Deutsche Bank Park

Deutsche Bank Park – tickets for the Waldstadion

The name on the roof changes with the sponsor; the name in the city does not. To people in Frankfurt this is and remains the Waldstadion, the forest stadium. Search for that, or for Commerzbank-Arena, and you mean the same ground.

Around 58,000 places for Bundesliga matches including a large standing section, considerably fewer for internationals where everyone must be seated. The present bowl dates from 2005; a stadium has stood on this site south of the river since 1925.

A roof that closes

A membrane draws shut across the pitch. In the rain the whole bowl stays dry — and with the roof closed the noise stays inside instead of escaping upwards.

The Nordwestkurve

Eintracht Frankfurt have a following known well beyond the city — certainly since the run to the Europa League title in 2022, when tens of thousands of Frankfurters descended on Barcelona and Seville. At home that part of the crowd stands in the Nordwestkurve. Look there for the noise; take a side stand if you would rather watch in peace.

The ground is in a forest — literally

The Deutsche Bank Park sits inside the Frankfurter Stadtwald, south of the Main. That makes the walk in pleasant and the choice of food and drink thin: there is very little among the trees, and much of what sounds like a forest inn in online listings turns out to be far out in the Taunus hills rather than near the ground.

The one address worth naming close by is the Wirtshaus Oberschweinstiege at the edge of the woods. Everything else happens in Sachsenhausen — and that is not a fallback, it is the better plan.

Apfelwein in Sachsenhausen

In Frankfurt the pre-match drink is Apfelwein, apple wine, served from the Bembel, a grey-and-blue stoneware jug. The classic houses stand close together in Alt-Sachsenhausen — Apfelwein Wagner on Schweizer Straße, Zum Gemalten Haus next door and the Fichtekränzi on Wallstraße. Order Handkäs mit Musik or Grüne Soße alongside it.

Sachsenhausen to the stadium is a short ride, and the way back leads there anyway.

Getting there

The S-Bahn stops at Stadion station, around ten minutes' walk from the ground; tram line 21 also runs to the door. From the Hauptbahnhof it takes about ten minutes.

Frankfurt airport is only some five kilometres away — few German grounds are quicker to reach off an intercontinental flight.