Tissot Arena – stadium description

It’s one of Switzerland’s most impressive public-private partnership projects and one that took 5 years (!) to break ground on. For the first time in the country, or in fact throughout Europe and beyond, a football stadium, hockey arena and curling arena were all built under literally one roof. As if that wasn’t enough, these facilities sit atop commercial centre located on ground floor.

Somewhat unexpectedly it’s not the football stadium that was built with largest capacity. Initial size of the stands allows 5,200 people inside, fitting demand for Challenge League (2nd tier) games housed here since August 08, 2015. However, should FC Biel-Bienne advance to the Super League, the size may nearly double to 10,000 without much effort.

Meanwhile the indoor hockey hall is less flexible, but at the same time has a greater capacity of over 6,500 seats. Third hall, for curling, offers no permanent seating for spectators.

The entire project was carried out thanks to a great effort and a combination of financial models. Partly financed publicly, the complex was co-financed by the city and canton authorities. Part of the funds comes from the sale of Gurzelen, the old Biel-Bienne stadium. Then in comes real estate giant HRS making use of all retail spaces created. Altogether CHF 78.7 million were collected (€72.5m / $83m), raising enough money to also fund three training fields for football.