SAMSTAG 15:30

The Stadion am Schönbusch was inaugurated in front of 1,200 onlookers on 23rd May 1909 with a couple of friendlies against the first and second teams of 1.Hanauer FC 1893 (which incidentally is the oldest existing football club in Hesse !) with the changing rooms offering players the luxury of both hot and cold running water - unique in southern Germany at the time. By the 1920s, attendances had risen to over 4,000 fans and the decision to expand the stadium saw the construction of a 400-seater wooden grandstand begin on 6th May 1923. The stadium was badly damaged by Allied bombing raids over Aschaffenburg during the Second World War and capacity was reduced to about 8,000. Football however brought welcome respite from the challenges facing people after the conflict and with post-war attendances on the rise, new grandstands saw the ground capacity increase. By the early 1950s crowds of around 13,000 regularly made their way to Kleine Schönbuschallee with a stadium record 18,000 fans seeing Aschaffenburg take on 1.FC Nürnberg in 1951.

On Friday, August 22, 1958, the 700-capacity main grandstand burned down in an arson attack, destroying interior furnishings, sports equipment, and damaging the pitch. The grandstand was rebuilt in just three weeks, and the pitch later repaired by the club with help from volunteers and US soldiers stationed in the area. After relegation from the Oberliga Süd in 1959-60 and dropping down the divisions, attendances dropped away and a lack of investment in the stadium meant that by 1984 the spartan facilities on offer forced the authorities to reduce capacity to just 10,500 spectators, with 650 seats in the stands. At the time, Viktoria were challenging for promotion to Bundesliga.2 and to comply with stadium regulations, the Stadion am Schönbusch underwent a major renovation with DM 500,000 spent on a new 1.200 capacity main stand which was built in only five weeks and opened on May 13th 1985 before another DM 200,000 went into further upgrades to meet Bundesliga standards.

Before a second stint in Bundesliga.2, the city council paid DM 47,000 for further upgrades to the stands in 1986. At the time, only three of the 38 stadiums in the top two tiers of German football were owned by their respective clubs, including the Stadion am Schönbusch, while the rest were municipally owned. However, financial pressures were building on the club after paying for the expensive stadium renovations and Viktoria hoped to sell the stadium to the city of Aschaffenburg, planning to use the funds to build a new 3,000-seat grandstand. Having already contributed to recent upgrades and the spectre of rising stadium maintenance costs becoming a burden to local taxpayers however, the proposal was knocked back by the council. After earning promotion back to the Bundesliga.2 in 1989, an electronic scoreboard - still in use today - was installed, along with a second VIP room under the newer grandstand. A DM 100,000 donation from patron Alois Ammerschläger then funded upgrades to the changing facilities, the addition of a swimming pool, and new rooms for referees and offices before agreeing to pay off the club's DM 700,000 debt. The rescue package also included ownership of the Stadion am Schönbusch which was promptly donated to the city of Aschaffenburg on the proviso that it be fully renovated.

Under pressure from Ammerschläger, plans were made for a complete stadium overhaul, including rearranging the stands, adding a grandstand on the back straight, and installing a floodlight system. The most striking aspect was rotating the entire pitch by 90° to ensure the floodlight masts didn’t block the view between the castle in Schönbusch Park and Johannisburg Castle, in line with the Bavarian Palaces and Lakes Ordinance. A municipal planning office sketch showed the pitch enclosed on all sides by covered standing and seating areas, framed by floodlights. Construction began in 1992, and matches were played amid a half-finished venue with a capacity of only 7,000 spectators before the stadium was completely closed to allow for the works to be completed with Viktoria having to relocate to a local sports field in the Damm area of Aschaffenburg.

By September 1993, Viktoria were back home but having missed out on promotion to Bundesliga.2 and beginning a tailspin that would see them plummet down the leagues, plans for a new grandstand and floodlight system were put on hold pending an upturn in on-field fortunes. Without this second renovation phase, the stadium remained unfinished, bringing notable downsides: the rotated pitch turned the former main stands into end stands, causing poor visibility and a sharp decline in seat ticket sales - an important source of income - by an estimated DM 30,000 per season. One side of the back straight was left deserted, with a forty-metre wide gravel strip running its length between the fence and the stadium’s outer boundary. Long-time spectators mourned the loss of the old stadium’s packed atmosphere with supporters' chants being lost to the open space behind the back straight. Team captain Thomas Biehrer summed it up, recalling that in the old stadium, "... even 1,500 fans could give you goosebumps—now the atmosphere is gone".

Despite protests, the city of Aschaffenburg, as the owner, couldn’t justify paying the costs of the second phase of construction. There was no sign of an upturn in on-field fortunes and even if there was, the city council simply lacked the funds to cover the work. As a concession, DM 320,000 was spent installing twelve new ticket booths and plans for the stadium remained up in the air for the next few years. In 1997, Viktoria approached the city council with the idea of adding a grandstand to the empty back straight with plans scaled back from a 3,000-seat version to a smaller one with just 1,000 seats. Even that was knocked back and feeling unsupported by the city, the club took matters into their own hands in 1999 by building a 1,100 capacity covered tubular steel grandstand in the still municipal-owned stadium with help from an advertising partner. Along with the main stand and extended standing areas on part of the Gegengerade, this temporary 58 metre long structure brought back some of the stadium's once-famous atmosphere.
 

With capacity listed at 6,620, the Stadion am Schönbusch is a rather basic, lower-league venue. The low-slung Gegengerade (Block I) and terrace (Block J) behind the goal at the east end of the ground feature standing terraces which curves around towards the 'temporary' 1,040 tubular steel main stand erected in 1999. Behind the goal at the western end of the stadium (Blocks D-H) are two covered stands offering 946 seats, bringing the official seating capacity to 1,986, and where you'll find VIP areas, changing rooms, club offices and the Stadion Stüberl pub, currently being renovated to house the future fan shop. The pitch is enclosed by a security fence with about a dozen gates, and a gated tunnel allows players and officials safe passage from the changing rooms to the field. Twelve ticket booths are spread across three of the four outer sides, while two opposite sides of the property hold three buildings with toilets and food stands, plus two smaller kiosks on the Darmstädter Straße side. A simple, monochrome two-line scoreboard shows the score and team line-ups.