Arena Hohenlohe

This is the Arena Hohenlohe in Ilshofen, a place that has had to find its identity since construction began in September 2003 and the doors finally opened on March 12, 2005. It was built by the Rinderunion Baden-Württemberg, and the legacy of that commission remains visible in the dual purpose of the site. While the pitch suggests football, the venue is best known as the home of the Crailsheim Merlins, the basketball team that moved here in 2014 after leaving the old HAKRO-Arena. The surface under the grass is parquet, designed for the squeak of trainers and the bounce of a ball, not the slide of a football boot. The capacity is listed at 3,200, though seated figures vary, and the crowd on the evening of March 8, 2020, when they beat Alba Berlin 92–81, was described as boisterous.

The location is simple, situated at Justus-von-Liebig-Straße 1, roughly ten kilometres from Crailsheim. Here, the focus is on the covered stand and the lights.