Hamburg Football Stadium Journey Day 3

At late night at St Pauli but no time to waste in the morning as one more Hamburg ground to get before the short S Bahn trip to Bergedorf and 2 great stadiums

DAY 3

Ground 19

Sportplatz Beim-Gesundbrunnen - TuS Hamburg 1880

Nice little sports club

Ground 20

Billtal Stadium – TSG Bergedorf 1860

This is a great setting for a ground, a natural bowl in a forest, now an astro pitch but once was the largest clay surface pitch in Germany, with crowds of 30,000 plus – now the club of Russian ex pats may be lucky to draw 50 – is there anywhere in the world where such a small club plays in such a great stadium?

Ground 21

Langnese Happiness Stadium, Sander Tannen – FC Bergedorf 85

Crap name for a ground but another great stadium and a great way to finish off 50 hours of groundhopping- where next? Brussels or Berlin?

Marienthal - walk out on to the overgrown pitch, close your eyes and listen - can you hear the crowd?

Marienthal is the former ground of SC Concordia 07, but the club played their last game at this ground in May 2009, they now play at a new ground but their club house and a junior club pitch are still in use in an adjoining street. But almost 6 years later the ground still stands, and surprisingly has not been vandalised to any great extent.

The club hit hard times as they could not afford the upkeep of the stadium with crowds of just 100 to 200 so they sold it for housing – not a very different story to what has happened to many English non-league clubs.

The ground should have been demolished in 2011 but a public inquiry has seen the ground survive – but for how much longer? I would visit while you can – it is a real gem ( thanks to James Lamb for the 2009 picture – last game at ground)

Now

2009 and last ever game

Will it ever be like this again?

Clubhouse and junior pitch, still in use