SAP Arena

SAP Arena
Location	Mannheim, Germany
Coordinates	49°27′50.9″N 8°31′04.7″E / 49.464139°N 8.517972°E
Owner	Dietmar Hopp
Capacity	11,000–15,000 (concerts) ; 14,500 (handball) ; 13,900 (basketball) ; 13,600 (ice hockey)
Construction
Broke ground	November, 2002
Opened	September 2, 2005
Construction cost	€ 70 million
Architect	Hentrich – Petschnigg & Partner KG
Tenants
	Adler Mannheim (DEL) (2005–present); Rhein-Neckar Löwen (HBL) (2005–present)

SAP Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Mannheim, Germany. It is primarily used for ice hockey and handball, and is the home arena of the Adler Mannheim ice hockey club and the Rhein-Neckar Löwen handball club. Inaugurated in 2005, the arena has a capacity of up to 15,000 people.^[1] More than a hundred concerts and convention events are hosted at the arena annually. The SAP Arena is one of the largest in Germany and one of the most high-tech in Europe. The arena is named after its sponsor SAP.

In late December 2022, the MLP Academics Heidelberg played against FC Bayern Munich (basketball) there. The Academics drew their record crowd of 10,454 visitors. For each ticket sold, a donation was made to the Courage Foundation for the support of chronically ill children.^[2]

Concerts

Tina Turner performed at the arena on 19 and 20 February 2009 during her Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour.
Depeche Mode has performed at the arena four times: On 7 November 2009 during the Tour of the Universe, on 11 March 2006 during Touring the Angel, on 4 February 2014 during the Delta Machine Tour in front of a sold-out crowd of 11,280 people, and on 30 November 2017 during the Global Spirit Tour.
Sade (band) performed at the Arena on 16 November 2011.
Madonna played a show in front of a sold-out crowd of 10,883 people during her Rebel Heart Tour on 29 November 2015.
Deep Purple performed a show on 11 February 2013 in front of nearly 10,000 people.
Justin Timberlake played a sold-out show in front of 10,476 people during his Man Of The Woods Tour on 13 July 2018.

Services

In January 2018 the SAP Arena became the first multi-purpose arena in Germany that provides location-based services like indoor navigation and proximity marketing to its visitors. Therefore, name sponsor SAP has had the arena equipped with 630 iBeacons by the German technology startup Favendo.^[3]

Transport links

A tram line (number 6) connects the SAP Arena to Mannheim city center and a newly built road connection to the B38a motorway connects it to the A 656 Autobahn, leading to the A656/A 6 interchange, connecting eastbound Mannheim to Heidelberg (A656), and north-southbound to Frankfurt, Karlsruhe and Stuttgart (A6), as well as a little north on the A6 to Kaiserlautern (westbound).