Boom in the football lower house
How the 2nd Bundesliga is chasing Real Madrid and FC Barcelona
January 25, 2024, 8:42 p.m
FC Schalke 04 is currently second-class in terms of sport, but the Royal Blues are internationally competitive when it comes to fan popularity. And overall, the 2nd Bundesliga is one of the top 5 in Europe when it comes to audience popularity. The reasons are varied.
Anyone who has ever felt in their stomach how the stadium at Anfield Road in Liverpool is shaking will not soon forget it. Paris St. Germain shines in the Prinzenpark as a global brand far beyond football; at Glasgow Rangers or Atlético Madrid the atmosphere is magical. And yet: All of the above-mentioned atmosphere temples with Champions League aspirations have to rank behind the German second division teams Schalke 04 or Hamburger SV when it comes to the fan rush.
The 2nd league is booming – it is becoming the fifth power in Europe. Klaus Allofs, sports director at Fortuna Düsseldorf, is one of its most prominent voices. “We have many clubs with high sporting ambitions, great pasts and the corresponding stadiums,” says Allofs. “Hertha, Schalke, Hamburg, Kaiserslautern, Hanover, Nuremberg. We also have 52,000 spectators coming in – and they will come against St. Pauli this weekend too.” Fortuna fuels this with its free concept.
With a first-round average of 28,342, the 2nd division even left the French Ligue 1 behind. The Spanish league with the giants Real Madrid and FC Barcelona is only a few hundred spectators away, and the Italian Serie A is also within reach.
Sold out in Düsseldorf, 50,000 spectators in Kaiserslautern and Hamburg, 40,000 in Hanover: If Borussia Dortmund (81,365 spectators) had no home game at the weekend, the 2nd league would probably even be ahead with around 270,000 fans. “Kaiserslautern against Schalke, that’s usually a game at Bundesliga level,” says FCK coach Dimitrios Grammozis. At HSV, Tim Walter raves about the “goosebumps I get just thinking about how much people love this club.”
13 second division teams have already celebrated championship titles
Allofs sees several reasons for the boom. On the one hand, the attractiveness of the clubs, the competition, the stadiums. 22 clubs in the first or second division have arenas with a capacity of over 30,000, nine of which play second division football. Only FC Bayern and BVB are ahead of Schalke in the combined attendance table (more than 61,000).
On the other hand, enormous cut-throat competition is becoming evident. Hoffenheim, Wolfsburg and Leipzig have long since taken over the regular places of traditional clubs “with extraordinary support”. It’s busy downstairs: Only five second division teams have never been champions (St. Pauli, Paderborn, Elversberg, Wehen Wiesbaden and Osnabrück), three have won a European Cup (HSV, Schalke, Magdeburg).
“Many big players were in the first league,” emphasizes Allofs. “And they have the right to come back there. But there is no longer room for everyone.” In addition, sheer size does not guarantee a high budget or success; the corona pandemic has also hit clubs with a high share of ticket sales particularly hard.
And so in the global audience ranking of the “Transfermarkt” portal, Schalke is ahead of Arsenal FC, Hertha BSC just behind PSG, Lautern ahead of Juventus Turin, Hannover next to SSC Napoli, Fortuna ahead of Chelsea FC. Five German second division teams are in the top 50, with others following in places 52 and 53. The only other second division club in this group is AFC Sunderland from England. Of course, if HSV rises, the boom can be put into perspective. On the other hand, 1. FC Köln’s relegation seems likely – the Rhinelanders are in 25th place in the global attendance table.