Volkswagen Arena

The roof at Wolfsburg is the thing people notice first, and in October 2017 it made itself heard. During the Bundesliga match against Mainz, storm Xavier hit the Volkswagen Arena and the translucent membrane covering every seat — carried on 32 radial trusses — vibrated hard enough to be a problem in itself.

The ground was built with money split evenly between the Volkswagen group and Wolfsburg AG, the company half-owned by the city, and it came in at 53 million euros, under the original estimate. Four months after the opening, on 13 April 2003, it filled to 30,000 for the visit of Hannover 96; Wolfsburg won 1–0 and the attendance figure has not been beaten since.

Of those 30,000, 8,000 stand. For Champions League and Europa League nights the terracing is converted and the capacity drops to 26,000, so European football here is watched by a smaller crowd than a league fixture. The away section takes 1,886 seated and 900 standing.

In 2011 the club laid a Desso GrassMaster surface — natural grass stitched through with around 20 million synthetic fibres — the first in the Bundesliga to do so. That same year the stadium had to shed its sponsor's name for the FIFA Women's World Cup, playing host as the Arena in Allerpark Wolfsburg. Japan knocked Germany out here in the quarter-final, 1–0.