Borussia Dortmund Converts Stadium Into Coronavirus Treatment Center

Dortmund players took a pay cut on March 25 as the Bundesliga is suspended indefinitely due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Borussia Dortmund announced plans on Friday to convert part of its home stadium into a COVID-19 treatment center.

The north end of Signal Iduna Park will be used to care for patients, distribute prescriptions and give disability benefits, per The Independent. 

“Our stadium is the figurehead of the city, a fixed point for almost everyone in Dortmund and the surrounding area and, thanks to its technical, infrastructural and spatial conditions, the ideal place to actively help people who are potentially infected by coronavirus,” Dortmund executives Hans-Joachim Watzke and Carsten Cramer said in a statement on Friday. 

Borussia Dortmund, in cooperation with KVWL, will renovate the North Stand of the Signal Iduna Park to serve as a treatment center for suspected COVID-19 patients. pic.twitter.com/oJLBHcYi3J

— Borussia Dortmund (@BlackYellow) April 3, 2020

Dortmund sat No. 2 in the Bundesliga standings when league play was suspended on March 13. Bundesliga is suspended until at least April 30, though play is unlikely to resume before May 1. Both Dortmund and Bayern Munich players took pay cuts during the league's hiatus on March 25.

There are more than 1 million confirmed cases of the virus globally across at least 171 countries.