Here’s the scene I found as I made my way to the gates: Before the game, the fans of both teams can be found out and about around the stadium, buying sausages, beer, and just having a great time. So what is it like to take in a game at the fabled Westfalenstadion? In a word: INTENSE! That starts before you even set foot inside. And finally, the showers and a tub could also be accessed off to the side. Riedle said that was new since he had been on the team. There is also a side room for the physios, featuring a massage table. The locker room also has an adjoining office of sorts with a whiteboard and screen, where presumably the coach can show film and discuss tactics. Kalle Riedle in his element in the BVB locker room. That space was perhaps intended for Mats Hummels, whose portrait had not yet been put up.

There was a single empty picture in the locker room when I visited on August 2, 2019. Marcel Schmelzer and Mario Götze are neighbors in BVB’s locker room. Of course, the players might be unwilling to talk, especially after a loss.Ĭaptain Marco Reus’ “locker.” Interestingly, none of the current photos were centered, and screw holes could be seen next to them (as here), hinting at earlier arrangements. The reporters thus have an opportunity to ask questions or try to pull one or more players aside for an interview. The players then pass through it on their way to the locker room. After the game, or just before it ends, the reporters will come down from their seats in the press box, located between the regular stands and the suites, and wait for the players in the mixed zone. The “mixed zone” is the area of a stadium set aside for members of the press where the post-game interviews we frequently see on television or read in the news are conducted. The groundsmen were still drawing the lines on the pitch for the DFL-Supercup the following day, when we toured the stadium. Dortmund regularly boasts one of the best playing pitches in Germany. The contrast between the sideline turn (at bottom) and the hybrid playing pitch is striking. The away unheated bench features only the BVB logo.

The seats for the home team all sport the logo and the club motto Echte Liebe. The famous Südtribune, the Yellow Wall, was left as a standing-room only section, now holding some 25,000 people - the largest in Europe! The final touch was the addition of stands at the four corners of the park, which rise somewhat higher than the original sections of the stands. The different stages of the work can be easily seen today when the stadium is empty. The long sides of the park were eventually extended, as were the north and south sides. The stadium was modified and expanded several times beginning in the 1990s, when the northern stands ( Nordtribüne) were converted into a seated area. The first game ever held at the Westfalenstadion was a friendly between the women’s teams of TBV Mengede and VfB Waltrop - but the first goal ever scored there - by Waltrop’s Margarethe Schäferhoff - was not filmed! Inside Signal Iduna Park on the day of the DFL-Supercup against Bayern Munich, August 3, 2019.

A sea of Yellow and Black, with a few dots of Bayern red interspersed. The crowd outside the stadium on game day. Inside Signal Iduna Park the evening before the DFL-Supercup against Bayern Munich, August 2, 2019. The club’s history and passionate fans lend it an incredible atmosphere. 1966): Signal Iduna is spartan in appearance, a mass of concrete, steel, yellow and black. The interior reminded me of a renovated Oakland Coliseum (est. Then known as the Westfalenstadion, the venue had to be cheap, so it was built of prefabricated concrete sections, originally holding a crowd of 54,000. Signal Iduna Park was first build in anticipation of the 1974 World Cup. One of the highlights of the visit, besides the Supercup match itself? It was a guided tour of Signal Iduna with none other than former BVB star Karl-Heinz “Kalle” Riedle.Ĭome along for a look behind the Yellow Wall. In conjunction with a media visit ahead of the DFL-Supercup between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, members of the international press, including SB Nation, had the opportunity to visit Dortmund in anticipation of the event. But as fans communicating in English from across the world, you might not have ever been there, or perhaps never seen this incredible stadium from the inside. You know Signal Iduna Park as the home of Borussia Dortmund and one of the absolute best soccer stadiums in the world.

Signal iduna park