Stadium guide

RB Leipzig stadium guide for visitors

Union Berlin's ground was rebuilt by 2,300 volunteers. RB Leipzig has 21 members. Both are true, and together they explain German football better than either alone.

6 min read Facts last checked 28 Aug 2026

The short version. RB Leipzig play at the Red Bull Arena, capacity 47,800, built inside the earthworks of the old Zentralstadion. It is a modern, comfortable, easy ground to visit — and the most argued-about club in Germany. Union Berlin's stadium was rebuilt by 2,300 volunteers. RB Leipzig has 21 members. Both statements are true, and together they explain German football better than either does alone.

The Red Bull Arena from the air: an oval stadium with a white roof sitting inside the grass embankments of a much larger older bowl, with a river and the Leipzig skyline behind — The modern arena sitting inside the earth bank of the old Zentralstadion. You walk in across the top of that embankment. Photo by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons.

The exception that explains the rule

German clubs are owned by their members under the 50+1 rule: the members' association must keep majority voting control, which is why German clubs are membership organisations rather than assets. It is the reason tickets are cheap and terraces still exist.

RB Leipzig complies with the letter of it. The registered association does hold voting control. It simply has, by most accounts, around 21 voting members, essentially all connected to the company that founded the club.

The scale of the gap is easier to feel with a comparison. Membership of Borussia Dortmund costs an adult somewhere around sixty euros a year and comes with a vote. At Leipzig, a paid supporter membership has been offered at around a thousand euros a year — and does not come with a vote at all.

Germany's Federal Cartel Office called this a circumvention in 2023 and has continued to press the league to require genuinely open voting membership. The argument is live and unresolved.

None of that is a reason not to go. It is the reason this ground is interesting: you are visiting the place where the central question in German football is being tested.

What the reception is actually like

You should know before you travel that RB Leipzig is disliked across German football in a way that has no real equivalent elsewhere in this series. Visiting supporters at other grounds display banners about it; some ultra groups boycott the fixture entirely.

Inside the Red Bull Arena, none of that is aimed at you. The home crowd is normal, the stewarding is professional, and a neutral visitor has an easy afternoon. But if you have read about German fan culture and expect terraces, tifos and a century of continuity, this is the one ground in the country where you will not find them — and that absence is the story.

Getting there

On foot: the arena sits just west of the city centre, about twenty minutes' walk from the main station across the ring. This is unusual for a stadium of this size and it is the best way in.
By tram: lines serve the Sportforum stops beside the ground.
From Berlin: around an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half by fast train. Leipzig is comfortably a day trip from Berlin.
From Poland: reachable via Berlin; from Wrocław the road route across Saxony is straightforward.

Tickets

The German pattern applies: no card to hold, no identification number demanded, but a queue. Season-ticket holders and members are served first and general sale opens some weeks before the match. Buy from the club's official site.

Leipzig is one of the easier big-club tickets in Germany. The club is young, the membership is small by German standards, and forty-eight thousand seats absorb a lot of demand. For a visitor who wants a Bundesliga ground without a fight, this is a sensible first choice — which is worth weighing against everything above.

Where away fans sit

Away supporters are allocated a section in one corner of the ground; the arrangement is set per fixture according to the policing category of the match, so confirm your specific game. Neutrals should take a side stand.

The ground itself

The Red Bull Arena is built inside the old Zentralstadion — a vast 1950s bowl whose earth embankments were raised partly from wartime rubble, and which once held a six-figure crowd. The modern stadium sits in the middle of that hollow, and you walk in across bridges over the old bank. It is an unusual and rather good piece of design, and the most interesting thing about the architecture.

Inside it is a clean, modern, fully covered forty-eight-thousand-seat arena. Comfortable, and without much character of its own.

Eating and drinking at the ground

Bratwurst and Currywurst, pretzels, and full-strength beer in reusable cups against a deposit — you pay a Pfand and get it back on return.

As at most German grounds, expect a cashless stadium card: load it at a kiosk on the way in and cash out the balance at the end.

Leipzig before the match

The Monument to the Battle of the Nations in Leipzig, floodlit at night: a colossal stepped stone tower with giant guardian figures near the top, reflected in the long still pool in front of it — The Völkerschlachtdenkmal. Ninety-one metres of dark stone commemorating the 1813 Battle of the Nations. Photo by Stein53, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

What to see

Leipzig is one of the most rewarding cities in eastern Germany and is not, whatever the football suggests, a new place:

The Nikolaikirche — where the Monday demonstrations began in 1989. The peaceful protests that started in this church spread across the country and ended the East German state. If you visit one thing in Leipzig, visit this.
The Thomaskirche — Bach was cantor here for twenty-seven years and is buried in the church. The choir he directed still sings.
The Völkerschlachtdenkmal — a colossal monument to the 1813 Battle of the Nations, ninety-one metres of dark stone that has to be seen to be believed.
The Spinnerei — a former cotton mill in Plagwitz, now a large complex of galleries and studios, and the centre of the city's art scene.

What to eat and drink

Leipziger Allerlei — a spring vegetable dish, traditionally with morels and crayfish. Rarely made properly; worth ordering where it is.
Leipziger Lerche — a shortcrust pastry with marzipan, named after the songbird dish it replaced when the birds were protected in the nineteenth century.
Gose — a sour, salty, coriander-spiced wheat beer specific to this city. It nearly died out twice and is now brewed again.
Auerbachs Keller — the cellar restaurant that appears in Goethe's Faust, and yes, it is touristy, and yes, it is still worth doing once.

Common questions

Should I go, given the controversy?

That is your call and this guide will not make it for you. What it will say is that understanding German football requires understanding the argument, and the argument is easier to understand from inside the ground than from a distance.

Is it an easy ticket?

By German standards, yes — one of the easier big-club grounds to get into.

How does it combine with other grounds?

Berlin is an hour and a quarter away, which makes Leipzig and Union Berlin a natural and extremely instructive pair. Do them in that order if you can.

The ground where German football argues with itself, an hour from Berlin. Add the Red Bull Arena to your bucket list and pair it with Union.