Stadion an der Hafenstraße

The ground sits in the Bergeborbeck district of Essen. The design is deliberate, or so the architect Plan Forward GmbH intended. You can see the scar of the old Georg-Melches-Stadion in the name, which Rot-Weiss Essen took back in January 2022 after a brief stint as Stadion Essen. The club bought the rights back.

The seating faces the pitch at a sharp angle, so the crowd feels closer than the distance suggests. On a matchday, the stands fill with red and white, and the noise bounces off the glass frontage of the main stand. The advertising boards around the perimeter are a blur of local sponsorships: RWE, Sparkasse Essen, Der Bringer. The surface is natural grass, and it looks well-kept, though the weather here turns quickly. A flag waves from the away end, and someone raises a hand in greeting.

The capacity is a moving target, disputed between 20,000 and 19,962, but the plan is to close those four corners to hit 26,000 by 2028. Until then, the sky remains visible. The stadium hosted Germany U21 against Poland in November 2023, and the crowd was in control of the tie from the start. They drew over 25,000 for a Broilers concert in 2022, proving the layout works for something other than football. The pitch cut up badly in the winter of 2024, but they found a way through.

There is unrest in the dressing room when the away end never stops. The ground feels incomplete, a work in progress. The seat shells on the North Stand are being renewed, a slow process of fixing what was new. It is a place that remembers the old stadium in its bones. The history between them adds an edge to every match. The fans never forget.