Wörthersee Stadion

Geschichte

Wörthersee Stadion is a multi-purpose stadium in Klagenfurt, Austria. It is the home ground of Austria Klagenfurt. The stadium is situated within the Sportpark Klagenfurt campus of several other sports venues. Its name refers to the nearby Wörthersee lake.OverviewThe first Wörtherseestadion was built in 1960 as the home ground of the old SK Austria Klagenfurt, a track and field stadium with a capacity of 10,900. In 1962 the team was first promoted to the Austrian Football Bundesliga and until their final relegation in 1989 regularly attracted thousands of spectators. A second attempt by the FC Kärnten to enter the Bundesliga, backed by the Carinthian governor Jörg Haider, was successful in 2001. The team was again relegated in 2004, nevertheless in view of the coming UEFA Euro 2008 the Carinthian government resolved upon the reconstruction of the stadium. It was demolished from 2005 and replaced by the larger Hypo-Arena, named after the sponsoring Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank International. Football matches were temporarily staged at the Sportzentrum Fischl grounds.The Hypo-Arena was one of eight stadiums hosting the 2008 European Football Championship, for which it was built to hold 32,000. It was considered whether the stadium should be reduced to the capacity of 22,000 after the event. The official opening was on 7 September 2007 and hosted a friendly between Austria and Japan in front of 26,500 spectators. To ensure an economical percentage of seats sold, Haider had contrived the relocation of the Bundesliga team ASKÖ Pasching to Klagenfurt, where, from the 2007-08 season, it played under the name SK Austria Kärnten until its bankruptcy in 2010.