The stadium on Hafenstraße is being modernized—at least the seats on the Helmut Rahn stand are getting a facelift.

Rot-Weiss will become even more prominent at the stadium on Hafenstraße in Essen: the replacement of the seats on the Rahn stand in blocks R2, R3, and R4, planned by the club and the Essen municipal property management company (GVE), has begun. The work is expected to be completed next Wednesday, December 17.

This means that the new seats will be ready in time for the last home game of 2025 (Saturday, December 20, 2 p.m.) against SSV Ulm 1846.

The fact that the stadium on Hafenstraße is the home of Rot-Weiss Essen is also becoming increasingly apparent visually. The replacement of the seats in the Rahn stand has already given the stadium a clearly visible, renewed appearance. After more than 13 years of use, the seats need to be replaced. The measures had been planned by RWE and GVE for more than a year, when the idea was developed to give the stadium a new, modern look with the new, large checkerboard pattern and to upgrade the grandstand. The seats on the Rahn grandstand were the most weathered and worn, which is why the seat renewal began there. By Wednesday, December 17, parts of the seats in blocks R2 to R4 (a total of 3,120) will have been replaced. Half of them have already been installed (as of Friday morning, December 12).

As part of the overall project, the seat shells in blocks R1 and R5 will also be replaced, with an additional 2,316 seats being replaced there. This second phase is expected to be carried out during the 2026 summer break. Despite the phased implementation, match operations will continue to be guaranteed throughout. The work will be organized in such a way that it does not interfere with the event schedule.

The old seats will be stored in a weather-protected area as a reserve and will be reused for possible seating in the standing areas for future (state) games or possibly future concerts with higher seating requirements in the spirit of sustainability.