Stadium:

Halbemond – Speedway Stadion Motodrom Halbemond

Fixture:

20.11.2022 – SG Sengwarden/Fedderwarden – SV Astederfeld
Niedersachsen, 2.Kreisklasse Jade-Weser-Hunte Staffel 1 – 2:1 – Z: 874

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNVgITTqJyI

Report:

In the far north-west of Germany, a few kilometres from the North Sea coast in the town of Halbemond, you can find one of the biggest football stadiums of the country.

The Speedway Stadium Motodrom Halbemond has a capacity of 34.000 and is among on of the 25 largest football stadiums in Germany. If you can trust the relevant websites and lists, it is even in 22nd place, which makes it bigger than the stadiums in Mainz, Leverkusen, and Wolfsburg, to name but a few. After all, these are well known Bundesliga cities.

It is built primarily as a speedway, but there is a football pitch on the grass inside the race track. One of the last football matches took place here in 1999. After that, football was no longer played here.

For a long time, it was impossible for football fans to watch matches here and tick the stadium off their list, but then there was recently some hope: Another friendly match took place in the Corona Summer 2020, organised by PSV Braunschweig with some groundhoppers amongst them.

This match was organised by groundhoppers for groundhoppers. Unfortunately, due to Corona regulations, a maximum of 300 spectators were allowed to attend the match at that time.

Therefore, the information about the game was only given to a small circle of people, as to not endanger the staging of the game. This was not done with bad intentions toward groundhoppers and stadium collectors, but only as a protective measure, so that the match could actually take place, for which the organisers had invested a lot of time and energy.

After the match took place, pictures and reports of the match spread very quickly on social media, and the many groundhoppers, who unfortunately could not be present were, disappointed. The Holy Grail was so near, and yet so far.

Two years later SG Sengwarden/Fedderwarden decided to give all groundhoppers an early Christmas present and moved one of their home games to the stadium. It was a very welcome counter-event to the World Cup in Qatar, as it took place on the opening day of the World Cup.

The entrance fee of 10 euros was to be donated to charity. This time there were no audience restrictions and in the end there were officially 874 spectators present at the match. Most of them being groundhoppers from all over Germany, and even a few from abroad. It was a big stadium collector meeting, a kind of „class reunion” for groundhoppers.

874 spectators is a pretty high number, considering that about 250 groundhoppers had already been lucky enough and had the opportunity to visit the stadium back in 2020 ago. By the way, we are talking about a “Kreisklasse” match in Lower Saxony, which is the 10th Level of the german league system!

Nevertheless, many football fans attended this match, who normally also support their own club throughout Germany and Europe in the Champions League and/or the European League. Now they were here at a match in the tenth division!

A local farmer made his field available as a parking area in front of the stadium. There you could find license plates on cars from all over Germany. As people walked from there towards the stadium, you could see big smiles on their faces. The anticipation was very high and when they entered the facility, they were amazed by the huge bowl-shaped stadium in front of them.

The stadium is every collector’s wet dream. Huge standing terraces, old dirty seats on the main tribune, and lots of steps all around the football pitch, around which the speedway track runs. In addition, an impressive press and announcers tower, with a view over the entire sports facility.

The SG Sengwarden/Fedderwarden put a lot of effort into the organisation of this event. There were stalls selling beer and sausages, and there was even an ticket made for the collectors. At this point, we would like to give a brief thank you for the commitment and the great organisation!

Sengwarden/Fedderwarden won the match 2:1 against SV Astederfeld, but if we are being honest, the result was secondary on that day.

Almost 900 football fans from many different clubs, groundhoppers, and stadium collectors could watch a football match together peacefully and had a great day of football in a beautiful stadium!