The most unusual marketing coup since deer antlers
This is how Fortuna Düsseldorf wants to make the ticket revolution possible
Fortuna Düsseldorf wants to give all fans free entry to the stadium on a permanent basis. In the coming season, the second division team will not charge any entry fees for at least three home games. Follow the presentation of the concept here.
Fortuna Düsseldorf amazes fans and the football industry. The second division wants to let the spectators in the long term without entering the stadium. There is one thing behind it: extremely clever marketing.
What will actually happen if suddenly everyone can go to the stadium for free? Will it feel different? Nobody knows for sure. After all, it didn’t exist in this form in the Bundesliga before. And certainly not in our imagination.
Fortuna Düsseldorf now dares this experiment. Whereby: “Car” is the wrong word for the second division club’s plan to offer at least three home games in the coming season and then as the ultimate goal within a five-year project maybe even all 17 home games completely free of charge. Fortuna has not committed itself to having to do everything for free in any case. That was clever.
Probably no one will lose in this unusual way – except at most the three sponsors, in case the idea unexpectedly should flop completely. In any case, they will pay the club a basic amount of 45 million euros within the next five years.
The arena, which holds 52,000 spectators, was almost never full to the last seat
Quelle: Getty Images/Frederic Scheidemann
This gives Fortuna planning security. This is important – especially in times when the classic income of many professional clubs is often stagnating (advertising, ticketing, merchandising) or even declining (TV rights).
At the same time, the die-hard fans also win. The partners who are supposed to make the free ticket model possible are not investors. No Ultra has to go to the barricades. And regular visitors even save. In the coming season, for example, you don’t have to pay for the three free spins with your season ticket, but you do have the right to make a reservation. For free. So nothing is taken away from those who always came.
Revolutionary idea?
However, the problem facing Düsseldorf in recent years was that not enough came. Although the average of just under 30,000 is decent for the second division, the arena, which can accommodate 52,000 spectators, was almost never full to the last seat. That should change. At the same time, the chances of being promoted back to the first division should be improved. Because part of the income from the deal should be invested in the team.
The “Fortuna for everyone” project, which caused quite a stir when it was presented, is actually revolutionary. Even if it is not likely to go down well with each of the 36 first and second division teams. What should clubs planning to increase their ticket prices tell their dissatisfied fans? “Then go to Düsseldorf!”? Of course they won’t. Just as the fans of other clubs would hardly go to Düsseldorf just because it might be free there.
The Düsseldorf model cannot be transferred to other Bundesliga locations – at most to a few. So it doesn’t turn the football world upside down. But it could be a club’s answer to its very specific problems. Above all, it is the most unusual idea since liqueur producer Günter Mast (Jägermeister) had the stag’s head printed on Eintracht Braunschweig jerseys in the early 1970s, thereby circumventing the advertising ban at the time. It’s a successful marketing coup. And something like that has always made a big impression in Düsseldorf, which has never been a football stronghold.
