Next year, Königsblau will celebrate 25 years of the VELTINS-Arena. The stadium, which opened in 2001, is in top condition ahead of the silver jubilee. The decisive factor here is that the club has continued to invest in S04's living room in 2025 in order to keep the VELTINS-Arena as attractive as possible for soccer matches and special events. The figures show that this approach is successful: In the past calendar year, the stadium hosted around 2.2 million fans and visitors at almost 1080 events, making it one of the top venues in Germany.
"The VELTINS-Arena is the most important fan venue for our club, with over 60,000 fans coming together every two weeks to cheer on their club and enjoy the community of Schalke fans. It is therefore important for us to continue to develop the stadium step by step in all areas, all within the bounds of what is economically possible. Our benchmark here is the fan - how can we further improve the stadium experience so that Schalke fans leave the arena satisfied? In addition to sport, this involves many smaller and larger things," explains Matthias Tillmann, CEO of FC Schalke 04.
A complex project was completed ahead of schedule just in time for the end of the year: All 40 kiosks are now equipped with digital screens. A total of 269 screens were installed, on which prices, offers and other information are now displayed in a legible and visually appealing manner. 2.5 kilometers of cable had to be laid to ensure optimum control. In addition, five catering locations throughout the VELTINS-Arena were extensively renovated in the summer and redesigned as pure drinks kiosks in order to optimize processes and further reduce waiting times at the kiosks. Offers in the kiosks can now be presented much more flexibly.
In addition, intensive work has been carried out in recent months to digitalize all types of processes. All kiosks are now equipped with tablets, as are the hospitality areas, which has led to the acceleration of many processes overall. Digitization has enabled the club's own catering company to save around 4,000 sheets of paper per match day.
New NFC-enabled terminals have also been in use at the stadium gates since the home opener against Hertha BSC on August 1, 2025. This allows all visitors to turn their smartphone into an admission ticket: Day or season tickets can be conveniently loaded into the Apple Wallet and scanned contactlessly at the entrance. The convenient ticket control thus ensures even faster and smoother admission to the VELTINS-Arena. The physical chip season ticket also works in the same way.
At the same time, the payment experience in the stadium kiosks has also been further developed. Schalke fans can now also pay there via Apple Pay and Google Pay. The quick and easy process shortens waiting times and leaves more time for the essentials on match day: Soccer, community and royal blue emotions.
There has also been a new meeting point for the royal blue community since the start of the season. On home match days, the beer garden 04 hours before kick-off was the first place to get in the mood for S04 matches. Centrally located on the lawn in front of Entrance West 1 below the Förderturm monument, the fans of the squires came together to enjoy food and drink in anticipation of kick-off. With the arrival of the fall months, the offer evolved further: the beer garden became a winter meeting place. Just a few meters away, on Rudi-Assauer-Platz directly in front of the Tausend-Freunde-Mauer, warm drinks, music from the DJ and weather-protected tents awaited the Schalke fans. The winter get-together celebrated its successful premiere before the home match against SV Darmstadt on October 24.
After the game and especially after victories, things go on even longer in Kuzorra, the club's own pub in the VELTINS-Arena: then the DJ plays and the fans stay together. Although still in the test phase, the parties after victories have already achieved a small cult status, as numerous videos on social media show.
"As a club, our aim is to create spaces where our fans can experience Schalke 04. Home match day is naturally a focus here. We will prepare further optimizations in the coming months. At the same time, the members' congress in March will also be a good opportunity for brainstorming and exchanging ideas," explains Sebastian Buntkirchen, Director of Fan Culture and Sustainability. "We will also take a look at Berger Feld as a whole as part of the long-term Schalke Experience project. We also want to invite more people to the club grounds during the week."
