Arena AufSchalke, currently known as Veltins-Arena for sponsorship reasons, is a retractable roof football stadium in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It opened on 13 August 2001, as the new home ground for FC Schalke 04.
Arena AufSchalke
Interior view
The players' tunnel as it was in August 2011
An exterior view of the slide out pitch, underneath the southern wing
Gelsenkirchen is the 25th most populous city of Germany and the 11th most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher River, it lies at the centre of the Ruhr, the largest urban area of Germany, of which it is the fifth largest city after Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg and Bochum. The Ruhr is located in the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region, one of Europe's largest urban areas. Gelsenkirchen is the fifth largest city of Westphalia after Dortmund, Bochum, Bielefeld and Münster, and it is one of the southernmost cities in the Low German dialect area. The city is home to the football club Schalke 04, which is named after Gelsenkirchen-Schalke. The club's current stadium Veltins-Arena, however, is located in Gelsenkirchen-Erle.
Image: Gelsenkirchen aug 2004 002
Image: 2010 06 03 Arena Auf Schalke 20
Image: Musiktheater im Revier
Image: 2045 Nordstern park