Weddings part of the business plan

Raiffeisen Arena in Linz

published in sb magazine 2/2023

After about two years for construction, the Raiffeisen Arena kicked off on 24 February 2023 with the Linzer ASK football club’s match against Austria Lustenau. As is so often the case in stadium construction, the new home venue of the Austrian Bundesliga club is faced with issues concerning its location, use of resources and payback. Responsible for the design of the Raiffeisen Arena was Vienna-based Raumkunst ZT GmbH, which has been run by DI Harald Fux, together with DI Christine Diethör, for over 20 years. And Fux knows all the ins and outs on these issues.

Originally there was a brickworks pit on the Linz Gugl hill. Due to its large inner-city area and the favourable building conditions, the historic stadium with a running track was built there in 1958 – as was customary at the time, when athletics was combined with such ball sports as football.

Due to the trend towards functionalism in football – after all, it is no longer a matter of a pitch for playing football, but of a highly technical structure overall – and also the UEFA guidelines along with fans’ expectations, running tracks in football stadiums today are simply an anachronism.