Will Dortmund Fans boycott the Schalke derby?
By: Clarissa | September 5th, 2010News are making the rounds that Dortmund fans are planning a boycott of the big Ruhr derby against Schalke on September the 19th!
The reason for this apparently is that Schalke have raised the ticket prices for the away fans by 50 percent, it is claimed (do they need to find new means to pay the Huntelaar transfer?).
198 Dortmund fangroups have now joined the boycott. The boycott was announced by Daniel Lörcher of the The Unity supporter group and Marc Quambusch of the Borussen Sailors Hamburg:
“Ticket prices have dramatically increased for the Derby. Standing comes in at 22€, and seats are on sale for an average price of 55€. We believe that this is an attempt to establish higher ticket prices altogether, we have decided to fight this.”
The statement continues:
“It is not an action taken against Gelsenkirchen (where the fans are also touched by those problems) but against a long term development, which is gonna harm football at large. We understand the Derby boycott only as a beginning to more actions to follow under the label “Kein Zwanni für nen Steher” (Twenty-Euro for standing – no way!). Our long-term objective is a fair pricing system in every stadium in Germany.”
So this action is not directed against Schalke, but it looks like this might be the start of a broader campaign in the Bundesliga, with apparently several more actions being planned. Several Bundesliga clubs (including Dortmund!) have raised their ticket prices over the last couple of years or charge extra for especially interesting games, even though they’re still well below what you pay in other major leagues like the Premier League.
Even coach Jürgen Klopp has come out in support of the fans. Fans that have already bought tickets will get a refund from the club.
There are however questions how effective this boycott will be, considering the huge demand for the tickets. Still it could be quite a different atmosphere at the derby this time round. We’ll have to see how this story develops…
Category: Team News
Comments
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With such a demand for this huge match I’m sure someone will cough up the money and it’ll be a sell out. For the protesting groups it is a wise decision though. What better way to garner media attention than to announce a boycott of the biggest derby in Germany?
It is sad that in a bad economy the clubs continue to raise ticket prices. From their perspective though if they are easily selling out every home match and have a crazy amount of season ticket holders (I think Dortmund has 55,000 season tickets right now) then they are offering the product too cheaply.
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Yeah, the returned ticket will be returned (ugh, double return) to open sale. Still, it will be most colourful fans which will not go, which is sad, because they contribute so much to the atmosphere of the derby.
I agree that many of the big clubs are offering the tickets too cheaply considering what you pay in other leagues, but the low prices have, imho, contributed very much to the great fanculture and atmosphere that makes the Bundesliga so attractive.
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