Veltins-Arena

The pitch does not live inside the building. At Gelsenkirchen's Veltins-Arena the grass sits in a tray that slides out through the end wall into the open air. That single piece of engineering has shaped what the place can do: with the turf parked outside, the concrete floor takes concerts, and the list runs from AC/DC and Metallica to Taylor Swift, Rammstein, Helene Fischer and Herbert Grönemeyer.

It also explains the attendance record, which does not belong to football at all. On 7 May 2010 the arena held 77,803 for the opening match of the ice hockey world championship, Germany against the United States, won 2-1 by the hosts — a rink laid where the grass usually returns.

The building went up between 1998 and 2001 to a design by HPP Architekten, and cost 191 million euros raised entirely from private money, the first German stadium built without public subsidy. It opened on 13 August 2001 under the name Arena AufSchalke, which it kept until 2005.

Big tournaments strip the sponsor off. For the 2006 World Cup and again for UEFA Euro 2024 it played as FIFA World Cup Stadium Gelsenkirchen, hosting the England–Portugal quarter-final in 2006 and the England–Slovakia last-16 tie in 2024. Between those, in 2004, it staged the UEFA Champions League final, where Porto beat Monaco 3-0.