I visited the Stadium "Signal Iduna Park" in Dortmund today

Since 2 years I'm a fellow-traveller of the BVB, a famous german Bundesliga team.

 

Today I took advantage of a christmas present and visited the officially named Signal Iduna Park stadium in Dortmund. The distance is just 30 minutes by car.

 

The lady who guided the tour did a very good job! She's a fan with a seat in the special area "Süd"

 The 'grand tour' takes 2 hours and allows to visit areas prohibited to the public (in general - and especially during matches). In fact, visiting an empty stadium is like exploring a ghost town...  ;-)

The famous 'Süd' (south stand)  - once filled with more than 20.000 fans, they create the so-called 'yellow wall'

The soul rushes in the stadium when more than 80.000 people take their seat.

This is Norbert Dickel, speaker in the stadium (photo taken from a video shown during the grand tour)

In any case, it's a great opportunity to see how a stadium 'works' without 80.000 people singing and screaming ;-) *check this link for a unique experience*

Your blog mistress assorting her lanyard

When the players enter the stadium 90 min. before the match starts, the BVB-players use a stair with 12 steps, the opponent has to walk down a stair with 13 steps....

They pass the 'mixed zone' and enter the locker room

 The mascot named Emma, the busy bee :-), has her own place!

The players enter the tunnel, a very narrow tunnel indeed.

The guide said that it is named after Jan Koller, to commemorate the special size of the tunnel. Jan Koller  was about 2 m high and hit his head several times. Strange humour, I know  ...

From this point the players meet their opponents and of course they can hear the fans screaming and singing.

The lawn - a holy grail. We were allowed to watch it, but we were not allowed to touch it!

 Four gardeners are working on the lawn - fulltime! 

In winter, the lawn is irradiated with sepcial UV-lights.

A view around

After the match, the players give short interviews in the mixed zone.

The coach has to leave comments in the official press conference room

the VIP-Zone with an amazing view on the match. 

Okay, it's steep and high and your blog mistress doesn't like height very much, 

but it's a very impressive experience.

At the end of the tour we were able to visit the official fan-world, filled with thousands of articles of BVB-merchandising for every aspect of life.

I visited the so-called BORUSSEUM, too:

The Treasury:

Champion of the German soccer league 1956, 1957, 1963, 1995, 1996, 2002 und 2011 + 2012 (+DFB Cup)

UEFA Cup Winner's Cup 1966

 Champions League Winner Cup 1997

DFB-CupWinner 1965, 1989, 2012

International participation and success

 At least I would like to show you some fan-based art

 The stadium made of sugar-cubes, marzipane and fondant

 The stadium made of LEGO-cubes (c)

 A quilt made of 140 square cloth pieces, artistically sewed by 62 participants during a quilting-event in 2010. Made of old football shirts, flags, household and bed linen and other fabrics in the colours black and yellow. Size 3,40 x 2,4 m

We left the 'hall of memories' and found a quote of BVB player and coach Alfred Preißler (1921-2003):

"All that theory in life is grey - essential is what happens on the football ground." - roughly translated

Actually the BVB team is 2nd in the German Bundesliga.... :-)