RB Leipzig

Red Bull Arena (Capacity: 44.345)

RasenBallsport Leipzig - VfB Germania Halberstadt (3:2) (Regionaliga Nord, 26. November 2011)
0:1 S. Scheidler (65.), 0:2 C. Beck (68.), 1:2 M. Hoffman (81.), 2:2 D. Frahn (84.), 3:2 T. Rockenbach da Silva (86.)

Attendance: 4113
Cost: 10 Euro
Programme: Free with admission

View of the stadium from outside

 

Many stairs to climb up

 

Then many to climb down. The grass is the old stadium

 

View of the pitch pre-game

 

Buy your merchandise here

 

And food and drinks there

 

The flags at the back were all handmade by a steward

 

Approaching kickoff

 

Looking towards the guest block

 

View from the very top of the stadium

 

Enjoying a birthday beer at the game :-)

 

Full time and a miraculous victory for the home team

 

The home fans celebrate

CLUB HISTORY: (wiki)

RB Leipzig is a German association football club based in Leipzig, Saxony. The club is supported by energy drink-maker Red Bull who purchased the license of fifth division side SSV Markranstädt with the intention of advancing the re-modeled club to the top-flight Bundesliga within ten years. In their inaugural season, RB dominated the NOFV-Oberliga Süd (fifth division) in 2009–10 and as a result were promoted as champions to the Regionalliga Nord (fourth division) for the 2010–2011 season.

Founded in May 2009, RasenBallsport Leipzig is the fourth football involvement of Red Bull, which already runs football clubs including Red Bull Salzburg in Salzburg, Austria, the New York Red Bulls and Red Bull Brasil in Campinas, Brazil. The name differs from these other teams' names due to the statutes of the German Football Association (Deutscher Fußball-Bund) which prescribe how a sponsor's name is used as part of a club's identity. Unlike its other sports teams, the Leipzig club cannot carry the Red Bull name or be fully owned by the company. The German Football Association requires a club to hold 51% of its shares, Red Bull will therefore only be able to acquire 49% of the club. This has also resulted in the somewhat awkward "RasenBallsport" ("Lawn(Pitch) Ball Sporting") name of the club in order to retain at least the initials of Red Bull while at the same time feigning compliance with traditional, descriptive naming schemes of german clubs.

RB Leipzig aims to play first division Bundesliga football within the next eight to ten years. It began with the purchase of the playing licence of fifth division side SSV Markranstädt. The new club retained the Oberliga team as well as all other football teams of SSV and kept on coach Tino Vogel. In 2010, the team moved from their old ground to play their home games in the Zentralstadion which was renamed Red Bull Arena.

It has been speculated that Red Bull will invest 100 million Euros in the club over the next ten years. Instrumental in the deal was Michael Kölmel, owner of the Zentralstadion in Leipzig. Dietrich Mateschitz, owner of Red Bull, openly speaks of the possibility of the club winning a German championship. The last time a team from Leipzig won the German championship was almost one hundred years ago, in 1913, when VfB Leipzig captured the title.

Huub Stevens, former coach of Red Bull Salzburg, stated that he would like to see cooperation between the two clubs, and also suggested a friendly to be played between the two sides in Leipzig.

The investment in SSV Markranstädt by Red Bull is not the company's first attempt to enter the Leipzig football scene. In 2006, it tried to purchase FC Sachsen Leipzig, a club with a rich tradition, but also plagued by constant financial trouble. After months of fan protests which deteriorated into violence, the company abandoned the plan.

Protests also greeted plans to invest in SSV Markranstädt, but to a much lesser extent. Apart from the use of weed killer that damaged the pitch at Stadion am Bad and some destroyed advertising, opposition was non-violent. In a survey carried out by the newspaper Leipziger Volkszeitung, 70% of the questioned residents of Leipzig welcomed the initiative. Public support for action against the involvement was low as football in Leipzig had reached rock-bottom, according to the Alliance of Active Football Fans. FC Sachsen Leipzig had its Regionalliga Nord (IV) licence revoked at the end of the 2008–09 season when the club became insolvent, while local rival Lokomotive Leipzig failed to earn promotion. Neither club has criticised Red Bull's investment, despite all three clubs playing in the same league in 2009–10. Steffan Kubald, chairman of Lokomotive Leipzig, dubbed the club the Bayern Munich of the Oberliga, meaning RB Leipzig is the team to beat.


HONOURS:

NOFV-Oberliga Süd (V) champions: 2010
Saxony Cup winner: 2011


STADIUM HISTORY: (wiki)

The Red Bull Arena, formerly Zentralstadion, located in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany, is the premier football facility in the former East Germany. It is the largest football stadium in the former East Germany and has also hosted music concerts as well as football. Various Leipzig football teams have used the stadium as a home stadium, including VfB Leipzig (precursor to 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig) at various points in the 20th century (including large-scale European matches in the 1970s and domestic football in the 1990s). FC Sachsen Leipzig used the stadium as a home ground from time to time between 2004 and 2007, however they moved back to their traditional home, the Alfred-Kunze-Sportpark at the start of the 2008–09 season.
In July 2009, energy drink manufacturer Red Bull took over the license of SSV Markranstädt and renamed the team RasenBallsport Leipzig, in short RB Leipzig. From the outset, the new team outlined their wish to move into the tenant-less Zentralstadion and rename it the "Red Bull Arena". The naming rights were granted on 25 March 2010 and the stadium will be named so for a minimum period of 10 years as of 1 July 2010. The cost for renting the stadium will rise in accordance with the level of football RasenBallsport Leipzig are at. The team has pledged to upgrade the seating, install video advertising boards and make changes to the boxes and the VIP area.

In 1956, the first Zentralstadion opened, at the time it was the biggest stadium in Europe being able to hold 100,000 spectators. However, over the years it fell in to disuse and was costing the city too much to maintain. In 1997, the city of Leipzig decided to build a new stadium within the old stadium, a modern state of the art stadium only for football. The new stadium was built from December 2000 till March 2004.
The Zentralstadion was the only stadium in the former East Germany to host games in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. It hosted four group matches and a round of 16 game in the tournament. A year earlier, it was also one of the venues for the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup and hosted three matches of the tournament, including the third-place match. Since 2005, the Zentralstadion is also regular host of the German League Cup final.

There are bridges built over the old stadium to connect with the new stadium. The roof has an integrated floodlight design and is designed to provide superior acoustics. The grass area is 120 x 80 m, the actual playing field is 105 x 68 m. It has been integrated into the area surrounding the stadium by large amounts of trees and other greenery.

The stadium was one of the venues for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the only one located in the territory of the former East Germany.