The Hamburger Sport-Verein e. V., Hamburger SV for short or just HSV, is a sports club from the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. It was formed on June 2, 1919 through the merger of the three clubs SC Germania from 1887, Hamburger FC from 1888 and FC Falke 06. According to the statutes, the traditional founding date is September 29, 1887, the founding date of SC Germania in 1887. With (as of April 26, 2022) almost 87,000 members in more than 30 departments, HSV is the ninth largest sports club in Germany and ranked 19th worldwide. The HSV is primarily a mass sports club whose purpose is to "promote sport". The club colors are "Blue, White, Black." The playing attire consists – as far as the sport being practiced allows – of “a white shirt with the club badge, red shorts and blue socks with a black-and-white vertical striped border.” HSV originally comes from the Rotherbaum district in the Eimsbüttel district. The headquarters are now located within the district of Altona in the district of Bahrenfeld in the premises of the Volksparkstadion. HSV also has sports facilities in Norderstedt, Schleswig-Holstein. HSV became known for its professional soccer department, which has been spun off into HSV Fußball AG since 2014. HSV was consistently represented in the top division from its foundation in 1919 until the 2017/18 season. In addition, it was the only club of the 16 founding members of the Bundesliga to have played in the top German division for almost 55 years, from the 1963/64 season until its relegation on May 12, 2018. This earned the club the nickname "Bundesliga Dino" in the new millennium. In the all-time table, HSV is fourth (as of matchday 34, 2020/21). On a national level, the Hamburgers are one of the most successful football clubs, having won six German championships, three DFB Cups and two League Cups. Internationally, the club won the European Cup Winners' Cup in the 1976/77 season and the European Champion Clubs' Cup in the 1982/83 season, and also reached three other European finals. The first team plays their home games in the Volksparkstadion and played second-rate for the first time in the 2018/19 season.
The site in the Bahrenfeld district of Hamburg has been used as a stadium site since the 1920s, first by the city of Altona and later by the city of Hamburg as a municipal stadium. After the Second World War in 1953, the Volksparkstadion was built through renovations with an initial capacity of 76,000 seats. Rebuilt for the 1974 World Cup and provided with a new grandstand with 61,000 seats. The semi-final of the 1988 European Championship between the German national team and the Netherlands also took place here.
HSV already played important games in the 1950s, such as final round games for the German championship and European Cup games in the Volkspark. In 1963, when the Bundesliga was founded, HSV moved from its traditional Rothenbaum sports field in downtown Hamburg to the Volkspark for its league games. With a capacity of 28,000 visitors, the Rothenbaum was too small and did not meet the requirements of the newly founded Bundesliga.
In 1998, HSV acquired the site from the city of Hamburg and built a club-owned stadium at its own expense while games were still in operation. This was completed in 2000 and enabled the city to apply for games for the 2006 World Cup. Since then, HSV has been able to increase its average attendance per home game from 32,000 to over 52,000 visitors.
In addition to various international football matches, various other events such as concerts and American football games also took place. Wladimir Klitschko also boxed against David Haye in a sold-out stadium in 2011. (Source: hsv.de)