site parking available at the stadium for just a few euros per match. TRAIN The main train station of Wolfsburg (Hauptbahnhof) is located centrally in the city approximately 20 minutes from the Volkswagen Stadium. It sits on the Hannover-Berlin high speed line so it’s well connected to not only the capital city but the rest of the country. BUS The bus is the main form of public transport used by fans on matchday with a special VRB service running up to three hours before kick off. The following is a list of bus lines which serve the Volkswagen: Line 251: Volkswagen Arena – Raven Mountain – Detmerode Line 252: Volkswagen Arena – Laagberg – Westhagen – Ehmen Line 253: Volkswagen Arena – Faller life – Sülfeld Line 254: Volkswagen Arena – North City Line 255: Volkswagen Arena – Reislingen – Vorsfelde – Wendschott Line 256: Volkswagen Arena – Hehlingen – Nordsteimke – Barnstorf – Heiligendorf – Hattorf AIRPORTS The closest airport is technically Braunschweig-Wolfsburg Airport located in Braunschweig- Waggum but unfortunately it is reserved for private aviation only. This means Hannover-Langenhagen is the closest commercial airport. It is the largest airport of Lower Saxony and 9th in Germany in terms of passengers served, situated 95km West of Wolfsburg.