Application for the Olympic Games
Hamburg is probably building a new stadium – also for HSV
May 31, 2025 – 5:44 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
The city of Hamburg is applying for the Olympic Games. A new stadium is one of the plans. Bundesliga football is later to be played in this.
As the last national applicant, the city of Hamburg submitted its documents on Saturday to host the Olympic Games at the German Olympic Sports Association (DOSB). Before that, Berlin, Munich and the Rhein-Ruhr region had also applied. The DOSB plans to bring the games 2036, 2040 or 2044 to Germany.
Most recently, seven attempts of this kind had failed. The last time in 1972 Olympic games took place in the Federal Republic, at that time in Munich. The final decision with which application concept Germany is running at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is scheduled to fall in the second half of 2026.
The heart of the Hamburg concept is now a new Olympic Stadium. This is to be used for athletics competitions during the games. Up to 60,000 spectators could find space in the new arena. But even after the major sporting event, the stadium should have a new, important function.
The new sports facility is to be built in the immediate vicinity of the Volksparkstadion. There, the Hamburger SV, who has just climbed into the Bundesliga, plays out his home games. But that could change after the construction of the new arena. Because this is to be used by the club for his games in the Bundesliga after the Olympic Games. Means: The HSV would probably get a new stadium.
The club was already commenting on the plans. “In the next 20 years, the existing Volksparkstadion will build its limits,” said an official statement. The city in turn lacks an athletics stadium that is essential for the Olympic application. A modern arena, which is initially used for the games and then as a multifunctional football stadium, is “sustainable, economically sensible and more useful”.
According to the announcement, the Volkspark remains the home of the club. The HSV project manager Christian Lenz said: “Our goal is not to replace this place, but to develop it further-in the interests of our club and our city.” And further: “We have not only asked ourselves the question of the future of our stadium since the Olympic option.” The basic structural renewal of the current venue in the 2040s was “inevitable” anyway. Lenz emphasized that the application for the Olympic Games now offers the opportunity to “link this development early and sensibly with urban planning, sporting and social perspectives.”