The capital of Saxony has a new arena – Heinz-Steyer-Stadion by the Elbe River. It replaced a dilapidated facility from the GDR era and cost only €54 million. However, the city overlooked something very important during construction.

The city has no money to finish stadium in Dresden

The stadium was only opened in August. Almost immediately, it was noticed that something was missing: The city forgot the scoreboard, said Jens Genschmar, Dresden's city councilor for sports, in an interview with Bild. I still can't explain how you can build a stadium without a scoreboard.

Thanks to the creativity of the Dresdner SC football players, one was quickly improvised. We built a scoreboard out of plywood and painted it in the club’s colors, said DSC director Marcus Zillich. The temporary board will be used during matches at Heinz-Steyer-Stadion, but the club hopes that a proper scoreboard will be installed soon.

It turns out that the scoreboard was not part of the renovation and expansion project for the Heinz Steyer Stadium. According to city councilor Jens Genschmar, the city has no funds for its purchase, especially after the collapse of the bridge. The cost of such an addition would likely be around €25,000.

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Not just the missing scoreboard…

It turns out that the missing scoreboard is not the only issue. The stadium also lacks toilets. When the American football team, Dresden Monarchs, plays home games, portable toilets must be set up for nearly 10,000 spectators. Other oversights occurred as well, although they were corrected along the way. These included the digitization of the central technology and control room, connections for TV broadcasts, distance and time measurement systems, access planning, safety and police networks, mobile communications, and even the stadium's sound system. All of these elements had to be installed later.

According to reports from the city hall, these omissions were intended to reduce construction costs. However, it didn’t help: the original construction budget was €34 million, but in the end, it cost €20 million more. The Heinz Steyer Stadium is one of the few venues in Germany that meets the requirements for national and international athletics championships. The facility can accommodate up to 15,000 people and has been designed to be exceptionally sustainable. Thanks to 750 installed photovoltaic modules, the city of Dresden saves 86 tons of CO₂ annually.

© EB Sportstätten