Aachen citizens have been watching this issue closely for weeks. The city has a beautiful stadium with 365 detected defects. Many of them are blamed on Alemannia as the club went bankrupt and didn’t maintain the stadium.

Tivoli in Aachen is a stadium like no other with its bright yellow roof. But it turns out the roof has been leaking and that’s only a small piece of the 365-long list of flaws. The sheer number made headlines in recent weeks as we are, after all, talking about an almost new stadium, opened in 2009.

As it’s been stated by the municipal authorities, vast majority of the listed defects aren’t relevant. They represent inconsistency with existing building/safety regulations, but don’t pose a risk for events and spectators. However, the financially troubled Alemannia Aachen has been found to run very sloppy maintenance when managing the stadium.

Alemannia began managing the stadium after its opening, but soon got into financial trouble that ended with insolvency proceedings in 2012-2014. The city of Aachen took back control of the stadium last year to relieve the club, which was – to some extent – brought down by the inability to make best use of the large stadium.

It’s very common for stadia to show structural defects in their first years in operation, but in the Aachen case it seems these defects weren’t handled properly by Alemannia who were struggling to stay afloat.

Now repairs and upgrades have to be made with €200,000 already assigned by the city. This fund will be enough to secure Alemannia’s league license, but further spending may come later, following detailed evaluation of the building.