Floodlit football games have always been something special. That was the case at the premiere 147 years ago and is still true today. Especially in Berlin and in the Olympic Stadium. About records under floodlights – and a special feature.
We’re just among ourselves, we can talk openly: it’s going to be terrible. Absolutely terrible. Like every year in Berlin winter. Which is just gray and muddy and cold. So grey. So mushy. So cold. Meteorological. And human. Because everyone still has enough warmth for themselves. Over months.
But in almost every horror there is also magic. Which brings us to floodlights. This candle of hearts. The big hour is now upon us again, in the end of autumn and the beginning of winter. Because the sun has already left the field far too early.
The floodlights attracted spectators
The first floodlit game in football history was played on October 14, 1878 in Sheffield, England. It was a kind of test match for the new technology. Between two teams whose players came from different clubs in the city. It played “Red” against “Blue”, led by the brothers William and Charles Clegg, two former international players. William would later become mayor of Sheffield. Maybe that’s why his team “Blue” won 2-0.
And not without nuances. The system that was demonstrated was said to have had the brightness of 8,000 candles. However, it was not yet entirely clear where the light had to be directed in order to illuminate the playing field as well as possible. The players are said to have been blinded at times by the four light towers, which were constantly moved during the game. Which is why they made rookie mistakes.
The curious audience took it with humor. 20,000 spectators are said to have paid admission. Another 8,000 are said to have sneaked into the stadium under cover of darkness (kick-off was at 7pm UK time). At the time, not even England’s international matches attracted that many spectators.
So floodlights have always had an appeal. Perhaps because their light was reminiscent of the warming and cozy fires of our ancestors’ caves. Maybe because it reminded me of the theater. That’s where it originated, after all – as a spotlight. And what else is football if not the continuation of theater through other means?
From “giraffes” and “tennis rackets”
This is also true because anyone who takes part in football moves away from their everyday lives. By drawing attention to something, light also blocks out everything around it. Also the fears and worries and needs of your own everyday life. So it could also be called escape light; at least for 90 minutes.
The beauty of the artificially lit evening games has faded a little over the last few decades. Progress is to blame. Today it feels like a few LED strips are enough to illuminate even the largest arena. Where previously the most daring floodlight masts, adapted to the respective circumstances, were needed, the shape of which has often been burned into the collective memory. Like secular counterparts to the church towers of cities.
The four masts of the Rudolf Harbig Stadium in Dresden, popularly known as “giraffes”. The spotlights called “toothbrushes” in the Lower Saxony Stadium in Hanover. The oval-shaped lights in Dortmund’s Westfalen Stadium are rightly called “tennis rackets”.
The floodlight masts of Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion, known as “tennis rackets”.
No shadows in Berlin
Floodlight masts in large stadiums were a very individual matter and therefore ideal for identification. Floodlight masts were home. Lighthouses for feelings. Anyone who saw them, especially when they shined, remembered previous European Cup nights. Of great victories and bitter defeats. They are two sides of the same coin and never opposites; like love and hate.
In Berlin, of course, it took longer with the floodlights. Hertha BSC’s Berlin Olympic Stadium was the last venue in the Bundesliga, founded in 1963, to get one. This was preceded by a year-long dispute about cost coverage, appearance, providers, management capabilities and and and – typical for Berlin. In the end there were four 85 meter high masts – the highest in the world. Sure, of course. They lasted until 2004 before the stadium was completely overhauled for the 2006 World Cup and the lights were moved to the newly built roof.
The lighting system in the roof of the Olympic Stadium was last replaced between November 2019 and December 2020. The sophisticated technology ensures that the players hardly produce any visible shadows during floodlit games. But between us: it’s not really surprising that the Berlin floodlights adapt to the Berlin winter and even swallow shadows, is it?
Broadcast: rbb24 Inforadio, October 14, 2025, 9:15 a.m
