MDCC Arena

History

The original stadium at the location was built in 1912 and was used as the home of SV Victoria 96 Magdeburg. In 1937, the Allianz insurance company bought the stadium after Victoria went bankrupt. However, during World War II, the stadium was completely destroyed by bombing.

After the war, the city of Magdeburg planned to build a sports center with an 80,000 capacity stadium and a natatorium, but they were unable to acquire the intended site, so they decided to build a new stadium at the site of the Victoria stadium. The new stadium was built east of the Elbe river and took about 5.3 million cubic ft of rubble from the city’s ruins to erect the stands. It was opened on 18 September 1955 with a crowd of 40,000. The stadium underwent several upgrades over the years but fell into disrepair after Germany’s reunification, and in 2004, the city council decided to build a new stadium at the same site. The old stadium was demolished between March and June 2005, and the new one was opened on 19 December 2006.

The stadium was known as the MDCC-Arena after a local ISP and cable TV company, MDCC, signed a five-year sponsorship agreement with the stadium operator in 2009. The stadium hosted several events, including the 2009 UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship final and the German Bowl, the championship game of the German Football League. In 2016, the stadium’s guest terraces and seating were refurbished, reducing the capacity to 25,910, including 21,510 seats.