On Saturday evening at Schalke’s home match against 1. FC Kaiserslautern, the stadium will be sold out. Many fans will arrive by motorhome. Can they still park at the arena?

When FC Schalke 04 plays its first home game in the 2nd division against 1. FC Kaiserslautern at the Arena on Saturday evening (8:30 p.m.), many S04 fans will once again come to Gelsenkirchen in their motorhomes.

After all, traveling with your own bed is becoming increasingly popular anyway, at least since the Corona pandemic. And for many Schalke supporters, it’s also a question of money. Since the club has supporters and more than 1,000 fan clubs all over Germany, many fans accept a long journey to the game to see their Königsblauen play. Especially in the case of evening games, this often involves an overnight stay in Gelsenkirchen. Or – with a kickoff time of 1:30 p.m. – perhaps an overnight stay before the game.

Not everyone wants or is able to stay in one of the nearby hotels and therefore travels by motor home. But official parking spaces near the arena with the appropriate infrastructure, such as at Gesundheitspark Nienhausen, are rare. In addition, some fans don’t even want to drive a car after the final whistle, because they like to drink a beer or two at the game.

That’s why they switched to the official arena parking lot. There are no sanitary facilities or a water or electricity connection there. But they’re happy to put up with that, because they can walk to the stadium from there. And as long as they are there at least two hours before kickoff, there is no charge. Otherwise it’s five euros. For years, the club, the public order office and the police have tolerated sleeping there

Is that going to end for the new season? Because attentive observers have noticed that some parking spaces have now been provided with height limits by the club. Vehicles have to drive through a gate in the process. A warning sign indicates that this is only possible for vehicles up to 2.30 meters high. It quickly made the rounds on the Internet that Schalke wanted to prevent overnight parking in the arena parking lot in the future.

But that is not so, explained the club on request. “The height restrictions are only in parking lot A,” explained FC Schalke 04’s head of corporate communications Alina Bolous. “However, the motorhomes are usually in parking lot C2, which is why this should not change anything for our arriving fans.”

The background for the measure is completely different and has nothing to do with the match days, she said. The S04, which has leased the parking spaces from the city of Gelsenkirchen, wants to prevent trucks from being parked there during the week in this way. Schalke fans can therefore breathe a sigh of relief.