Red Bull Arena, Salzburg, Austria
The Red Bull Arena is located in Wals-Siezenheim, which is just outside of Salzburg, in Austria. The stadium is the home ground of Red Bull Salzburg who play in the 12-team Bundesliga, the top tier of Austrian soccer. It is Austria's largest club football stadium.
The ground was one of Austria's four stadiums for Euro 2008 co-hosted with Switzerland when it was known as M-Stadion Wals-Siezenheim. For UEFA club football events it is known as Stadion Salzburg.
History
The stadium first opened in March 2003 with an original seating capacity of 18,200.
By June of 2008, however, that capacity was expanded to 30,000 for the 2008 European Football Championship. It staged 3 Group D matches at the tournament all involving Greece and all ending in defeats for the Greeks, who were defending champions, versus Sweden, Spain and Russia.
The current capacity is 30,188.
The ground had artificial turf between 2005 and 2008.
Other stadiums in Austria include Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna, home of the national team,
Stadium Tours
Tours of Red Bull Arena (in German) take in the dressing room, press room, and pitch and also include VR glasses for an immersive experience.
The Club: Red Bull Salzburg
FC Red Bull Salzburg was founded in 1933 as SV Austria Salzburg. In 1978 the team became SV Casino Salzburg and in 1997 SV Wüstenrot Salzburg. FC Red Bull Salzburg plays its home matches at the Stadion Wals-Siezenheim (now the Red Bull Arena), which has a capacity of over 30,000. The club was taken over by the energy drink Red Bull and its billionaire owner, Dietrich Mateschitz, in 2005.
Erling Haaland, the prolific Norwegian striker, burst onto the global scene with Salzburg during the 2019-20 season, scoring heavily in the UEFA Champions League before moving to Borussia Dortmund and later Manchester City. Sadio Mané, the Senegalese winger, starred for Salzburg from 2012 to 2014 before earning a high-profile transfer to Southampton and later winning major honours with Liverpool. Karim Adeyemi, the German attacker, developed into an elite talent with the club, winning the Web Golden Boy award in 2021 before joining Borussia Dortmund.
Three Salzburg midfielders all beat a path to the Premier League and Liverpool FC. Dominik Szoboszlai, the Hungarian midfielder, impressed with his creative passing and long-range shooting before transferring to RB Leipzig and later Liverpool. Naby Keïta played for Salzburg from 2014 to 2016 also before moving to RB Leipzig and then Anfield. Takumi Minamino (2015-2020), the Japanese international, spent five productive years in Austria, before securing a move to Liverpool. He is now with Ligue 1 club Monaco in France.
Some notable coaches at the club include Italian Giovanni Trapattoni and German Lothar Matthaus who were recruited as Red Bulls' new coaching team in 2006. Trapattoni led the club to its first-ever Austrian Bundesliga title under the Red Bull ownership in the 2006/07 season. Jesse Marsch (2019-2021) won consecutive domestic league and cup doubles while developing young stars like Haaland. Matthias Jaissle (2021-2023) followed and secured back-to-back league titles with an aggressive, modern pressing system.
Other club grounds in Austria include the Allianz Stadion home to Rapid Wien and the Generali Arena, home of Austria Wien. Ernst Happel Stadium, also in the capital, is mainly used for international fixtures.
The City: Salzburg
Salzburg is the fourth largest city in Austria with a population of around 240,000 people. It is the birthplace of the composer Mozart. The city owes its wealth and patronage of the arts to the rule of a succession of powerful prince-archbishops, who commissioned most of the city's beautiful baroque buildings, investing profits from their control of the lucrative salt trade in nearby Hallein. The prince-archbishops only lost control of the city in 1816 after the Napoleonic Wars when the Congress of Vienna awarded Salzburg to Austria.
Attractions include the Mirabell Palace And Gardens, Hohensalzburg Fortress, the Altstadt (Old Town) and the more recent Bergisel Ski Jump designed by architect Zaha Hadid which overlooks the city. The Salzburg Festival is a world-renowned summer event featuring opera, theater, and classical music.
Innsbruck has hosted the Winter Olympic Games twice, in 1964 and again in 1976.
Access - Getting There
The stadium is located outside of Salzburg at Stadionstraße 1/3 A-5071 Wals-Siezenheim.
It is close to the Salzburg Europark, a large, award-winning shopping and cultural center located in the Taxham district of the city.
Train: Board the S3 or S2 suburban train toward Freilassing from Salzburg Hauptbahnhof. Alight at the Salzburg Taxham Europark station. The train journey takes about 6 minutes. Walk for about 10 minutes to the ground.
Trolleybus/buses: Lines 1, 9, or 28 all go to Europark.
Bus: StadtBus Line 1 from Central Station. Get off at EM Stadion Wals-Siezenheim.
Address: Stadionstraße 1/3 A-5071 Wals-Siezenheim, Austria
On match days there are also special shuttle buses (barrier-free) from Hanuschplatz to the Red Bull Arena and back. Allpublic transport in Salzburg is barrier-free.
Map of Salzburg
Salzburg Hotels
Salzburg offers a a large and varied range of hotel and guesthouse options to suit most budgets.
Some recommendations in the Alpine city include the Leonardo Boutique Hotel Salzburg Gablerbräu, a 4-star hotel close to Mozart's residence.
The exclusive Hotel Schloss Leopoldskron has 55 rooms and 12 suites.
All photos by Ross Clegg
World Stadiums
Estadio Nuevo Colombino Huelva
Tosu Stadium (Ekimae Real Estate Stadium)
©Soccerphile.com
Buy tickets for soccer matches around the world