Ernst Happel Stadium — Attraction in Vienna

The unfortunate reality is that if you want to go and see a specific band you sometimes have no choice but to go to Ernst Happel.

The positive is that it's very easy to reach on public transport and in the main the staff are very helpful.

But €4.50 for half a litre of mineral water, the equivalent of €16 per litre of cola, is outrageous. It's not possible to take drinks inside, so as a captive audience on sometimes very warm conditions, you have the choice of either queueing for half an hour for massively overpriced refreshments, or collapsing with heat exhaustion and dehydration and being carted off by the Red Cross and being given free water. The third option is to refill your cup with water from the sinks in the toilet. Doesn't say anywhere that it's not drinking water and it's very cold and good to drink. So null points for shameless exploitation.

I understand that the stadium is first and foremost a sports stadium, but if you're going to use it for concerts as well, you need to do something about the sound quality. Last week I left the Bon Jovi concert early as the sound was too awful to stand. Last night at the Pink concert it was somewhat better, but still pretty dire. If she didn't have such an outstanding stage show I would probably have left early again. For the future I'm considering sitting outside the stadium where the sound quality is better and you don't pay an arm and a leg for a ticket and refreshments.

Smoking ban? What smoking ban? Everywhere you looked people were smoking. There's no point in moving elsewhere to avoid it, as wherever you go, people are smoking. So if you're going to have a ban, enforce it. We politely pointed out to some people that smoking is prohibited. They politely agreed, then smoked anyway. I was finally so fed up that I went to find a steward. The stewards were very apologetic, but said that all they can do is ask people not to smoke. It took a fair amount of cajoling to convince one of them to come with me. Very reluctantly he asked the smokers to stop. With no success at all.

So you have a stadium with a police presence, plus stewards, and no one does anything. If you're not going to enforce the rule, don't have it. I know it's not the easiest thing to do, but if you have people walking through the crowd, asking people to stop, and if you do that repeatedly, they'll eventually get the message. The police stand around in case they're needed. Many of the stewards also have time once the concert has started, to walk around. So it's not as if there are no free personnel there. You could even try making an announcement before the concert, reminding people that what they're doing is illegal.

So all in all, thank you Pink, you were amazing. As far as going back to the stadium is concerned, it's going to have to be an outstanding occasion, otherwise it boils down to a very expensive evening that is simply not...

Im sorry to leave this bad review here on the google page of the stadium as I quite like the stadium itself. Its a bit old and rickety but has a certain charm and the atmosphere was decent as the game was sold out (Austria vs Sweden Euro Qualifier). The reason for this bad review was the concession stand in the stadium during the game.

I have been to football games all over the world and I have never experienced such a poorly organised and mismanaged food/drink stand. The company running the stand was called "Gourmet Event". I waited in line for 70 (!!!) minutes to get a drink during the match. The wait was so long that I made friends while standing in line so I suppose that was a plus. When was finally able to place my order, I was informed that there was no beer left...

I felt for the people working behind the bar (4 staff for a section of around 5000 people) as it was obviously not their fault that the company running the stand were so ill prepared for the event.

The experience was so bad that I would probably not attend another game in the stadium in...

The stadium is not too old but already an "adult" (it was built or renovated probably for the UEFA Euro 2008), but anyway, it is not the most modern one. I have been to three concerts here, the first ones were a couple of years ago and the last one in 2024 (Guns n Roses, AC/DC). I must say that the parking is not good in the neighborhood (as I saw, the stadium's own outside parking area is under construction now). The sound quality is also not as good as it used to be. If I remember correctly, there used to be huge Marshall towers, but now there are smaller, newer speakers that cannot provide the same sound quality. The worst thing was the buffet: there were extremely long lines due to insufficient service...