St. PauliGround: Millerntor-Stadion Visits: 1 Date: 12th May 2013 Match: St. Pauli - Eintracht Braunschweig 5-1 (2. Bundesliga) Attendance: 29 063
Millerntor-Stadion in Hamburg, the home of St. Pauli, is a ground I have wanted to visit for quite a while. Getting a ticket is not easy though but with the opening of the new Gegengerade in January I realized it was "easier" (read: not extremely difficult) than ever to get a ticket for a St. Pauli home match. The match against Eintracht Braunschweig was classified as a high-risk match and you could only buy a ticket if you had a booking history. Every match in 2. Bundesliga this weekend had a kick-off time att 13.30 on Sunday afternoon. With the last train to Copenhagen leaving Hamburg Hbf at 17.28 a match at Millerntor-Stadion this afternoon would be perfect for me. I had some ideas of how to get a ticket and one of those ideas paid off. On the Footballfans website Oliver (Der Oeli) answered my request for a ticket and when tickets went on sale he bought a ticket for me (and himself).
My day started in Osnabrück and after a proper German breakfast at Maik´s place I left for Osnabrück Hbf. At 09.25 my IC train then left for Hamburg. I had agreed to meet up with Oliver outside the Nordsee restaurant inside Hamburg Hbf. This turned out to be more difficult than expected though. After putting my bags in a locker I tried to find the Nordsee restaurant without success. Some text messages later Oliver had guided me and we could finally meet up. As the weather was quite nice we decided to walk from Hamburg Hbf to the ground. Oliver guided me through Hamburg and after 25 minutes or so we were outside Millerntor-Stadion. Millerntor-Stadion has had three new stands built in recent years and only the Nordtribüne remians from the "old" ground. Nowadays the capacity is 29 063 and for every match Millerntor-Stadion is sold-out (at least in home areas). The newest addition to Millerntor-Stadion is the Gegengerade with a total capacity of 12 000 (8 000 standing places!).
Before the match I had something to eat, yet again I ended end with Frikadelle mit Brötchen, before Oliver and I found ourselves a good place to stand in the rightmost part of the terrace. St. Pauli needed a win to be completely safe from relegation. Eintracht Braunschweig were already promoted and it was clear from the beginning which team needed the points best. A cracking performance by St. Pauli this afternoon and they won the match 5-1. The atmosphere for most parts of the match was a bit a bit tense but in the last minutes the atmosphere inside Millerntor-Stadion was as good as I had hoped for. After the match the pitch was bombarded by teddy bears! This was a bit confusing for me but apparently it was for some charity. Oliver and I stayed behind to applaud the team off the pitch before leaving the ground. Millerntor-Stadion is situated next to Reeperbahn but we didn´t go there afterwards. Instead we went down to the harbour to see all the ships and people celebrating Hafengeburtstag. Later in the afternoon I said good-bye to Oliver and by 17.43 (delayed again) my train left Hamburg Hbf. I was back home 00.50 but after such a nice weekend I didn´t care too much about getting only a couple of hours sleep.
Rathaus
Hafengeburtstag
Hafengeburtstag
Millerntor-Stadion
Rear of the Südtribüne
Monument
Rear of the Westtribüne
Car hanging inside the ground
Football has no gender
Keep off the grass!
Dressing room
Nordtribüne (2015) Gegengerade (Osttribüne)
Südtribüne
Haupttribüne
Südtribüne
Banner
Flags
Kick-off
View of Millerntor-Stadion
Haupttribüne
View of play
Nordtribüne
Eintracht fans
Flags
St. Pauli flag
Banner
Young fans
Teddy bear
Teddy bears
Teddy bears
Pano (2015)
Pano |