Where horse racing once took place, the DFB Campus in Niederrad has been ceremoniously opened after almost 3 years of construction. Around 300 guests from the worlds of sport, politics and business celebrated the symbolic handover of the keys on June 30 together with Groß und Partner, who implemented the project. The design was by kadawittfeldarchitektur and was selected from over 200 submissions. The decision to build the academy on the racecourse site was based on the many advantages of the location: the central location with only a few kilometers to the main train station or airport, the streetcar connection for the employees, the proximity to the city center and Frankfurt’s general high internationality played a decisive role here.

After 120 years without a training ground of its own, the world’s largest sports association now has 15 hectares of land plus a 5-hectare expansion option on which to promote the future of German soccer at the highest level. The German Football Association has invested a total of 150 million euros in this flagship project. In addition, 20 hectares are currently being converted into a new citizens’ park, making a large part of the former racetrack accessible to the public.

The building is over 17 meters high at its highest point. The maximum number of floors is four. The entire building complex is 307 meters long. The building itself offers 49,365 square meters of space. The sports areas are divided as follows:

• 2400 square meters of technical course
• 1638 square meters of beach soccer field
• 150×80 meters of indoor playing turf with space for over 480 people
• 30,400 square meters of grass in the outdoor area
• 800 meters jogging track (fin track)

The spatial concept is distributed over several building sections, which are grouped around the individual training fields and outdoor facilities under an all-encompassing roof structure. The three circles of education, national team as well as development and innovation are the supporting concept, on which a total of 16 modules are distributed.

Up to 543 workstations (administration as well as academy) and five seminar and four conference rooms have space in the academy. The building also includes a press room covering almost 200 square meters. Added to this are:

• Catering for up to 125 people
• A parking garage with 425 spaces
• Both a multipurpose hall and a soccer hall (FIFA standard)
• One fitness lab and media center each
• Fan and ticket shop
• An Atlethenhaus with 33 rooms

All these areas will be linked by a sports boulevard to promote interaction between the different groups of people who work and train in the complex.

In the context of a holistic approach to sustainability, solar panels are installed. Furthermore, a very high number of electric charging stations for bicycles and cars are available. The irrigation of the sports and green areas is done with roof water, which is collected in cisterns. Heat is supplied by district heating.