Stadion Wankdorf, Football stadium in Wankdorf, Bern, Switzerland
Stadion Wankdorf is a football stadium in the Wankdorffeld quarter of Bern, about two kilometres north of the city centre. It is part of the Wankdorf-Center complex, which also holds a shopping centre, a school and apartments. The all-seater ground has black and yellow seats, with standing places in the fan sector between D4 and D10 since 10 October 2009.
The new construction replaced the original Wankdorf Stadium from 1925 in 2005, which hosted the 1954 football World Cup final between the German and Hungarian national teams. The modern facility was completed in just under three years and has served as home ground for the Bern club since its opening.
The name Stade de Suisse came from the plan to make it Switzerland's national stadium; the naming rights later passed from BKW Energie to CSL Behring, which waived its own branding so the ground could revert to Stadion Wankdorf on 1 July 2020, a change fans had long demanded. The single red seat among the black and yellow ones was the first installed, on 20 January 2005, unveiled by former Young Boys player and manager Walter Eich; it cannot be bought and is taken each game by a guest with ties to the club.
The stadium lies about two kilometres north of Bern's centre in the Wankdorf district, next to Wankdorf station, three minutes by train from Bern's main station. Bernmobil tram and bus lines also serve it, and on match days SBB runs extra trains stopping at Wankdorf. The guest sector has standing places in blocks D4 to D10 since 10 October 2009.
The roof's solar panels won a solar prize when installed in 2005 and by 2008 were the largest installation of their kind in the world, producing about 1.3 GWh a year. On 14 January 2007 the artificial turf hosted an ice hockey game between SC Bern and SC Langnau, drawing 30,076 fans; tickets sold out within 53 hours.
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