FC Schalke is popular again. More and more fans want to see the leaders of the second division. The club wants to do justice to this – by converting the arena. The supporters’ beer consumption also plays an important role in the considerations.
Youri Mulder also wanted to capture these moments. After the tenth win of the season against Paderborn (2-1), Schalke’s sports director pulled out his cell phone and filmed the scenes after the final whistle from the Schalke boss’s box. When he watches this video again later, he will see an exuberant coach Miron Muslic, a Nikola Katic jumping for joy, fans filled with happiness, pure euphoria. “I’ve never experienced anything like this. It’s beyond words,” said striker Moussa Sylla.
A week later there was a 2-0 away win in Düsseldorf, the Revierklub is top of the table in the second division after 15 match days and is experiencing in these weeks how wonderful success is. Not just on the pitch, not just in Youri Mulder’s videos. It’s a real Schalke boom.
There were around 80,000 ticket requests for the game against Paderborn – without the so-called “hospitality seats”. Including these visitors and around 4,500 guest fans, the club could have sold around 100,000 tickets. Last week, at the away game in Münster, there were more than 20,000 inquiries. Because the stadium there is being rebuilt, it currently only holds 10,500 fans. Schalke could have completely filled the stadium twice on their own.
More standing room in the arena
Due to this volume of requests, the club is examining options to increase capacity in the home arena. The idea: The standing area is enlarged and also fills the two corners in the lower tier. There is currently a small seating area directly to the right and left of the north curve. In the future, fans could also stand there – up to the height of the corner flag.
The total of around 800 seats would give way to around 2,000 standing places. Because the club feels that younger fans in particular really want to stand in the north curve, those responsible want to increase the chances of getting tickets for it.
And there could also be structural changes on the other side of the stadium. Because many opponents do not fully use the guest area (6,000 seats), Schalke wants to design the guest block in such a way that its boundaries can be moved flexibly. If a club like Elversberg travels with around 2,000 fans, the standing area should be significantly smaller – and instead offer space for Schalke fans.
These facts speak in favor of expanding the stadium
- Football under coach Muslic is not always necessarily pretty. And yet everyone wants to see him. The approximately 4,000 VIP tickets have always been sold out. Even in the first division, especially in games against Wolfsburg or Hoffenheim, this was far from always the case, when the occupancy rate was sometimes around 90 percent. This results in a loss of income of around 100,000 euros per game – which the club no longer has.
- Since the start of the season, 16 new sponsors have been acquired, around a third of these companies only agreed during the season after they saw that the club’s path seemed to be heading upwards.
- Compared to the previous year, the league leaders have so far sold 30 percent more jerseys – which also has a huge impact from an economic perspective. Every year, Schalke earns around 4.5 million euros from jersey sales. If the sales trend continues this season, it could bring the club additional income of around 1.3 million euros – the annual salary of two very ambitious second division players.
The Royal Blues have already scored 31 points this season. A win costs around 70,000 euros in point bonuses for the players. At least that’s not a problem at home games. If Schalke wins or is already leading at half-time, those responsible measure a significantly increased beer consumption in the stadium – which almost flushes the point bonuses back into the till.
