Rhein-Neckar-Arena: Hoffenheim
By Photographs by Radosław Drożdżewski (User:Zwiadowca21) (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Known simply as Hoffenheim to most football fans, the club’s full title is TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. Just to add a further complication, TSG stands for Turn- und Sportgemeinschaft, which itself translates into Gymnastics and Sporting Club, giving you an indication of where the club came from. In actual fact, the club as it is today was created in 1945 when the gymnastics club of Turnverein Hoffenheim merged with Fußballverein Hoffenheim and it’s the gymnastics side of Hoffenheim that dates back to 1899.
As for the stadium, it’s significantly younger than the football club, having opened in 2009. It was opened as a replacement for the club’s former stadium, Dietmar-Hopp-Stadion. That place only had enough room for less than six and a half thousand people, so once Hoffenheim had been taken over by Deitmar Hopp in 2000 and it became clear that his intention was to see them make their way to the top of the German football league, it was obvious that a bigger stadium was required. The Rhein-Neckar-Arena has a capacity of 30,150 and is currently sponsored by PreZero who have naming rights..
Stats
| Rhein-Neckar-Arena Stats | |
|---|---|
| Year Opened | 2009 |
| Capacity | 30150 |
| Average Attendance | 28155 |
| Record Attendance | 30150 (Hoffenheim v Cologne (2016)) |
| Pitch Size | 105 x 68 (7140) |
| Owner | DH Besitzgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG |
| Sponsor | PreZero |
| Clubs Hosted | TSG 1899 Hoffenheim |
| First Fixture | Hoffenheim v FC Energie Cottbus (31/01/2009) |
| Hoffenheim Stats | |
|---|---|
| Year Founded | 1899 |
| Nickname | Die Kraichgauer, achtzehn99 |
| Club Mascot | Hoffi (an elk) |
| Rivals | Stuttgart, Freiburg, Karlsruhe |
| Previous Stadiums | Dietmar-Hopp-Stadion |
| Kit | Blue (Home) / White (Away) / Peach (Third) |
| Training Ground | Hoffenheim Training Ground |
| Shirt Sponsor | SAP |
| Team Owner | Dietmar Hopp |
| Record Goalscorer | Sejad Salihovic (62) |
| Record Appearances | Sejad Salihovic (230) |
Rhein-Neckar-Arena Photos
By Markus Unger from Vienna
By Jsresport (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0]
funky1opti / flickr.com
By Clemens Vasters from Viersen
By de:Benutzer:Smalltown Boy (Own workOriginal text: selbst fotografiert) [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0]
By Jsresport (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0]
Rhein-Neckar-Arena Seating Plan and Where to Sit
Hoffenheim’s football ground follows the European style of stadium in being a bowl of continuous seating. Three sides of it have one tier of seating, with the third being split in half to accommodate the club’s Business Club.
Hoffenheim Ticket Prices
As with most top clubs, Hoffenheim categorise their football matches and charge different prices depending on who they’re playing. You’ll also pay a different amount of money for your ticket depending your age and where in the ground you’d like to sit. There are six different price categories for every home game. In addition, there are three price lists depending on the opponent, so it’s about as convoluted as can be. The cheapest seated ticket in 2022 costs €20 without reductions, while the price for a standing ticket is €14.
How To Get Hoffenheim Tickets
You can buy tickets from the club in person, but your best bet is to head to the official website.
Where to Buy
Getting To Rhein-Neckar-Arena
Train – It will take about eight hours to get to Hoffenheim from London, going first to Paris, then to Karlsruhe, moving on to Heidelberg before finally arriving in Hoffenheim itself. The nearest stop on the internal train line in Germany is the Sinsheim Museum/Arena stop, which is about twenty minutes walk from the stadium.
Bus – Bus isn’t really the best way to get around, but you can get a shuttle bus from the Sinsheim Museum/Arena train station to the ground if you want to.
Car – The A6 is the main road that you’ll want to get on for your journey to the Rhein-Neckar-Arena. It’s worth noting that this is often very busy, so make sure you give yourself enough time to get there for kick-off.
By Air – There is an airfield really close to the stadium, but it’s only for gliders and light aircraft. The main alternative for international flights is Stuttgart Airport, but it’s about 100 miles away so it’ll be a bit of a journey to get to the ground from there.
Taxi – A taxi from the centre of Hoffenheim through to the Rhein-Neckar-Arena will take about ten minutes and cost you in the region of €20.
Parking Near Rhein-Neckar-Arena
There are a couple of parking areas not far from the ground, which you’ll have to pay for in order to be able to use them.
Useful Resources
Rhein-Neckar-Arena Hotels
The stadium is actually in Sinsheim, which is a very small town between Frankfurt and Stuttgart, so it’s a bit middle of nowhere-ish. That means there aren’t loads of accommodation options right outside the ground, but there is plenty of nice countryside to drive through on your way there.
Best Western Plus Palatin Kongresshotel - £70+
Wincent Hotel, Sinsheim - £80+
Küferschänke - £82+
Pubs and Bars Near Rhein-Neckar-Arena
Rhein-Neckar-Arena isn’t near anything interesting, to be honest, so if you want to watch some live sport then you’ll be best travelling outside of the local area. Here are some options, but be aware that you’ll have to do some travelling to get to the ground.
1st Pub
Palmbräu Gasse
Sharkeys deLuxe
Facilities
Since it only opened in 2009 the Rhein-Neckar-Arena isn’t exactly ancient. At a little over a decade old it’s still in good shape and as such you can expect to be comfortable here.
Hospitality
As mentioned a moment ago, half of the East Tribune is given over to Hoffenheim’s Business Club so it’s fair to say that there are a number of excellent options for you if you want to watch the game in style. Whether you want to sit in the business seats or hire a ‘logen’, you’ll get access to all three levels of the Business Club, which offer a first-class service.
Private Hire
State-of-the-art technology is available for meetings that are hosted at the Rhein-Neckar-Arena, meaning that it’s the best place in Hoffenheim to host an event. You can take from ten people up to two thousand there, so meetings big or small can be hosted in 1899’s home ground.
Stadium Tours & Museum
You can do a tour of the Rhein-Neckar-Arena that will take in the likes of the dressing rooms, press area and the tunnel to the pitch. They run only run 3 or 4 times a month though so you’re best to contact the club in advance to check whether one’s going on before you head there. They are nice and cheap at €5.00 per person.
About Hoffenheim
Prior to Dietmar Hopp’s return to the club he supported as a child in 2000 as a financial backer, Hoffenheim was not a club many people in Germany had thought much about. The club had bounced around in the lower leagues of German football for the majority of its existence, gaining promotion to the Oberliga Baden-Württemberg the same year that Hopp returned. They won that league, too, seeing them gain promotion to the third-tier Regionalliga Süd ahead of the 2001-2002 campaign. In 2007 they gained promotion to 2. Bundesliga and played professional football for the first time. It didn’t take them long to make it all the way to top of German football, being promoted to the Bundesliga for the 2008-2009 season.
As far as a further history is concerned, it was all based around the merger of smaller clubs in the town of Hoffenheim. Turnverein Hoffenheim, the gymnastics club, was formed on the 1st of July in 1899. That was 22 years before the local football team, Fußballverein Hoffenheim, was founded. The merger happened in 1945 and over the following 45 years or so the new club established itself as a decent local side. They were no more than that prior to Hopp’s arrival, which has caused some controversy in Germany owing to the fact that they have essentially bought their success. That said, the only non-league silverware they’ve won is the North Baden Cup, which they picked up four times in the 2000s.
Rhein-Neckar-Arena History
Officially known as the Wirsol Rhein-Neckar-Arena because of sponsorship by the solar energy company Wirsol, ground was broken on the building of the stadium in 2007. It was completed at the start of 2009 at a cost of around €100 million. It is the largest football ground in the metropolitan area of Rhine-Neckar, with a capacity of over 30,000. In fact, it is only around 6,000 seats shy of being able to fit the entire population of Sinsheim inside it. It’s worth noting that the ground can be found in Sinsheim, rather than Hoffenheim itself.
As well as hosting Hoffenheim matches since it opened its doors in 2009, the stadium has also been used for numerous other purposes. For example, in 2011 it was one of the grounds used for international matches in the FIFA Women’s World Cup. In 2017 it was the venue for the DEL Winter Game, an outdoor hockey match between the Schwenningen Wild Wings and Adler Mannheim. Given that the Dietmar-Hopp-Stadion had a capacity of just 6,350 and the Rhein-Neckar-Arena regularly sells out its 30,150 capacity, it’s far to say that the club made the right decision to move to a new venue.
Future Developments
Having not been open for all that long, there are no immediate plans to develop the Rhein-Neckar-Arena any time soon. If that changes at any point then we’ll obviously let you know.