Facility improvements at Alpenbauer Sportpark Unterhaching, Germany
Spielvereinigung Unterhaching is a German sports club in Unterhaching, a semi-rural municipality on the southern outskirts of the Bavarian capital Munich. The club is widely known for playing in the first-division Bundesliga alongside its more famous cousins, Bayern Munich and 1860 Munich, for two seasons between 1999 and 2001. The team currently play in the 3. Liga, the German third division, having been relegated from the 2. Bundesliga in season 2006-07 and then moved into the newly created 3. Liga for 2008-09 following a reorganisation of the German league system.
Until 1960, Haching played their home matches at the Jahnstraße football field and moved then to the Grünauer Allee stadium, which has about 4,000 standing places and where they played before the Sportpark stadium opened in April 1992. The Grünauer Allee stadium is now home ground of the club’s reserve squad, Haching II, which is currently playing in the fourth-division Oberliga Bayern. The Grünauer Allee stadium is also the home ground of Fortuna Unterhaching, established in 1992 and playing close to the bottom end of the German league system. During winter, Fortuna Unterhaching shares the synthetic football pitch owned by SpVgg Unterhaching.
The Sportpark Unterhaching, currently known as the ‘Alpenbauer Sportpark’ following a sponsorship deal in 2013, is home of SpVgg Unterhaching. It is used almost exclusively for first-team games and occasionally for reserve-team games. It has a capacity of 15053 – 6874 seated and 8179 standing. The stadium is owned by the town of Unterhaching.
With the club well-established in the 2. Bundesliga, the stadium was constructed in the early 1990s to provide a more suitable home for the team. In 1999, following the unexpected promotion of the team to the Bundesliga, the stadium was expanded and modified to meet the requirements of the German Football Association.
Prior to the stadium expansion, the Sportpark had a capacity of 11,000. The current main stand on the west side of the ground, with its alpine-style roof, and large parts of the south stand were already established, although the current north stand was made up of a few concrete steps and the east stand was a grass mound.
Promotion to the Bundesliga in 1999 necessitated improvements in safety, security and capacity, resulting in the current maximum of 15,053.
Outside the stadium, the ground was leveled to create more parking spaces and the combined foot and bicycle lane, running from the stadium to Fasanenpark station, was upgraded. In July 2000 the synthetic pitch has been installed.
Despite the upgrade, the stadium still has several charming idiosyncrasies, for example the two-storey clubhouse and the players’ tunnel that comes out of the south stand. The stadium also houses a restaurant and an adjoining beer garden. The south-east corner of the ground has parking for the opponent’s team bus.
