[1] The first Wörtherseestadion was built in 1960 as the home ground of the old SK Austria Klagenfurt (the later defunct FC Kärnten), a track and field stadium with a capacity of 10,900.

To ensure an economical percentage of seats sold, Haider had contrived the relocation of the Bundesliga team ASKÖ Pasching to Klagenfurt, where, from the 2007–08 season, it played under the name SK Austria Kärnten until its bankruptcy in 2010.

On 16 September 2009 the Carinthian government and Austrian Sport Minister Norbert Darabos agreed to basically maintain the stadium's capacity.

[citation needed] On 21 July 2018, Wörthersee Stadion hosted a 2018 International Champions Cup match between FC Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain.

The stadium was the site of Klaus Littmann's For Forest–The Unending Attraction of Nature, Austria's largest public art installation which took place from 8 September to 27 October 2019.

The exhibition, inspired by Max Peintner's pencil drawing The Unending Attraction of Nature from the 1970s and landscaped by architect Enzo Enea, was a 300-tree Central European forest occupying an entire football pitch.