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Pictures of the arena

It has been a long time since 14.000 spectators found the way to hockey in Weisswasser. The Wilhelm-Pieck-Kunsteisstadion in Weisswasser, which was closed in 1990, had been used for league-games of the DDR´s hockey-leagues for more than 20 years. Where once parts of the hockey-history of the DDR had been written, trees are now growing on the stands of the historical and open arena.

Today´s home of Weiswasser´s team which is currently playing in the 2nd division (2. Bundesliga) had been constructed in 1973 as a training-facility for the SG Dynamo Weisswasser. When the SG Dynamo Weisswasser had to stage a home-game in the european cup against the Cologne Sharks from western Germany in the 80s the Cologne Sharks refused to play in the open arena of Weisswasser. Two stands for fans were added to the training facility (which had a roof) and in 1990 more were added, so that the capacity of the arena, today knows as the "Fuchsbau", grew to approximatly 3.000.  While the capacity was increased the infrastructure was left unchanged which means that there are not enough concession stands, not enough bathrooms, well, basically there is not enough of anything in the arena when a good crowd shows up.

When you plan to visit a game in Weisswasser you should expect to get only standing-room tickets. Only 3.2% of the available tickets are seating-tickets, the whole arena has only 100 seats and those are more or less reserved for sponsors and season-ticket-holders.

Adjacend to the main arena two more service-rooms have been added in order to have enough space for at least a few concession stands. There is also a restaurant in the complex where you can take a look at a collection of pictures and other nostalgic material from the hockey-history of the area.

Tips for visitors:

Weisswasser, one of the shrines of hockey in the DDR, has more or less disappeared from the hockey-landscape of the late 20th century (or early 21th century) in Germany. With an average attendance of 2.300 fans there is still a great atmosphere in the arena (in 99/00 the team had the 4th best attendance-figures of the 2nd Bundesliga). At least the beer-prices have been left unchanged since the glory days of hockey in Weisswasser. With 2 marks for a beer it´s considerable cheaper than at the Koelnarena in Cologne for example, where the prices of the 21th century will take 5 marks from your wallet. Weisswasser is an historical site of hockey in Germany where probably no more history will be written in the future.

Tickets cost 12 marks for children up to the age of 14 and 18 marks for regular visitors. If you wish to pre-order tickets you can do this by calling 03576/28710. In order to make your reservation you need to call at least three games prior to the game you wish to visit.

Link to the team:

www.esw-online.de