ASC Dortmund

The Urlaubsguru-Waldstadion, known to most people in the district as the Aplerbecker Waldstadion, sits on Schwerter Straße in Aplerbeck, the eastern Dortmund suburb the club has called home since 1925. It holds around 2,000 on a full day, though only 250 to 288 of them find a seat along the main stand; the rest watch standing, the way most people at this level of German football still do.

The club itself goes back to 20 May 1909, formed under the name it still carries in full, ASC 09 Dortmund – Sport-Club Aplerbeck 09 e. V. It has stayed amateur across all of that time, turning out in blue and white through more than a century of regional football rather than chasing the professional tiers that share the city.

Its honours belong to that level: champions of the Landesliga Westfalen in 2008, champions of the Westfalenliga in 2014, each title bringing promotion rather than silverware for its own sake. The closest the club has come to a run beyond the league table was the 2022/23 Westfalenpokal, where it reached the semi-final before falling short of Dortmund's showcase cup final.

None of that has pulled ASC 09 away from Aplerbeck. The team still trains and plays at the Waldstadion, still draws a crowd that fits comfortably into a ground built as much for standing as sitting, on a pitch that has changed less than the city around it.