Last weekend, 275 qualified wrestlers got ‘into the ring’ again at the Federal Wrestling and Alpine Festival, Switzerand's largest sporting event, from August 26 to 28 in Estavayer. In addition to the wrestling, competitions were also held in stone throwing and Hornussen (an indigenous Swiss sport played with a puck). Some 250,000 culture, sports and festival enthusiasts flocked to Payerne to witness the event live. NUSSLI constructed a temporary arena with 52,016 seats—a record-breaking grandstand—on the military airfield in Payerne for the 2016 Federal Wrestling and Alpine Festival.
NUSSLI was commissioned with the construction of the ‘Arène de la Broye’ by the sponsor-ing association, Estavayer2016, in September 2015. Within just eight weeks, NUSSLI constructed a facility with a total area of 49,000 square meters and a circumference of 800 meters using ten of its own technicians and 80 helpers from the Swiss Army. The grandstand’s base consists of modular scaffolding material made of steel. The entire arena is covered with a total 2,900 tons of system material. The material was provided by a total of 150 trucks from various locations throughout Europe. On average, each technician installed approximately 1.4 tons of material per day.
"This is already my fifth project for the Federal Wrestling and Alpine Festival," said NUSSLI project manager Jörg Sedleger who was responsible for the grandstand facilities in Aarau, Lucerne, Frauenfeld, and Burgdorf. "The construction of a temporary arena with 52,016 seats is not only a milestone for NUSSLI, but it is also the largest arena in Switzerland and the largest temporary grandstand ever built for a three-day event anywhere in the world." The ‘Arène de la Broye’ has a total height of 18 meters and the longest side of the grandstand measures 108 meters. NUSSLI used several if its own proprietary grandstand systems for the construction of the facility, while two systems were supplied by subcontractors. 26 spaces, i.e. half of the entire arena, are covered.
Among the challenges during the construction work for the ‘Arène de la Broye’ were not only the logistics and the tight schedule, but also the inconsistent weather conditions during construction.