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The BayArena is the home of Bayern Leverkusen and the stadium today from the outside bears little to no resemblance to the original ground which opened on the 2nd of August 1958. Known then as Ulrich-Haberland-Stadion, Leverkusen’s first version of the BayArena had a capacity of 22,500 before being expanded to 27,000 in 1986. Numerous additions were made to the ground in the 1990s as well including a hotel, a new scoreboard and VIP seating. Both the East and West stands were reconstructed which resulted in a fully-enclosed stadium. Essentially becoming a pure footballing Arena, the ground’s name was changed to BayArena in 1997 to reflect this new direction. The gamble paid off and by the mid 2000s the club began to grow and even reached the Champions League final in 2001 – 2002 season before falling slightly short against Real Madrid. An increase in the club’s revenue was reinvested in the stadium in 2008 as part of a Modernisation program and it was this stadium redevelopment that gives the BayArena it’s iconic structure and design as we see it today. The capacity includes 2,500 terrace spots and the colour of the seats was changed from green to red, reflecting Bayern Leverkusen’s traditional colours. The 70 million euro redevelopment also saw the addition of a large cylindrical roof, and the first Bundesliga Match was held on the 15th August 2009 against 1899 Hoffenheim, with the German national team taking on South Africa in a friendly a a month later to mark the stadiums redevelopment. For now the stadium is complete but Bayer 04 Leverkusen are always exploring new ways to enhance the match day experience. In April 2013 they announced plans to create a Multimedia experience with the installation of over 500 HD monitors and 350 wireless internet access points throughout the stands, as well as an interactive app which has exclusive content, games and player ratings for fans during the match.

DRIVING BayArena is conveniently located nearby to where the A1 and A3 stretch of motorways intersect, although A1 does not have an exit specifically for the stadium which makes the latter the better choice. The address of BayArena is as follows: Bismarckstraße 122, 51373 Leverkusen Car Parks Located out of town there are numerous car-parks around the stadium which can be used on matchdays, most of which are free. One such example is “Kurtekotten”. TRAIN (S-BAHN) Leverkusen Mitte Station (Bahnhof Leverkusen Mitte) is the main railway station of the city and it is located on the railway line between Cologne and Duisburg on the NRW-Express with the former city accessible within a short 15 minutes journey. BayArena is around 10 minutes walk away from Leverkusen Mitte Station with the S-Bahn line 6 connecting other parts of the city such as Leverkusen-Rhine village, Leverkusen-Küppersteg, and Leverkusen Chempark to this central most location. Once you have got off at the stop, it’s a short stroll through the Stadtpark to the Arena. The railway sign of Leverkusen Mitte Station The railway sign of Leverkusen Mitte Station AIRPORTS The closest International flight hub to Leverkusen is Cologne Bonn-Airport which is around 26km South of the city. As the seventh largest passenger airport in Germany serving over 9.3 million passengers in 2012 alone, the airport is well connected to the rest of Europe, which makes seeing Bayer Leverkusen play football a very easy proposition. Once you have landed you can travel to Leverkusen in 15 minutes via the S-Bahn train line which was mentioned in the “Train section” above.