Featured image credit: Skyliners Frankfurt
Basketball Bundesliga club Skyliners Frankfurt and Deutsche Eishockey Liga team Löwen Frankfurt have hailed Frankfurt City Council’s decision to approve the development of a new multifunctional arena.
The Council yesterday (Thursday) voted with a clear majority in favour of the project, pointing to the fact that of the 10 largest cities in Germany, only Frankfurt am Main does not have a major arena, therefore meaning important sports and entertainment events currently bypass the city.
The arena will be situated on land currently occupied by parking lots that serve Deutsche Bank Park, home stadium of Bundesliga football club Eintracht Frankfurt. It is expected to seat between 12,000 and 13,000 fans for sports events, with capacity rising to 15,200 for concerts.
The project currently has a price tag of around €256m (£211.4m/$266.3m), with the Council hoping that this investment will be offset primarily through income from leasing or renting the venue. Frankfurt’s Mayor, Mike Josef, said: “An important milestone has been reached. The decision creates the basis for the planning and implementation of the urgently needed arena.
“Planning permission has already existed for many years on the area around the stadium. The basketball and ice hockey teams need the arena as a basis for their existence and for their sporting development.
“We are continuously developing our sports city, both in elite and grassroots sport. This is reflected in the more than €40m invested in our and the clubs’ own sports facilities in the last three years, in the more than €200m for our swimming pools and now with the multi-functional arena.
“These investments underline the position of sport in, and for, our city. The transport improvement around the stadium, which is necessary even without the arena, is also gaining new momentum through the construction of the arena. I am very pleased that this decision has been made in the 100th anniversary of New Frankfurt. This is a strong signal.”
The new venue is seen as a solution for Skyliners Frankfurt and Löwen Frankfurt, whose Süwag Energie Arena and Eissporthalle Frankfurt homes are now considered insufficient.
Stefan Krämer, managing partner of Löwen Frankfurt, said: “We now want to send a signal that we believe in the fastest possible implementation of this arena project and will pool our resources to achieve this. We have the feeling that finally, many forces are pulling together.”
Dr. Gunnar Wöbke, managing partner of the Skyliners, added: “We are overjoyed that the city of Frankfurt is finally keeping the promise it made to us in the last century, in the year we were founded in 1999: to build a modern venue with at least 10,000 seats.
“This decision comes not a second too soon, but at the very last minute. Without a new arena, we would not even be able to compete in the easyCredit Basketball Bundesliga from 2032 onwards; while participation in the Euroleague has not been possible for over a decade.
“We are all the happier about the broad, cross-party approval in the city council and would like to thank everyone involved for the fact that things can finally get started.”
The path to yesterday’s announcement was set as the Council last month gave its initial approval to the project, with building permission having already been granted for the arena.
In July, Eintracht confirmed it would be interested in operating the new arena following the release of reports on the proposal in June. The City has stated that it is currently considered sensible for it to bear responsibility for construction itself, with the view of appointing a partner through a tender process.
In July 2022, the Council announced it had selected a site adjacent to Deutsche Bank Park for what at the time was considered to be a potential new 13,500-capacity arena. The plot of land (P9) is currently used as a car park, with the Council at the time stating it would conduct an in-depth examination of its merits as a possible location for the construction of a multifunctional arena.
There have been years of discussions over potential sites for a new arena in Frankfurt. In March 2022, Josef presented a feasibility study by architecture and urban planning practice Albert Speer + Partner (AS+P) for the area currently in question.
In June 2019, plans were revealed for a new €300m project that would result in the development of the second largest arena of its kind in Europe. The project centred on the development of a 23,000-seat arena entitled ‘The Dome’ on land owned by Fraport, the transport company which operates the city’s airport.
The project was reportedly set to be privately financed by Canada’s Katz Group, which specialises in sports and entertainment and real estate development, and was said to be looking to operate the arena after its then targeted opening date of 2023. However, there has been no news on this scheme in recent years.
Meanwhile, French conglomerate Lagardère withdrew from plans to build a new arena in the Kaiserlei area at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis.
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