About the Building
The initial planning for a new stadium for SC Paderborn 07 dates back to 2001, when it became clear that the former special license for the Hermann-Löns-Stadion as an ordinary soccer stadium would soon come to an end. In 2003, the city’s sports committee declared the end of the Hermann-Löns-Stadion for the near future. Subsequently, various proposals were made for new stadiums. In 2004, a new location was found and on July 12, 2005, the construction of the 15,000-seat stadium by the construction company “Bremer AG” began. Later in 2005, however, construction was interrupted due to the withdrawal of the building permit following legal action by residents. A new construction plan had to be drawn up and in December 2007, construction continued.
In January 2008, construction was restarted because the city of Paderborn did not grant a transfer of 3.4 million euros. Further lawsuits were filed and all of them were settled in March 2008, after the payment by the city. On June 30, 2008, the stadium was handed over to SC Paderborn 07.
The stadium was named Paragon Arena in 2005 in honor of a local electronics company, hosted its first game on July 16, 2008, and celebrated its official opening on July 20, 2008 with a game between SC Paderborn 07 and Borussia Dortmund that ended 1-2.
In June 2009, the stadium was renamed Energieteam Arena and in July 2012 Benteler-Arena, after a naming agreement with the Austrian company Benteler.
In June 2020, SC Verl won the promotion match against Lokomotive Leipzig to earn a place in the 3rd Liga. To meet the requirements, SC Verl will play its home games at the Benteler-Arena.
