SAMSTAG 15:30

Built on the grounds of a former palace park laid out in the late 18th century by Prince Ludwig of Nassau-Saarbrücken, the stadium is technically the third Ludwigsparkstadion to stand on the site. The 'first' Ludwigsparkstadion was built by volunteers in 1919 and opened on 31st August that year with a friendly between FCS' predecessor club, FV Saarbrücken, and SV Wiesbaden (1-4).

After being destroyed by allied bombing raids during the second world war, a second Ludwigsparkstadion designed by local architect Peter Paul Seeberger rose from the ashes and opened on 2nd August 1953 when FCS beat Rot Weiss Essen 3-1 in front of 30,000 spectators. Built at a cost of 195 million francs (€5.3 million in today's money) and with a capacity of 35,303; it was the region's premier sports stadium and played host to international football a few months later when a stadium record crowd of 53,000 turned up on Camphauser Straße to see the-then independent Saarland lose 1-3 to West Germany in a World Cup qualifier. For the next few decades though it changed very little from its original design - an oval-shaped bowl with no grandstands, grass ramparts and a cinder running track. It wasn't until 1977 before the first works to address the spartan facilities on offer were carried out when a two-tier 4,000 seater grandstand was built in just 100 days to finally offer spectators some protection from the elements followed later by the addition of floodlights and a digital scoreboard.

Despite improvements however, the stadium was showing its age by the turn of the millennium and with the spectre of rising maintenance costs becoming a burden to local taxpayers, the city of Saarbrücken and FCS announced a complete overhaul of the stadium which would see it converted into a football-only venue. After a final home game v TSV Steinbach in December 2015, FCS moved into the Hermann Neuberger Stadion in nearby Völklingen and work on the new Ludwigsparkstadion got underway. It wasn't long however before the project was engulfed in delays, planning errors and a cost explosion. Having won promotion with the Regionalliga Südwest title the previous season, FCS returned from exile ahead of the 2020-21 3.Liga campaign only to find the Ludwigsparkstadion still not complete and, faced with the prospect of playing their home games at the PSD Arena 160 miles away in Frankfurt, needed special dispensation from the league to play in Saarbrücken.

The original budget was €16 million but by the time time the stadium was eventually finished in 2021, escalating costs had seen the final bill reach €46.5 million which caused political headaches for the Saarland state government.

A pure football venue with four separate stands and a capacity of 16,003, the third incarnation of the Ludwigsparkstadion is a largely prefab ground built a few metres below ground level. The upper tier of the stadium's largest stand, the 1977-built north stand (Gegentribüne) was modernised and the lower section reconfigured. 

The other three sides of the ground are pretty uniform having all been constructed during the 2016-2021 redevelopment. They are modern, look quite smart and are all the same height and design with a distinctive barrel roof. The new all-seater Hauptttribüne has a row of executive boxes running part way along the back and the changing rooms, media facilities and club offices are also found here in a smart three-storey glass fronted building.

The iconic floodlight masts originally installed during the 1970s have been kept as a legacy of the 'old' Ludwigsparkstadion, although there are now additional spotlights mounted along the roof. An impressive video screen in the south-west corner of the ground completes the look of the stadium.