by Daniel Becht
A Personal Experience
Someone traveling past Nuremberg on Autobahn 6 to Mannheim will not pass much anything except for the town of Heilbronn for a long time. Small villages can be seen left and right, as well as the obligatory, quietly grazing cattle. One would enjoy the idyll and the calm of these small settlements and gain some distance from the hectic urban life while joyously moving towards the next populated place by the name of Mannheim.
Recently, people have been given ample time to enjoy the pristine nature every other Saturday. Being stuck in traffic jams, that is. Without visible cause, cars will simply stop moving behind a small hill in the early afternoon. The regular driver will be shaking their heads and wonder why. It takes a while to realize why there is no movement at all right in the middle of the Autobahn. No accidents are reported over the radio. The car crawls uphill meter by meter, only to make the driver question his own two eyes eventually. In the middle of nowhere appears a gigantic, circular and awe-inspiring building. Reaching the top of the hill, one would make out the reason for the jam, and that it is not, in fact, a sensation worthy to be reported to NASA.
The tough-flowing traffic is caused by the new Autobahn exit ramp Sinsheim Süd. Or rather, by the reason for the construction of said exit ramp. It leads the driver to an area of 5000 parking lots in front of the new Rhein Neckar Arena.
The prospective home game arena of Bundesliga club TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. It provides space for 30,000 people. The football stadium, financed by sports patron Dietmar Hopp, is located directly by the Autobahn exit to Sinsheim. And it is also the reason for the gigantic traffic chaos. There is no such thing as the usual journey to a Bundesliga game by subway or train. The Sinsheim Museum/Arena station is still under construction and can thus only be used for arrivals from Heilbronn. A shuttle bus marks the only opportunity, but is lost in the traffic chaos before long all the same.
Today, it took almost 40 minutes to claim one’s parking lot at the other end of the Arena. Two hours before the start of the match, that is. Overextended regulators, misleading traffic lights and way too many cars made an advance virtually impossible.
Although the TSG is playing great and the new Arena provides first-class service, especially for VIPs, the traffic layout is fit for a regional league, at best. Of course, things never go perfectly on the first day. But there are plenty of improvements needed here, yet. Especially since the women’s football world championship will be hosted here in 2011. And it should be the ambition of all investors to present themselves in the most favorable way, particularly in front of an international audience.
