Holding up to 12,000 people, it was also Berlin's largest concert venue, until the opening of O2 World in 2008.

It is part of a larger complex, which includes a swimming pool as well, built in the course of the unsuccessful Berlin application for the 2000 Summer Olympics.

This project is related to the German reunification and the wish of a city, Berlin, about to become the capital, to be nominated for the Olympic Games.

In order to resolve the conjunction of these two systems, the buildings which house the velodrome and the Olympic Swimming Pool vanish from sight.

[3][4] In 1999 and 2020, it hosted the UCI Track Cycling World Championships and has been the site of the annual Six Days of Berlin since then.