Waldarena Velden

Waldarena Velden is barely a year old, and it shows in how deliberately it was built. The club — ATUS Velden, formed in 1946 — spent close to €2.5 million rebuilding what had simply been the Sportanlage Velden, and the result carries both names still, the old one hanging on alongside the new.

The reopening was not a quiet affair. Austria and Italy met there at under-19 level in October 2024, a fixture that gave a 1,000-capacity ground in Velden am Wörthersee an international christening it would otherwise never have had. A new clubhouse went up alongside the pitch as part of the same project, giving ATUS Velden facilities that match the rebuilt stands rather than trailing behind them.

What sets this ground apart from a typical small-town rebuild is its second life beyond football. The Waldarena is booked into the KulturKlima Krumpendorf 2026 programme, putting a natural-grass pitch built for a regional Austrian club onto a cultural events calendar as well as a sporting one.