German football bosses go into the final year of preparations for the 2006 World Cup knowing only the final polish needs to be added to the 12 hosting stadiums.
”We now have the best infrastructure for football in the world,” said Wolfgang Niersbach, vice-president of the 2006 World Cup Organising Committee (OC).
Niersbach is confident the final touches will be completed soon.
”We planned on allowing one year of getting used to the grounds for each stadium,” he said.
The latest and most expensive venue to open its doors to the world was Munich’s Allianz Arena, which premiered at the end of May after 31 weeks of building. The arena will get a new name for the June 9 to July 9 World Cup, since sponsor names are not allowed on stadiums for the event.
The €341-million (R2,8-billion) arena, which Bayern Munich chief executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge called ”nearly World Cup-ready” and ”the most beautiful stadium in the world”, will be called Fifa World Cup Stadium Munich. Similar names will be handed out for the venues in Frankfurt, Hamburg and Cologne.
A major difference to West Germany’s hosting of the 1974 World Cup is the number of pure football stadiums.
”In regards to stadiums, the 1974 World Cup was like the Stone Ages compared to today,” Niersbach said. ”Back then, there was only one football-only stadium. Now there are nine.”
Only Berlin, Stuttgart and Nuremberg still have athletics tracks separating fans from the field.
The ”Stone Ages” is also long gone in the stands.
Increasing comfort is not only a World Cup feature, with more than 11-million fans flooding to Bundesliga games last season.
”The new stadiums also have something to do with the fan attendance record in the Bundesliga,” Niersbach added. ”Each stadium has its own character. There was a healthy level of competition among the cities.”
Perhaps the final stadium to be completed will be in Stuttgart, where the €53-million (R440-million) expansion of the backstretch won’t be finished until December. The expansion of the main grandstand was completed in 2001.
Stuttgart’s Gottlieb-Daimler Stadium will keep its name for the World Cup as an exception. The auto manufacturer Daimler bought the naming right to the former Neckar Stadium before the 1993 Athletics World Championships and renamed the venue. Fifa will recognise the name for the World Cup as it is named after an individual, rather than a company.
The ”cheapest” renovations are taking place at Kaiserslautern’s Fritz Walter’s Stadium. But the €48,3-million (R401-million) facelift may have caused the biggest problem.
The club’s financial difficulties led Kaiserslautern bosses to pulling the stadium out of the running to host this summer’s Confederations Cup. Still, the stadium is due to be completed by June 9.
”We will fulfil all Fifa and OC requirements on time,” Kaiserslautern’s chief executive Rene Jaeggi said confidently.
All stadiums will cause enormous electricity bills for the World Cup. The Hamburg arena, for example, must have five million watts of electricity available, compared with only two million for Bundesliga matches. Five million watts is enough to serve a town of 5 000 residents over the same period of time.
Hamburg only has minor details to iron out at its World Cup stadium. Among the €8-million to €10-million (R66-million to R83-million) in investments still planned is the installation of an electronic system to find forged and stolen tickets. — Sapa-DPA