Hanover 96

[Tummy Burger]

I read NSC regularly but as you can see from my post count rarely comment. However having returned today from Germany after a short trip to visit family, I feel compelled to share the experience.

Hanover 96 v Werder Bremen - 50,000 people , free to drink beer all you like in the ground. Still got terracing and wait for it 6 Quid to get in. Yep 6 Quid to see their premiership. Against a team who beat Real Madrid last week.

Even the beer in the ground is cheap. The fact that it was one of the most entertaining games I have ever seen at 4 -3 also helped. The seats and terracing have places for you to hook your plastic pint mug whilst watching and a bloke comes round with fill ups.

And I didn't see a policeman all day. Can't help thinking weve got it totally wrong in this country.

 

[ATFC Seagull]

6 quid for the German Premiership? Christ, you pay more than that for the Welsh Premier!

 

[Eggman]

No surprise. Watched a game in Cologne, the whole experience was excellent. We are ripped off and treated like moron's in this country.

 

[Tummy Burger]

Dont get me wrong. That is the cheapest. The brother - in - laws season ticket is 110 quid on the terracing behind the goal. But I would guess 90 percent of the ground is cheaper than our cheapest.

 

[Kukev31]

Germany has it spot on for fans, such a shame we can't take note over here.

 

[Half Man Half Biscuit]

I went to see a game at Hanover 96 last season. They sold these in the club shop. Really, what is not to like!? :

 

[Gyuribá]

And Huszti is good

 

[Man of Harveys]

This bloke always writes a very, very good column - and incidentally has penned one of the greatest football books ever written, according to the Guardian. This one goes a long way to back up what's been said above - as does the one where the Bundesliga had the highest average goals per game in Europe...for the 15th year running.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=449154&root=europe&cc=5739

Do the Hannover fans still do that song to the tune of Show Me The Way To Amarillo? Possibly the CAMPEST chant I've ever heard, quite superb.

 

[Simster]

The only shit things about the Bundesliga are as follows:

a) not many real superstars play there because of the lack of megabucks. Still, if every other league took notice, this wouldn't be an issue really.
b) they have that stupid "fan friend" culture, where seemingly every club's fans has to be chummy with the fans of one other club for no apparent reason.

Everything else just seems ACES. Huge crowds, cheap admission etc

 

[Göttingen gull]

i went to 7 games at the awd arena last season including a 5 nil hammering of hertha berlin.
Fabulous ground, cheap tickets, terraces, good atmosphere and you can drink whilst you watch the game.. what more could you want? well... a good standard of football would have been nice, but i was always far too pissed to care.

when they beat bremen at the weekend, did all the fans get their keys out at one point and start jingling them at the away fans? never really understood what that was all about. 96.. alte liebe!

 

[Storer68]

The only shit things about the Bundesliga are as follows:

a) not many real superstars play there because of the lack of megabucks. Still, if every other league took notice, this wouldn't be an issue really.
b) they have that stupid "fan friend" culture, where seemingly every club's fans has to be chummy with the fans of one other club for no apparent reason.

Everything else just seems ACES. Huge crowds, cheap admission etc

Although i have to say that the "stupid fan freind " clulture is rellay their atempt to "reclaim the game from the hooligans that marred the budesliga in the 70s and 80s.


And to me ityseems a touch more prefereable than being beaten to a pulp by a gang of kaiseslauten fans


Vorwarts 1.FC Koln

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Premier League clubs in this country would have you believe that the reason German clubs haven't done that well in Europe in recent years is because the low income from ticket prices (compared to English clubs) means they struggle to attract international class players to the Bundesliga.

I'd be interested to learn what percentage of, say, Arsenal or Man United's income derives from ticket sales then, as I have a hunch that it's a drop in the ocean compared to what they make from TV revenue or merchandising.

The big English clubs have no justification for prices being as high as they are, but they don't want you to know that.

 

[Tummy Burger]

when they beat bremen at the weekend, did all the fans get their keys out at one point and start jingling them at the away fans? never really understood what that was all about. 96.. alte liebe![/QUOTE]

Yes they did. At first I was unsure what it was about, but has been explained now. They did it to the away fans when they were 3 - 1 up to suggest that they should get their car keys out and go home.... suggesting its all over. Amusing that they came back to 3 - 3. Have to say I thought it was quality because they all did it.

Edna - Totally agree with what you say about the prem gate receipts.
They genuinely care about the fans over there.

After the game the players did a lap of honour and then started to wander off the pitch. The fans booed them , to suggest that they wanted them back out. The players had to come back in front of the fans and sit down on the pitch and wait for the " Main Singing Fans " to chant a song to them. The players then jumped about along with the song. IT WAS BIZARRE ..... But can you imagine the premiership players doing that. Me Thinks Not. It's hard to describe it unless you see it for yourself.

AND AT THE SAME COST AS A BRIGHTON AWAY GAME FOR A FLIGHT AND TICKET...... I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMEND IT.

 

[house your seagull]

...
b) they have that stupid "fan friend" culture, where seemingly every club's fans has to be chummy with the fans of one other club for no apparent reason.
.../QUOTE]

i'm a hertha fan (not the hot dogs!) and i went to the hertha v hansa rostock about 18 months ago, those were not chum fans. but then rostock is rough. and berlin's pretty rough in places to be fair, apparently their 'firm' are called the frogs!

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I have been living in Berlin for the past 6 months and have attended all the Hertha BSC home games plus one away so far. I really cannot express how great German football is. It is an absolute joy to go. Seemingly none of the hassles of English football exist in the Bundesliga. I feel a lot of it is to do with German culture filtering into football. Pride in the service people offer, friendly, fair prices for quality product etc.
Plus, those toasters are ace. Hertha do one which emblazons your bread with a Hertha BSC logo.....utter genius.
Highlights:
1) The facilities are first class (Germany has the most grade A FIFA venues of any country).

2) Reasonably priced. In general where I find everyone in Britain is trying to squeeze the last penny out of you in Germany one tends to pay and appropriate price for a quality product. Further access to tickets is easy with no bun fight. I'm not sure what they would make of the Albion's ticket office.

3) You can drink, eat sausage, one rarely has to queue. Again, I find services take pride in making sure you get served quickly.......as opposed to cutting down the number of access points to save money. The beer comes in a plastic beeker which you pay a deposit on. Most people I know just leave them in the ground but young kids pick them up, get the deposit back and can afford to go to the next game. So, the beeker is recycled, the ground gets cleared of beekers for free and the kids can afford to get tickets. So simple.

4) Public transport to and from the Olympiastadion is excellent. At the S-Bahn station they have a huge number of terminal platforms with trains lined up leaving at 5 minute intervals. I am out the ground and on a train back to the centre within 10 minutes of leaving my seat. They have this bizarre concept in Germany where the public transport works with and for public need.

5) Whilst the Olympiastadion does not have terracing the other two grounds I have been to do: Hamburg and Nurnburg. The Hamburg is a brilliantly simple design which can be used on any stand where the steps are configured for regular seating.

6) The atmosphere is a lot better, and the grounds are more colourful. Everyone seems to carry and 'use' a scarf. People swing them round there heads, hold them up...it makes a huge difference. Further, all the grounds I have been to in Germany are out of town....thus have a lot of land around them where they set up stalls, beer tents, grills and invariably pump out some heavy rock....it all adds to the atmosphere.

I could go on.

Two world wars and one world cup....trust me....he who laughs last....

 

[Gwylan]

5) Whilst the Olympiastadion does not have terracing the other two grounds I have been to do: Hamburg and Nurnburg. The Hamburg is a brilliantly simple design which can be used on any stand where the steps are configured for regular seating.
..

That must have changed for the World Cup. I've stood on terracing at Hertha Berlin in the 90s.


I can only endorse what everyone else has said on this thread. The German football experience beats anything served up in this country. In fact, this thread has made me itchy to go and see a Bundesliga game again.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

The ground was revamped, very tastefully, for the World Cup. It is now all-seater with a roof.

It is my last Berlin game Saturday..against Bayern.....I return to the UK in Jan...it is going to be very sad to leave.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

The only downer appears to be the stonewashed denim waistcoats embroidered with club patches and enamel badges that seem so popular with our Teutonic friends.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I find them amusing to be honest. Pre-match, most of the games I have been to are a cross between a heavy metal festival and a footy match. Hamburg even have a DJ in a cherry picker high above the terrace blasting out metal anthems.

Attila in a cherry picker anyone?