If you like controversial clubs, then a visit to Hoffenheim might be the one for you. A club from a tiny village owned by a controversial billionaire who dreams of the Bundesliga title.
To some Hoffenheim is a fairytale club from a tiny village that climbed up from the trenches of German football all the way to the Bundesliga. For others, it's a horrible club, because of the awful amount of money the billionaire Dietmar Hopp invested into his club. Hopp is a popular hate figure amongst German football fans. But the reality is that Hoffenheim has managed to become a stable Bundesliga club since their promotion in 2008 and even managed to reach the Champions League. On the pitch, they have rightfully claimed their spot in the Bundesliga, but in terms of fan culture, there are still steps to be made.
Dietmar Hopp knew he had to build a new stadium because it would have been impossible to go into the Bundesliga with the little arena they had before. So it was time to find a good location. The village of Hoffenheim, which has a population of 3,000, was immediately written off because the town's infrastructure would have never been able to cope with a massive football crowd. Heidelberg was the preferred destination, but they had to settle for an area in Sinsheim, a small city six kilometres from Hoffenheim. The Rhein-Neckar Arena, officially known now as the PreZero Arena due to sponsorship reasons, was opened in 2009. A typical modern stadium that can fit 30,000 fans. Not particularly ugly, but not very inspiring either.
The former Dietmar-Hopp Stadion in Hoffenheim still exists. It isn't even that old either (1999), but simply became too small during the rise of the club. Nowadays, the stadium at the Silbergasse is still owned by Hoffenheim and is the home ground of the women's and reserve teams.
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-metre-high monument is from local artist Wilhelm Schneider, a friend of Dietmar Hopp.
In Zuzenhausen, a village next to Hoffenheim, you will find on non-match days the epicentre of the club. In and around the monumental Schloss Agnestal on the Horrenberger Straße is the training ground and the youth academy of Hoffenheim. Besides first-team training sessions, there's also a boarding school in the castle. Elsewhere in Zuzenhausen, on the Häuselgrundweg, you'll find the Akademie-Arena, where the youth of Hoffenheim plays its 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 club's official website.
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 will be directed to one of the car parks. Station Sinsheim Museum/Arena of the S-Bahn is a 15-minute walk from the stadium, where you can take trains to several directions, for example to Heilbronn, Mannheim and Heidelberg.
Images: BSR Agency, Shutterstock
