BoxRec

Its a really nice arena - I was there for the England v Portugal quarter-final. Its got a closable roof so it feels like an indoor place.

Gelsenkirche (spelling), is not going to win any awards for prettiness but its a nice enough town and piss easy to get to from Ddorf.

Needless to say, I will be there.

Prices start at €24

JUST GOT A TEXT FROM DAVID,
JUNE 20
VELTINS-ARENA STADIUM
GELSENKIRCHEN
GERMANY
HOME OF F C SHALKE
HOLDS 75.000
NEAREST AIRPORTS
DUSSELDORF (45KILOM)
DORTMUND (50 KILOM)
TICKETS SHOULD BE ABOUT EURO 29-100

There was a thread started on this last night. This should be merged

BIGMARK wrote:

Freiheit wrote:Prices start at €24

24 euros? whats that about 5 pound with the current exchange rate

More like £20.

It really is dirt cheap, though.

Fair play if this is true.

forcefraser wrote:Dusseldorf has an extremely long road with bars on either side. That will do me nicely for the Friday night.

Good red light district too!!!

Spud wrote:

forcefraser wrote:Dusseldorf has an extremely long road with bars on either side. That will do me nicely for the Friday night.

Good red light district too!!!

Absolutely sold it for me.

For anyone struggling with flights to Dusseldof, it's not to far / long to there from Amsterdam if you fancy spending the Friday night somewhere better. I've done that trip on the train before now and it takes no time at all. Which is why according to Brian Clough it only took the Germans 11 minutes to conquer Holland!!

i have played football against schalke 04

rhino222 wrote:i have played football against schalke 04

:??

does the stadium have a roof.....just in case?

Ahh did not see that,

I did not realise this was up, I posted elsewhere, sorry,
I think I am gonna go as I was station there in my army days.

rhino222 wrote:does the stadium have a roof.....just in case?

Yep, its a great atmosphere when covered. As I posted before, I was there for the England World Cup game.

jamesmcdonnell wrote:What a load of shite - what a crap venue - Dusseldorf is a horrible industrial town - suppose could maybe stay in Berlin - and get a train down to the fight, but this all seems more hassle than it's worth now to be honest.

Best city round there is Cologne. Really fabulous place to stay

Yeah, but it's not even in Dussledorf! You have to get a train from Dussledorf to get there, which for me, really takes the shine off.

Why oh why have they held the fight in this place, I just don't understand.

The only thing I think is that the industrial heartlands are more interested in boxing? Surely though Ottke fought plenty of times in Berlin and filled the place out.

Actually looking at it, Ottke only fought a few times in Berlin - perhaps it's nust not a big fight town - quite believable, very few world title fights happen in London - perhaps like London it's not the type of entertainment people are really looking for in a big cosmopolitan city.

For me, I cannot justify the expense merely to see a fight in some industrial town on the outskirts of Berlin. Part of the attraction was going back to Berlin and taking in a good fight at the same time.

By the time you add up the costs of flights - trains to the venue, accomodation etc, for me, it's just not going to be worth the time, money and effort. The 02 arena in Berlin would have been right near the airport, easy to get to, and plenty to do come after the fight.

ERIC GUY wrote:JUST GOT A TEXT FROM DAVID,
JUNE 20
VELTINS-ARENA STADIUM
GELSENKIRCHEN
GERMANY
HOME OF F C SHALKE
HOLDS 75.000
NEAREST AIRPORTS
DUSSELDORF (45KILOM)
DORTMUND (50 KILOM)
TICKETS SHOULD BE ABOUT EURO 29-100

That's not so bad then. Tickets seem pretty reasonable - and if flights are still cheap - then maybe I'll go for it.

Hmm, now Amsterdam to Dusseldorf looks like an option - never been to Amsterdam remarkably enough - most interesting.

Any word on the start time? Are we looking at the early hours or what??