ARENA LEIPZIG – a modern multi-purpose indoor sports hall in the City of Sports

	ARENA Leipzig

General information

11th May 2002 was an important day for sports in Leipzig. On this day, its new multi-purpose sports hall was officially opened, giving the city a venue fully meeting the high standards of international sports competitions and modern high-performance professional training.

ARENA Leipzig comprises of three different activity areas: a central hall for athletics, matches, school and association sports, and for events of various kinds; a general all-purpose hall for training, competitions, and school and association sports; and a judo hall with four competition areas.
Including standing room, the main hall has a maximum capacity of 12,000 spectators. More than 7,000 seats are available during matches. When the fan-like seats are retracted for athletics competitions, the hall still provides room for 3,000 spectators.

Chronology:

21st April 1999: a resolution is passed to build a multipurpose sports hall
09th May 2000: groundbreaking
08th September 2000: laying of the foundation stone
30th March 2001: topping-out ceremony
11th May 2002: opening

	Multi-purpose hall

Use for training purposes

The main users of the multi-purpose hall are athletes and young talents of the athletics, judo and competitive sports. Moreover, athletes from many other disciplines come here especially in winter to make use of the ARENA's comprehensive material conditions for basic training.

In addition, the ARENA is used by the students of the Sportgymnasium and the Sportmittelschule (Leipzig's sports schools), and by Leipzig's sports associations.

	Events at the ARENA Leipzig

Use for events

Apart from the regular national division matches in handball and volleyball, the list of events hosted in the ARENA Leipzig includes:

in 2002:

• 31st German gymnastics festival (Deutsches Turnfest)
  
• Boxing World Championship match with Sven Ottke
  
• Men's Volleyball World League
  
• Women's Volleyball World Championship
  
• Worldstars on Ice
  
• ARD Masters Gala Dancing
  

in 2003:

• 1st Women's and Men's Indoor Hockey World Championship
  
• Indoor Athletics European Cup
  
• 50th German Indoor Athletics Championships
  
• Men's Volleyball World League
  
• Boxing World Championship match Beyer vs. Lucas
  
• Men's Volleyball European Championship
  
• Men's Handball Super Cup
  

Moreover, the central hall was used for many cultural and other events.

	Central hall of the ARENA Leipzig

Other details

the building:

length: 150 metres
width: 90 metres
height: 18 metres


the central hall:

• length 110 metres, width 82 metres
  
• houses complete athletics facilities to international standards including a 6-lane 200-metre circular raceway with electromechanically extensible (raiseable) bends
  
• mountable parquet flooring for ball games
  
• removable indoor hockey flooring
  
• removable volleyball flooring
  
• 18 m² video screen and 37m² sports display with graphic capabilities
  

the secondary hall:

• pitch size 44 x 27 metres
  
• 3-pitch hall with parquet flooring especially suitable for competitive sports
  
• 300 retractable seats
  

the judo hall:

• 4 pitches
  
• 150 retractable seats
  

the running tube:

• length 136 metres, width 6.80 metres
  
• running training facilities with timing system, long jump and triple jump facilities
  

auxiliary facilities

• changing rooms, toilets, sauna
  
• rooms for medical staff and doping control, physiotherapy
  
• strength exercise room
  
• VIP rooms, catering facilities
  

infrastructure

• 440 parking spaces for cars, 10 parking spaces for coaches
  
• over 100 bicycle stands
  
• disabled access for all halls