Tonight, Nottingham Forest play Sk (Sportsclub) Sturm Graz. Two reasons why this is important; 1. I have never written about them in all my years of blogging: first Blog 13th March 2014. A good friend of mine is a Forest fan, so I dedicate this to him! Good Luck Geoff. Gibbs-White has just missed a penalty!
Sportklub Sturm Graz is an Austrian professional football club, based in Graz, playing in the Austrian Football Bundesliga. Austrian Bundesliga. The club was founded in 1909. Graz is situated on both sides of the river Mur in southeast Austria. It is about 150 km (93 mi) southwest of Vienna (Wien).
In its history, Sturm Graz has won the Austrian football championship five times, in 1998, 1999, 2011, 2024 and 2025, and participated several times in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. Their biggest rivals are Graz neighbours Grazer AK, with whom they share their stadium, the Merkur Arena.
The first Liebenau Stadion was built before World War II. In the 1950s it was renovated and expanded with a skating rink (now home of the ice hockey team Graz 99ers) and an indoor pool. A motorcycle speedway track was constructed around the pitch and hosted qualifying rounds of the Speedway World Championship in 1965 and 1970. In the 1970s it became home ground of the big football clubs of Graz, SK Sturm and Grazer AK. The stadium was demolished to make way for a new one.
In 1996, construction began on the new stadium, which was to be named after bodybuilder, actor and former governor of the U.S. state of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was born near Graz. It was built from 1996 to early 1997 and is owned by Stadion Liebenau Betriebs GmbH. It opened with t he game Grazer AK vs. SK Sturm Graz, on 9 July 1997 (0:4).
In December 2005, when Schwarzenegger did not stop the execution of Stanley Tookie Williams, an intense discussion in his hometown began about what to do with the stadium that bore his name. After some days, Schwarzenegger revoked the city of Graz's right to the use of his name, ending the debate. On the night of 26 December 2005 the name was removed from the stadium. The remaining part Stadion Graz-Liebenau was removed on 17 February 2006 and on 18 February 2006 the stadium was renamed to UPC-Arena. In March 2016 the Austrian insurance company Merkur Versicherung secured the rights to bear a name and the stadium was renamed to Merkur-Arena.
In 2023, the city of Graz renamed the forecourt of the Merkur Arena to Ivica-Osim-Platz ('Ivica-Osim-Square'), a long time player and trainer of SK Sturm Graz, who had died the previous year.
The Merkur-Arena has an official capacity of 15,400 in 27 sectors. At Champions League games of the SK Sturm Graz, some additional platforms were built so that the stadium had a capacity of 16,000 spectators. Furthermore, the stadium has a wheelchair area. The first game in the "new" UPC-Arena was the 125th derby between SK Sturm Graz and Grazer AK (won by 4:0). The field equipped with undersoil heating has a size of 105 x 68 metres.
The stadium hosted a World Cup qualifier between Austria and Faroe Islands on 5 September 2009 which ended in 3–1 victory for the home team. It also hosted an international friendly between England and Japan on 30 May 2010. England had been training in Irdning, a small village in the Austrian Alps, in preparation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The match ended 2–1 to England, courtesy of two own goals by Japan.
| 9 January 1995 | |
| Opened | 9 July 1997 |
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