June 2026 News From the 13th Stadium to a Professional Stadium
In the summer of 2006, soccer fans watched the World Cup in a stadium that wasn’t on any official schedule: the adidas World of Football in front of the Reichstag in Berlin, designed and built by NUSSLI. Twenty years after the “Summer Fairy Tale,” the Swiss company is building complete temporary soccer stadiums for professional use—most recently the Ibercaja Estadio for Real Zaragoza, the first stadium of its kind in Spain.
The 13th Stadium of the 2006 World Cup
Twelve stadiums hosted the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, and a thirteenth stood on Platz der Republik. Adidas’s brief: a miniature version of Berlin’s Olympic Stadium on a 1:3 scale, as the centerpiece of a roughly 40,000 m² interactive experience. Working closely with the client, NUSSLI developed the stadium and introduced numerous system innovations—such as the roof, whose curves and span had never before been realized on this scale.
80 employees installed approximately 1,200 metric tons of steel; the venue could accommodate over 10,000 people, plus VIP and hospitality areas just like in the real World Cup stadiums. All 64 matches were broadcast here, and on days without matches, artists including the Black Eyed Peas and James Blunt performed. With the “Summer Fairy Tale,” public viewing in its current form took hold—and the World of Football remains one of the most famous fan zones to this day.
From Watching to Playing
The stadium in front of the Reichstag had everything a stadium should have—except that no games were played there. Goals were scored at the Olympic Stadium, and celebrations took place in front of the big screen. That’s exactly what has changed over the past 20 years: Temporary stadiums are no longer just backdrops, but fully-fledged venues where professional soccer is played. This is made possible by modular construction systems, short construction times, and facilities that meet all the requirements of league play—from floodlights to locker rooms. After the game or at the end of the season, the stadium is dismantled, and the materials are reused in the next project.
'World of Football' was a stadium built for spectators—today we build stadiums where the ball actually rolls. Back in 2006, it would have been unthinkable for a club to play its home games in a temporary stadium for two seasons. Today, it’s a tried-and-true solution.
A complete stadium in just over 100 days
The Ibercaja Estadio illustrates the extent of this trend. While the historic La Romareda Stadium is being rebuilt for the 2030 World Cup, Real Zaragoza will play its home games in a temporary stadium with 20,000 seats for two seasons. NÜSSLI planned and built the facility in a joint venture with the Spanish construction company MLN Mariano López Navarro: four grandstands covering a total area of 120 × 80 meters, floodlights, scoreboards, locker rooms, press and VIP areas, food and beverage facilities, and a merchandise shop. Construction began in early 2025, and in just over 100 days of actual construction time, a complete stadium was built—and by summer, the ball was rolling.
What remains: the moment in the stands
Between the miniature Olympic Stadium of 2006 and the professional stadium of 2025 lie 20 years of development in temporary construction—from the BRITA Arena in Wiesbaden to the airberlin world for the Eurovision Song Contest in Düsseldorf, to name just two. What remains is the essence: structures erected for a limited time so that people can share a moment together—whether at a public viewing in front of the Reichstag or at a home game in Zaragoza. Built, used, dismantled, reused—ready for the next “summer fairy tale.”