Before the top game in the 2nd soccer league between FC Blau-Weiss Linz and GAK, the waves rise in the blue-white fan base – and despite the false start to the new season, this is not even for sporting reasons: the supporters are over enraged their club because it does not use the full capacity of the Hofmann Personal Stadium – and that is why some blue and white fans will probably not get a ticket.
“As written in our preamble, we want to give everyone a warm welcome,” it said recently on the FC Blau-Weiss Linz website. Also guest fans? But what do we have to read when the GAK game ticket modalities are released? According to the club, only 990 spectators are allowed for this game. Somehow we don’t understand. According to the official site, 1350 spectators attended the match against GAK last year. (…) What has changed this year? Are there new editions that we haven’t heard about yet? Are only 990 spectators allowed throughout the season? Or is there a strategy behind it, as claimed in some circles, to issue fewer guest cards? Are 300 blue and whites actually “locked out” only to have to admit 50 fewer guests? (…) A conclusive, official answer to this question would be desirable in order to anticipate any speculation that may arise,” says a broadcast by the Stahlstadt collective, the umbrella organization of the leading blue and white fan groups.
The club has already responded to the fans’ questions: “Since there have been more and more inquiries about capacity in the Hofmann Personal Stadium in recent days and the wildest speculation is circulating, we would like to take the opportunity to answer the questions of many of our visitors . As can also be seen from the non-prohibition notice from the Linz magistrate, the maximum number of visitors allowed in the game against GAK is 1,000 people. Since around 100 employees (players, officials, security personnel, ball children, …) will be there, there is a ticket contingent of 900 tickets, which means that there is a capacity for our visiting club of 90 tickets (10%).”
visibility problems and power outages
The blue and whites explain why almost 300 fewer cards will be played in the game on Friday than was the case in the duel of the previous season: “In the 2021/2022 season we had more than 1,000 visitors against GAK as the only game ( approx. 1,150 tickets were sold) and were confronted with several problems. On the one hand, there was (justified) criticism from the away fans that not all of the around 150 visiting fans present found space in the stands, so the view of the field behind the banners attached to the fence was restricted accordingly. On the other hand, there was (again justified) criticism from the standing room visitors regarding the waiting time for drinks. Accordingly, we decided in the summer to limit the contingent to 1,000 people per game in order to at least offer the spectators present the most dignified framework conditions possible.”
The gastronomy offer is also hardly made for a larger capacity: “As maybe one or the other noticed during the game against the Young Violets, we had to complain about a power failure again at the gastronomy in the standing room area – one of the reasons for the longer waiting times. Accordingly, we cannot simply put additional refrigerators, flow coolers or even refrigerated trailers into operation, as we would endanger the game through the increased power requirement. The entire electrical system was checked after the floodlight failure against Steyr, and it was found that there was no free capacity left to operate additional electricity consumers. As an association, we didn’t make this decision easy for ourselves, it would be incomprehensible from an economic point of view not to call up the entire capacity. But the general conditions in the Hofmann Personal Stadium are the way they are, that’s acceptable for the rest of the season and we have to live with that.”
It’s a good thing that these problems will be a thing of the past as of the coming season at the latest with the move to the new Donauparkstadion…
Source: Nachrichten
