Abandoned UEFA Cup final stadium bigger than Anfield is unrecognisable | Football | Sport
Schalke’s iconic Parkstadion in Gelsenkirchen was abandoned for years (Image: Getty)
Schalke’s iconic 62,000-capacity stadium once hosted the UEFA Cup final before falling into disrepair. The first leg of the 1997 UEFA Cup final between Schalke 04 and Inter Milan was held at the Parkstadion in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
The German club won the first match 1-0. Few today will recall how they triumphed over Inter on penalties in Italy following a 1-1 aggregate draw, as attention turns to Wednesday evening’s modern equivalent of the same fixture — the Europa League final between Freiburg and Aston Villa.
Yet, unlike Wednesday’s venue, the 42,000-capacity Besiktas Park, Parkstadion was a giant of its era. Another notable difference is that it is no longer used by Schalke’s senior side, having been abandoned by the club following their relocation to the glitzy Veltins Arena in 2001.
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Parkstadion served as Schalke’s home between 1973 and 2001. In 1967, Gelsenkirchen’s city council approved plans to construct a large stadium, and the first match held there was a friendly game between Schalke and Feyenoord.
Five fixtures were played at Parkstadion during the 1974 World Cup, which West Germany ultimately won. It also hosted two group stage encounters at Euro 1998.
Parkstadion was the home of Schalke from 1973 to 2001 (Image: Getty)
Between the two tournaments, Michael Jackson performed there during his Bad World Tour in 1988, while the likes of The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd also graced its stage in later years.
However, by the 1990s, it had become apparent the stadium was well past its prime. Refurbishments in 1998 increased its capacity to 62,004, more than Anfield and the Emirates hold today, though problems such as its stands being far from the pitch and a lack of cover remained.
Schalke deemed it necessary to move to a new modern ground and construction of the Veltins Arena began at an adjacent site in 1998. The current home of the football club opened its doors three years later.
The more modern Veltins Arena opened its doors in 2001 (Image: Getty)
The final competitive fixture at Parkstadion took place in May 2001, with 65,000 fans in attendance for a match that ended in a 5-3 win over SpVgg Unterhaching. Schalke supporters erupted in jubilation, believing the victory had secured them the title, only for a stoppage-time Bayern Munich equaliser elsewhere to cruelly deny them.
After the Royal Blues’ departure, Parkstadion was left partially demolished by 2008, leaving it in a state of limbo. Even the jumbotron was donated to a stadium in German town Aue.
For years, overhead photographs showed the stands and surroundings lying in a derelict state compared to its prime. But Schalke later launched a major redevelopment project to transform the area into a high-tech campus for their youth academy.
The old and the new stadium are close (Image: Getty)
Since 2020, it has been somewhat reconstructed, now featuring a heavily scaled-down 2,999-capacity alongside a preserved section of the original concrete terracing and a single, fan-saved floodlight mast.
The ground reopened for competitive fixtures in the summer of 2020. Since then, Schalke’s Under-23 side and youth academy teams have been using the historic turf as their official home ground in tribute to the club’s rich heritage.
