Hertha Berlin are set to announce plans for a new stadium in early-2017, with the German club hoping to leave the Olympiastadion when their current contract with the city of Berlin expires in 2025.
Hertha are enjoying a second consecutive season in the Bundesliga, with the club currently part of a five-team chasing pack all on 21 points -- six behind leaders RB Leipzig and three behind second-placed Bayern Munich.
As Hertha continue to build for their future on and off the pitch, plans to leave the 74,475-seater Olympiastadion have reached a new stage, club president Werner Gegenbauer said during a meeting with fans on Monday.
"We have the first preliminary studies," Gegenbauer said. "We have the first scouting results for locations for a new stadium. We will make public the results in January and February and name locations. It's a fact that we are working on it intensively."
Hertha are contracted to the city-owned Olympiastadion until 2025, and earlier in the year discussed leaving the stadium before prolonging the partnership, which was set to expire in 2017, by eight more years.
With only limited locations to build a new stadium within the city limits, it is also possible that Hertha could leave Berlin altogether and relocate to the nearby state of Brandenburg.
"It would be more contemporary and it would do us good to have a football arena," Hertha executive Paul Keuter told ESPN FC last month, but insisted that the club does not want to "backtrack to the stance that it's difficult [to win supporters] because the Olympiastadion is not that attractive."
Last season, Hertha sold out their stadium only two times and welcomed an average crowd of 46,846 to the Olympiastadion.
Things have improved this season -- although the club have failed to attract a capacity crowd so far, the average attendance has gone up to 52,213 in their first five home games.