Events

Sport events

The VELTINS-Arena means above all FC Schalke 04 and their home matches in the Bundesliga, the DFB Cup and the Champions League or Europa League. But even beyond that, this multifunctional arena offers a unique setting for sporting events in NRW.

Biathlon at Schalke has been taking place since 2002, and the Biathlon World Team Challenge has found a fixed place in the sports calendar shortly before the end of the year. The mixed competition not only offers a unique backdrop in the snow surrounding the Arena, year after year it is also accompanied by well over 40,000 spectators. This sporting event is a unique experience for the biathletes, running on a 1.2-kilometre-long track and making their shots at a shooting range specially built for the stadium.

The teams of two, one man and one woman, take turns round after round. For the international participants and the numerous spectators the biathlon at Schalke is always an absolute highlight of the year. Since 2014, the Snowball Battle World Championship has also been a part of the World Team Challenge supporting programme.

In addition, the VELTINS-Arena has already hosted numerous other sports events. At the opening match of the 2010 Ice Hockey World Championship between Germany and the USA, Schalke even set a world record with 77,803 spectators. Vitali and Vladimir Klitschko have also boxed in the VELTINS-Arena, and the 2004 Champions League final between AS Monaco and FC Porto took place in it.

The portfolio of sports events in NRW which have so far left their visiting card with the VELTINS-Arena goes on: In front of a world record backdrop, TBV Lemgo and THW Kiel duelled in the opening match of the 2004 Handball Bundesliga, Stefan Raab hosted his TV Stock Car Crash Challenge for a whole decade and American Football was also played in Gelsenkirchen. In the year 2018 the German Darts Masters took place in the Arena – again with the result being a new spectator world record.