When you like to visit a club with a little bit of controversy, you have to go to Hoffenheim, club from a tiny village pushed up by millions from a controversial billionaire who dreams of a Bundesliga title.
According to one its a fairytale, the local club from tiny village Hoffenheim who climbed up from the trenches of German football to the Bundesliga. According to the other it's a horrible club, because of the awful load of money the - among German football fans so hated - billionaire Dietmar Hopp invested in his club. Fact is that Hoffenheim since the promotion in 2008 participates quite easily in the Bundesliga, and even managed to reach the Champions League. In sportive manners they have absolutely claimed their spot in the Bundesliga, but in a fan culture way of thinking there's still a lot to win.
Dietmar Hopp knew there had to come a new stadium, because with the little stadium you could impossibly go into the Bundesliga. So a good location for a new stadium was sought for the club, where the village Hoffenheim immediately was written off, because the infrastructure of the town with 3.000 inhabitants would never be able to cope with a massive football crowd. Heidelberg had the preference, but it ended up being Sinsheim, a small city 6 km from Hoffenheim. The Rhein-Neckar Arena - because of a sponsor now the PreZero Arena - was opened in 2009: a typical modern stadium like many for 30.000 fans. Enclosed, not particular ugly, but it is a little bit boring.
The Dietmar-Hopp Stadion in Hoffenheim – the forerunner of the current stadium - still exists. It isn't even that old either(built in 1999), but simply became too small during the rise of the club. Nowadays the stadium at the Silbergasse is still owned by Hoffenheim, and the women's and reserve team play their matches here.
Right in front of the main stand of the PreZero Arena stands a remarkable piece of art: a spinning iron sculpture of a football player. The five meters high monument is from local artist Wilhelm Schneider, a friend of Dietmar Hopp.
One village further than Hoffenheim, in Zuzenhausen, you'll find on non-match days the epicentre of the club. In and around the monumental Schloss Agnestal at the Horrenberger Straße is the training ground and the youth academy of Hoffenheim. Beside first team trainings there's also a boarding school in the castle. Elsewhere in Zuzenhausen, at the Häuselgrundweg, you'll find the Akademie-Arena, where the youth of Hoffenheim plays it's home matches.
You don't have to worry about tickets for Hoffenheim, the home matches are usually far from sold out. No matter how much money you invest in a club, a big fan base can't be bought overnight. You can buy the tickets on the official website of the club.
The stadium is perfectly reachable by car because of its location next to the A6, the motorway which runs across southern Germany. From exit 33b (Sinsheim-Süd) you'll have the stadium right in front of you and you are leaded to one of the car parks. Station Sinsheim Museum/Arena of the S-Bahn is on a 15 minute walk of the stadium, where you can take trains to several directions, for example to Heilbronn, Mannheim and Heidelberg.
Images: BSR Agency, Shutterstock
