Feature

Darmstadt considers stadium move due to restrictions at current home

The president of Darmstadt 98 is prepared to search for a new home stadium for the German Bundesliga football club after plans to renovate the team’s current Merck-Stadion am Böllenfalltor ground suffered a setback.

A complete redevelopment of the 17,000-capacity stadium had been in the pipeline.

However, it has now become clear that only minor reconstruction work will be carried out as part of a five-stage process that will not be finished until the 2018-19 season.

The five-step plan will include the renovation of the grandstand area at Merck-Stadion am Böllenfalltor and will cost around €11m ($12.1m).

Club president Rüdiger Fritsch sees a modernised stadium as the next step in the development of Darmstadt, which finished 14th in the Bundesliga last season. Fritsch conceded that a new ground elsewhere may be the only viable option following the setback.

“We need a modern stadium,” he said, according to the Hessenschau.de website. “It changes nothing. This is absolutely essential. If all this cannot take place at Böllenfalltor, we need to think about other options and look around.”

 

 

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