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The original version of Wörthersee was a 10,900 capacity ground which featured an athletics track around the perimeter of the pitch. Home to two football teams which would later folded, SK Austria Klagenfurt and FC Kärnten, the construction of the new stadium was spearheaded by Jörg Haider, Governor of Carinthia, who wanted to bring top-flight sport to the local region. Constructed over a two year period, the old stadium was demolished in 2005 to make way for the new stadium and the first ceremonial brick was laid a year later in 2006. Municipally owned and largely funded by the taxpayer, the ground’s naming rights were almost immediately sold to a local bank, becoming known as Hypo Arena before it had even opened. Selected to represent Austria as one of the country’s one of four venues of Euro 2008, or one of eight if you include Switzerland’s four. In total it hosted three matches of Group B: Germany v Poland (2-0), Croatia v Germany (2-1) and Poland v Croatia (0-1). The inaugural football match was played a year previously between Austria and Japan in September 2007, and SK Austria Kärnten moved into Wörthersee Stadion in time for the start of the 2007/2008 season. Designed by architect Albert Wimmer to host 30,000 seated supporters for International events, the capacity of Klagenfurt’s football ground has twice been reduced. For Austrian Football League matches the capacity sat at 18,000 until August 2015 when a court ordered the closure of the upper stands decreasing the capacity to 12,000.

DRIVING The Stadium’s address for satnav is as follows: Südring 207 9020 Klagenfurt am Wörthersee, Austria Car Parks There are two decent sized car parks within Sportpark Klagenfurt which are accessible from Südring. TRAIN Klagenfurt Hbf is 3.8 km north-east of Wörthersee Stadion which equates to a walk of around 45 minutes. BUS The closest bus stop is also around 2.2 km away along Klagenfurt Südring/Rosentaler Straße. This is served by bus numbers 5316, 5318 and 5327. AIRPORTS AND FLYING Klagenfurt Airport is only 3 km away from the city centre and is the sixth busiest airport by passengers in Austria. Upon landing you can catch a train into the city centre from Klagenfurt-Annabichl.