“A good idea” – location, capacity: this is what the new stadium looks like

Austria 1, Bavaria 0. The whereabouts of ÖFB team boss Ralf Rangnick has further fueled EM euphoria across the country. While our neighbors in Germany announce parts of the European Championship selection, our team boss will meet Chancellor Karl Nehammer on Wednesday.

The meeting will also focus on planning the construction of a new stadium for the national team. As is known, Styrian ÖVP Governor Christopher Drexler recently demanded that this happen in Styria.

Drexler: “Graz is the football capital”
“Graz is the football capital of Austria, Styria is the football state of Austria. It is therefore a pity that we cannot play Champions League matches in Graz and also stay out of international football matches. The remarkable success of Styrian football clubs in recent years underlines that no one can ignore Styria, especially when it comes to football. “I would therefore like to propose that the planned new national stadium comes to Styria,” Drexler made people sit up and pay attention.

Drexler cited the large area in southern Graz around the Schwarzl recreation center in the 7,000-resident community of Premstätten as an example of different variants on which the National Oval could be built.

That’s what Nehammer says
“A good idea,” ÖVP Chancellor Karl Nehammer now hands the ball back to his party colleague. Where exactly the new stadium will be located must be decided in the coming government period.

“I’m happy if there are several interested parties. A modern national stadium for our football team is also part of our self-image as a sporting nation. It is good that this idea from my Austria plan has been so well received and interested. We will continue this project vigorously – in close cooperation with the ÖFB – in the coming term of office. Our national team deserves a dignified home,” said the Chancellor.

In addition to a new, modern home stadium for our first team, an overarching goal is to be able to organize international finals in Austria again in the foreseeable future. The last Champions League final in Vienna was played in 1995.

Capacity and construction
From 2030 – at least that is what Nehammer’s Austrian plan says – the Happel Stadium could be replaced as a red-white-red home stadium by a new arena, and the current capacity of the Happel Stadium of 50,000 people could also be used in the new ‘ National Stadium’. Oval”. will in any case be achieved again. However, the spectators must be closer to the action and in the future there will no longer be a path between the audience and the field.

The plans with these specifications will be further developed during the coming cabinet period and a separate architectural competition may even be organized in the short term.

Two top candidates
For political scientist and football fan Peter Filzmaier, the strategy behind it is clear. “The ÖVP is taking the opportunity to announce policies in this super election year,” he explains. According to Filzmaier, both Nehammer, who is participating in the National Council elections as the ÖVP’s top candidate at the end of September, and Drexler, who is participating in the Styrian elections as the ÖVP’s top candidate, would specifically use the popular topic.

In Vienna, according to other political observers, the ÖFB team’s plans to emigrate from the Prater about a year before the elections there could also be seen as a ruse.

Energy neutral Happel Stadium
And what will happen to Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium? As is known, more than 100 million euros flows from the Vienna City Hall to the venerable oval. A substantive analysis of the roof and construction up to the foundation presented last year showed that the stadium would be ‘fit for use’ for the next four to five decades.

In November, the city council unanimously decided to make the stadium the first emission-neutral sports and events location in Europe.