SAMSTAG 15:30

Stadion am Schönbusch opened on 23rd May 1909, with its first matches played against the first and second teams of 1st Hanauer FC 1893 before 1,200 spectators, ending in 7–1 and 2–1 victories. On 4th May 1921, a new changing room with hot and cold running water - unique in southern Germany at the time - was inaugurated. By the 1920s, some games were drawing over 4,000 fans, prompting the construction of the first grandstand on 6th May 1923, a wooden structure with 400 seats. World War II destroyed the grandstand and damaged the pitch. After the war, without stands, capacity dropped to about 8,000 and was often maxed out. New stands and a grandstand increased capacity to 12,000, and in 1951 a record crowd of 18,000 attended a match against the 1.FC Nürnberg, forcing ticket sales to stop. The early 1950s saw average crowds of around 13,000, nearly filling the stadium every game, with the 18,000 mark reached again in 1954.

On Friday, August 22, 1958, the main grandstand, which could hold 700 spectators, burned down due to arson, destroying interior furnishings, sports equipment, and damaging the pitch. The grandstand was rebuilt in just three weeks, and the pitch was later repaired by the club with help from volunteers and US soldiers. After relegation from the Oberliga Süd in 1959-60 and dropping to a lower division, the stadium’s capacity went unused for decades, even during regional league matches against big names like TSV 1860 München. In 1984, the building inspectorate recorded a capacity of 10,500 spectators, with 650 seats in the stands. To prepare financially for potential promotion to Bundesliga.2, the seating was expanded to 1,200 covered seats with a new grandstand. This was completed in just five weeks, costing DM 500,000, and inaugurated on May 13, 1985. Another DM 200,000 went into further upgrades to meet Bundesliga standards.

Before the second season in the second tier in 1986, the stands were renovated and fitted with breakwaters, with costs of DM 47,000 covered by the city of Aschaffenburg. In 1986, only three of the 38 stadiums in the First and Second Bundesliga were owned by their respective clubs, including the Stadion am Schönbusch, while the rest were municipally owned. Due to financial pressures from investments exceeding DM 700,000, Viktoria offered to sell the stadium to the city of Aschaffenburg, planning to use the funds to build a new 3,000-seat grandstand. The city declined, despite already owning three-quarters of the property. After earning promotion back to the Second Bundesliga 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 funded upgrades to the showers and sanitary facilities, the addition of a fatigue pool, and new rooms for referees and offices. To help cover the club’s prior investments, Ammerschläger bought the stadium for DM 700,000 and donated it to the city on the condition that it be fully renovated.

Under pressure from Alois 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 change 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. Just before the promotion round to the Second Bundesliga, construction began in 1992, forcing matches to be played amid a half-finished venue with only about 7,000 spectators. For further reconstruction, the stadium closed for a year, and Viktoria played on a sports field in the Damm district. The first construction phase finished on 13 June 1993, with Viktoria’s first game in the new stadium on 3rd September 1993.

The playing field, now rotated by 90 degrees to ensure that the floodlight masts did not interfere with the visual axis between the castle in Schönbusch Park and Johannisburg Castle, which would have violated the Bavarian Palaces and Lakes Ordinance, cost DM 1.5 million. After Viktoria missed promotion to Bundesliga.2 and spent a year in the Landesliga, plans for a new seating grandstand and floodlight system were postponed indefinitely, pending future sporting success. Without a second renovation phase, the stadium remained unfinished, bringing notable downsides: the rotated pitch turned the former main stands into back stands, causing poorer 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-meter-wide gravel strip running its length between the fence and the stadium’s outer boundary. Long-time spectators still mourn the loss of the old stadium’s packed atmosphere; the open space behind the back straight swallowed the supporters’ chants. 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 fully carry out the second phase of construction. The sporting requirements for the upgrade weren’t met, and the city lacked the necessary funds. For the time being, only twelve new ticket booths were built, costing over DM 320,000. When the idea of adding a grandstand to the empty back straight came up again in 1997, plans shifted from a 3,000-seat version to a smaller one with just 1,000 seats, but even that never happened. Feeling unsupported by the city, Viktoria took matters into their own hands in 1999, building a covered tubular steel grandstand in the municipal stadium with help from an advertising partner. This temporary structure, meant to last about 20 years, is 58 meters long and holds nearly 1,100 seats. Along with the main stand and extended standing areas on part of the Gegengerade, it brought back some of the stadium's once-famous atmosphere.
 

The city of Aschaffenburg lists the stadium’s capacity at 6,620 spectators. One side of the back straight and part of the goal area feature standing terraces with breakwaters, extending slightly along the other back straight. This side also has the covered main stand with 1,040 seats. Opposite the back goal are two covered stands offering 946 seats, bringing the official seating total to 1,986. Beneath the back-goal stands are the VIP and changing rooms, some 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.
 

After qualifying for the newly structured Regionalliga Süd, the city began renovating the stadium in July 2009. This included adding three fences, dividing what was once a completely open area into several sections. Modernisation has continued despite Viktoria Aschaffenburg missing promotion to the third division. In August 2021, an 800-lux floodlight system was installed, meeting third division requirements.