Vienna Sports - Teams & Venues
As befits a capital city, Vienna boasts a number of prominent clubs in various sports. (Ironically, however, the city is lacking in substantial venues for Austria's main and most successful sport - skiing.)
Football
(Or soccer, for any visitors to the site from North America.)
Vienna has some of Austria's oldest and most successful football clubs and, as the largest city, has a fierce cross-town rivalry between the two main teams.
In recent years however the dominance of the Vienna clubs has been threatened by large-scale although sometimes temporary investment made in teams in other parts of the country (e.g. Innsbruck, Salzburg and Graz).
Although international matches are often played at venues around the
country, the home stadium of the national team is the Ernst Happel
stadium, located in the Prater Park and pictured above.
Underground station: Stadion
Rapid Wien
Rapid Vienna get mentioned first - for outraged Austria fans - because they are the oldest club and for the fact that they have a club website with an English section.
SK Rapid Wien were founded in the last year of the 19th century and are known as the "Hütteldorfer" after the location of the stadium or "Grün-Weiss" after their traditional green and white shirts.
Rapid have been crowned champions of the Austrian League 32 times
and reached the European Cup-Winners' Cup final twice. They play at
the Gerhard-Hanappi Stadium in the
western 14th District of Vienna.
Underground station: Hütteldorf
Website: www.skrapid.at (English version
available)
Austria Wien
Austria Wien (strangely the Austria is Anglicised but the Vienna not) are the great city rivals of Rapid.
FK Austria Wien are known as the "Veilchen" - the Violets - after their strip and have won the Austrian Championship 23 times and reached the final of the European Cup-Winners' Cup once.
They play, after a somewhat nomadic existence, in the Franz Horr Stadium
in the south of Vienna near the Sudosttangente motorway.
Underground station:
Reumannplatz (this is a fair walk from the stadium but buses and trams
are available)
Website: www.fk-austria.at
First Vienna
First Vienna is the oldest of the Viennese clubs but in recent decades very much a poor third in performance. They were founded in 1894 and played the first game at their current Hohe Warte ground there in that year.
The club currently play in Austria's second division (as is the custom
nowadays confusingly named the Erste Liga - First League) after a spell
in the lower leagues. They are known as the "Döblinger" after the location
of the ground in the suburb of Döbling. The club have won the Austrian
championships six times.
Underground station: Heiligenstadt
Website: www.firstviennafc.at
Ice Hockey
The Vienna Capitals are an ice hockey team in the top Austrian league
with a relatively young history, having only been founded in the year
2000. They won the Austrian championship in 2005 and play in the Albert
Schultz Eishalle in the Kagran part of Vienna.
Underground station: Kagran
Website: www.vienna-capitals.at
(The Albert Schultz Eishalle is also home to the successful EHV Sabres and the Vienna Flyers women's hockey teams. The traditional and historic WEV men's ice hockey club no longer exists in any meaningful form.)
American Football
The Vienna Vikings - currently known as the Dacia Vikings Vienna
- were founded in 1983. They play in the Austrian league at the same
Hohe Warte stadium as the First Vienna football club and have won the
Austrian championship 10 times and the Eurobowl (usually against German
teams) four times.
Underground station: Heiligenstadt
Website: daciavikings.com
Volleyball
The Vienna hotVolleys are Vienna's volleyball team - a sport which
is very popular in central and Eastern Europe. They play, among other
competitions, in the Central European MEVZA
league along with their Austrian rivals from Innsbruck and teams
from Eastern European countries. Their home matches take place at the
Budocenter
Wien in the southern part of the city.
Underground station: Tscherttegasse
Website: www.hotvolleys.at
Map
With the map of Vienna and the stadiums and home venues below, you can zoom in or out or move in all directions by using the controls to the left. And the buttons on the top right switch between a traditional map view, a satellite view and a mixture of the two.