OWL Arena

OWL Arena, formerly Gerry Weber Stadion, is a multi-purpose stadium, located in Halle, North Rhine-Westphalia, in Germany. The capacity of the arena is 12,300 people and it opened in 1993.

OWL Arena

The Gerry Weber Stadion during the Handball World Cup 2007
Former names	Gerry Weber Stadion (1993–2020)
Location	Halle, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Coordinates	52°03′47″N 8°20′56″E
Operator	OWL Sport & Event Verwaltung GmbH
Capacity	12,300 (tennis) 11,000 (handball)
Surface	Grass court
Construction
Opened	1993
Renovated	1994 (Sattler Europe), 2005
Construction cost	€ 35 million (1993) € 3.5 million (renovated 2005)
Architect	Sattler Europe[1]
Tenants
Halle Open (tennis) (1993–present)

In early 2020, a consortium of 13 sponsors became owner of the venue and its name was changed to OWL Arena.^[2][3]

Facilities

Gerry Weber Stadium in 2009

The stadium has a retractable roof which can be closed in 88 seconds, which rules out the risk of tennis matches having to be suspended because of rain. It is one of the few grass court tennis venues around. The stadium is heated and also used for other sport events (handball, basketball, prisonball, volleyball and boxing), TV shows and concerts.

Halle Gerry-Weber-Stadion railway station is located 500m from the stadium on the Osnabrück to Bielefeld railway line.

Events

During a concert in 2012

The tennis arena hosts the Halle Open every year in June. On 2 April 2005, Irish vocal pop band Westlife held a concert for their The No 1's Tour supporting their album ...Allow Us to Be Frank.

In January 2007, several games of the Handball World Championship took place there; most of them were sold out with 11,000 spectators.

See also

• List of tennis stadiums by capacity
• List of indoor arenas in Germany