The natural place to start this month is the venue for the World Cup Final in 2006 – the historic Olympiastadion in Berlin. August saw work commence on a huge project to make the venue of the controversial 1936 Olympics fit for its starring role in Germany’s lavish hosting of the 2006 Finals. The lower tier of the stadium will be entirely removed and reconstructed section-by-section between now and 2002, with the capacity reduced to 55,000 whilst this goes on. In the 2002 close season, the pitch will be excavated by 8 feet to allow further seating, and work will then start on extending the translucent roof round the entire stadium, except for the Marathon Gate at the West end of the Stadium. The upper tier will be entirely re-seated but the stadium facade will remain unaltered owing to its listed status. The work, costing over £150m, will provide 76,000 covered seats and is set for completion on 31 December 2004.

The other highlight of the German bid, Munich’s equally celebrated Olympiastadion, is also set for even more dramatic changes. A £130m financial package was agreed at the start of November that will allow building to start after the 2002 European Athletics Cup, which will be the last athletics meet at the venue of the 1972 Olympics. The pitch is being excavated and being moved several metres to the North and West, with the track being completely removed to allow fans closer to the pitch. The original tent-like roof will stay in place, but the currently uncovered East side will get a separate roof of its own. Both of the stadium’s tenant clubs – FC Bayern and TSV 1860 – will contribute to the works, which means that TSV 1860 have formally abandoned plans to redevelop their old home at Gruenwalder Strasse. The works are likely to take three seasons to complete, with suggestions that FC Bayern will have to play home matches in Nuremberg, some 80 miles to the North!

Another of the likely 2006 venues – the Gottlieb-Daimler Stadion in Stuttgart – has seen completion of a second tier to the Main Stand. The stadium, opened in 1933 as the Adolf-Hitler-Kampfbahn, has seen many changes down the years but when the current compression-ring roof was added in 1993, enough space was left to add the second tier, raising capacity to 51,000. The “Neuer Volkspark” Stadion in Hamburg has also been finished with the completion of the roof over the 55,000 spaces. This has been one of the most astonishing stadium rebuilds anywhere in Europe – the pitch was turned through 90 degrees and new continuous two-tier stands constructed to create perhaps the most modern venue in Europe. Still in Germany, the new home of Gelsenkirchen’s Bundesliga outfit Schalke 04 - the Arena-Auf-Schalke – progresses smoothly towards its August 2001 opening date. The 52,000-seat Arena, practically next door to the existing Parkstadion, will have a retractable roof (almost finished) and a sliding pitch, much like Arnhem’s Gelredome, only better to look at. A spectacular set of aerial photos of the building work can be seen at www.arena-auf-schalke.de, graphically showing the changes in stadium design and needs since 1974’s Parkstadion appeared. As explained in the last issue of Groundtastic, the final selection of venues for 2006 will not be made until next Summer, but it’s already clear that the chosen 10 or 12 will each be special in their own way.

Moving away from the glitzy 2006 venues, Hansa Rostock have made good progress with the total rebuild of their Ostseestadion into the 25,000-seat “Hansa-Arena”. The running track has been removed, and continuous single-tier stands built next to the pitch. At present only one end has been roofed but work is expected to finish by the end the current season. Floodlight-lovers will be relieved to hear that Rostock’s trademark leaning towers will remain. The promotion of SpVgg Unterhaching, the tiny club from a Munich suburb, back to the Bundesliga in 1999 has finally led to some essential work being carried out on their “Sportpark” home, which only opened in 1992 with 7,500 places. Bundesliga stadiums require a minimum capacity of 15,000, but ‘Haching got a year’s grace to add extra spaces in the North End and East Stand, which also got a roof.

Moving down to the Regional Leagues, SC Schwabach 04 of the Bavarian League (roughly Conference standard) opened their new stadium on 25 July with a 2-1 defeat against ASV Neumarkt in front of 3,200 fans. The cantilevered main stand has seats for 800 and somewhat strangely the ground has five floodlight towers. Even lower down, the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn Stadion of Saxony-based Grun-Weiss Wolfen is presently undergoing a complete rebuild, with new stands for 5,000 going up in time for 2001/2002.

The big news in France is the brand new home of First Division pacesetters Sedan. The Stade Louis Dugauguez, named after the man who coached the team from 1948 to 1974, has been built directly behind the club’s existing Stade Emile Albeau. The design of the new stadium is a larger copy of Caen’s Stade Michel d’Ornano, with two tiers right round the ground under a propped cantilever roof, but Sedan have yet to finish the end which backs onto the East side stand of the old ground, providing a less than picturesque sight for the time being. Present capacity of the “Dugauguez” is 17,000 but that will rise to 24,000 on completion of the bowl, with 20 executive boxes. The new stadium was opened on October 10^th with a 2-1 win over Rennes in a League fixture in front of 13,366 fans; this was Rennes’ second visit to Sedan this season for a League game as the original fixture at the old stadium was abandoned due to waterlogging. Even the replayed game wasn’t without a hitch as the floodlights failed after 56 minutes of play, but they came back on after a 12-minute stoppage. Elsewhere in France, newly-promoted Lille, also flying high in the First Division, have added an upper tier to the open end of their compact Stade Grimonprez-Jooris, raising capacity to 20,000. Calais RUFC have also been spending some of the profits from their amazing run to the Final of the French Cup last season. The 4^th Division outfit have remodelled the South End of their Stade Julien Denis, improving the (open) terracing and rebuilding the turnstiles. Best of all, they have beautifully restored the magnificent gateway to the ground (see picture right), which is now resplendent in the club colours of red, yellow and black. Division Two side Grenoble have been forced back to their former ground, the Stade Charles Berti, whilst the Stade Lesdiguieres receives another upgrade.

In Austria, the disappointment of not landing the 2004 European Championships eased a little with the opening of the “Tivoli Neu Stadion”  at Innsbruck this Summer. Built next to the old Tivoli, which is famed for its spectacular Alpine backdrop, the new stadium has 17,000 spaces in a continuous single tier under the obligatory cantilever, with space to add a second tier in the unlikely event that more than 17,000 want to watch FC Tirol-Milch Innsbruck every week.

In Portugal, First Division stadia are being equipped with bar code readers at turnstiles, which reads a strip on the standardised match ticket. Aside from a useful anti-counterfeit measure, the purpose of the readers is not immediately apparent, as although all stadia are all-seaters, very few clubs bother with named seats. Attendance figures are also not routinely revealed, with the sporting press being left to make its own estimates if it wants to print a figure. The next issue of Groundtastic will feature a round-up of recent developments in Portugal including dramatic changes at the National Stadium near Lisbon.

Dutch outfit Roda JC Kerkrade have moved from the relatively mundane surrounds of the Kaalheide into the new 20,000-seat Parkstad Limburg Stadion, sited on the ‘De Locht’ industrial estate which is reached via the A76 and N281 roads to the South of the town. Roda’s new home is certainly better looking than most of the new generation of cheap and functional stadia in Holland. The roof is made of vaulted sections of white canvas-like material, whilst the corners are raised like a tent and tethered to the leaning floodlight towers. Cheap and functional is certainly applicable to the Vast & Goed Stadion, the new home of RBC Roosendaal, newly promoted to the top flight. A modest total of 5,000 seats is sheltered under an equally modest all-round cantilever roof, but it is likely that this is just the first phase of the stadium’s life and expansion will follow.

Moving East, and Liverpool had the honour of being the first side to play under the Czech Republic Cup Holders Slovan Liberec’s new floodlights in the UEFA Cup in November. The decision to erect the four corner-towers at Slovan’s picturesque U Nisy Stadion (named after the River Nisa that flows through the Bohemian town) demonstrated the club’s desire to stage the biggest game in the club’s history in Liberec rather than moving it to Prague. U Nisy, which holds 6,808 fans, has been the scene of major redevelopment in recent seasons and our picture shows the ground before the lights went up.

Into Norway, and news of the dominant Rosenborg Trondheim club’s plans to further develop the Lerkendal Stadion. Having just won their ninth League title on the trot, Rosenborg have revealed models of the planned 25,000 seat stadium based on the design of the existing Adidas Stand that opened in 1995. This has two tiers and a raised section of the roof in the centre, and will get three free-standing clones around the other sides of the pitch once the running track has been removed and the rather elegant 1964 vaulted-roof Main Stand demolished. The plan allows for 5,000 more seats to be added at a later date by enclosing the corners. Work should start next Spring.

The Norwegian Football Grounds Website (www.stud.ntnu.no/~thomaka/stadion/index.shtml) also reports that Lillestrom opened a new 4,250-seat stand at their Arasen Stadion (pictured right) over the Summer. The new stand is the first of three new stands to be built with work now in hand on a 2,500-seat effort at the North End. The third and final stand to be built will hold 2,000 behind the South goal in a total capacity of around 12,000. A new floodlighting system will also be installed, one that is capable of being lowered when not in use because of the proximity of an air force base.

Finally on this epic round-up, our news from Belgium begins at the Stade du Pays de Charleroi, scene of England’s victory over Germany in Euro 2000. After the tournament had packed up and gone, the builders moved back in to remove the third tier (pictured top right) of the controversial East Stand at the home of RSC Charleroi. This stand hit the headlines when police warned that the height and rake of the seats made the stand unsafe for such high profile games and that “mountain rescue techniques” would be required to effect any evacuation. As our photo shows, the work was well underway in August and should now be complete. Also in Division One, the famous Olympisch Stadion, home of Germinal Beerscot Antwerpen, has completed its makeover with three brand new single tier cantilever stands (middle right) to make the compact venue of the 1920 Olympics a 12,388 all-seater. The Daknam Stadion, home of the newly merged Lokeren-St Niklaas club, has seen the tall but short Main Stand refitted and extended (bottom right).

The Byzantine structure of lower division clubs in Liège took another twist this Summer with the relocation and renaming of Royal Tilleur FC Liège. The club, which now wishes to be known as ‘FC Liège’, has left the wonderful ‘Bureaufosse’ ground at Tilleur to groundshare with Seraing-RUL at the Stade de Pairay in the Seraing district. A family tree of Liège football clubs would look every bit as complex as one of those ‘Rock Family Trees’.

North Sea club SC Blankenberge, formed from this year’s merger of the KSV and Daring clubs, began the season at the old Bloso-Park home of KSV while the pitch at Daring’s Soete Stadion gets remedial attention. Bloso-Park actually has three grounds within the same complex, the main one possessing a 1,500-seat stand. Kontich FC, newly promoted to Division Four from the Antwerp Provincial League, have opened a new 280-seat stand and facilities block at Duffelsesteenweg.

Several of Brussels’ ethnic-based clubs playing in the Brabant Provincial League have run into difficulties. FC Atlas, who draw their players from the Moroccan community, have resigned from the League and are what the Dutch call ‘inactief’ at present. The club played at the superb Heysel Annexe ground but are short of numbers and rumours of a possible merger with Etoile Marocaine, another exile club who have been ground-sharing with AS Maccabi Brussels, were unfounded. If FC Atlas makes a comeback, it would probably have to be in the bottom division of the Brabant League. A worse fate has befallen FC Marmara St Pieters-Leeuw, the Turkish club based in the Anderlecht region. The club has resigned from the Belgian FA altogether after being caught fielding an ineligible player in a crucial game last season.

Better news from Brabant Provincial club FC Vilvoorde, who have installed floodlights at their Brusselsesteenweg ground just North of junction 6 of the Brussels Ring Road. Staying in the capital, Etoile Dieleghem Jette, who were the first club in Belgium to lay a synthetic pitch in 1988, have renewed it with a Dutch-made surface that requires much less sand to maintain it. The advantage of playing on plastic has seen EDJ rise to the top rung of the Provincial ladder, but the next promotion (to Division 4) would require them to play on a grass pitch, possibly at the Heysel Annexe. EDJ’s current Centre Sportif J J Crocq is fairly basic, with three rows of terracing either side of the floodlit surface.

Lastly, another merged club, Royale Entente Dison Verviers, played its early season Belgian Cup matches at the ancient but crumbling Stade du Panorama in Verviers whilst the pitch at Val Fassotte in Dison was brought up to condition for the start of the Division 4 campaign. The ground in Dison has cover for just 200 on the grass banking that runs round three sides of the pitch, but our correspondent Peter Abbott has learned that the local authority may invest in the stadium to keep the club in the town.