“Today is like a birthday, Christmas and Easter together,” said Thomas Aner from Linz. As early as 1954, when he was five years old, he stood in the old stadium and cheered on LASK. On Friday, he entered the newly opened Raiffeisen Arena on the Gugl for the first time together with around 13,000 fans, where the excitement before the opening game of LASK against Austria Lustenau could be clearly felt. Aner’s verdict: “It turned out great. Today we hit it, and victory is the icing on the cake.”
Three hours before the start of the game, many fans made their way to the stadium on foot or by bus. They got in the mood for the evening with chants like “The ASK is back” and even the sudden onset of rain couldn’t dampen the mood of the soccer fans in Linz. Especially not in the fan zone in front of the black and white standing room grandstand, which opened at 5:50 p.m.
The Raiffeisen Arena also did well with the fans: “I’ve been looking forward to it for months, the new stadium looks sensational,” said Mathias Bohn. The opinion of Roswitha Erber from Hartkirchen was similar: “It turned out super nice. I’m always at the LASK games, but of course it’s something special today.”
Criticism about ticket policy
There was only a shadow over the opening game: In an open letter, the fans criticized LASK’s decision not to sell individual tickets for the opening game. The club only wanted to promote the sale of season tickets. In addition, young people and socially disadvantaged people in particular could not afford the tickets.
- live ticker: The new stadium was opened with the game against Austria Lustenau. Markus Prinz reports live from the game and what happened before.
Source: Nachrichten
