Berlin, Germany. As the rain pours down, the quick-thinking stadium announcer switches to his bad weather playlist. Travis’ “Why Does It Always Rain on Me?” and Geri Halliwell’s cover of “It’s Raining Men” are soon ringing around the Stadion an der Alten Försterei.
The 1.FC Union Berlin players race towards their supporters before diving face first into the puddles in the sodden penalty area. At the other end, the Queens Park Rangers players do the same in front of their appreciative 300 travelling fans.
The friendly might have been called off after just thirteen minutes but the fans largely stay where they are, singing in the rain and chatting on the standing terrace which stretches around three-quarters of the pitch. After all, they built these stands and the bars are still serving.
Building and bleeding for Union
In 2008, almost 2,500 volunteers spent 144,000 man hours renovating the stadium’s derelict old terracing. Experienced in construction or not, they mixed and poured concrete and installed barriers, ensuring the ground met league regulations.
Four years earlier, they had given blood and donated the money raised to their club, floundering at the time on the brink of bankruptcy. The fans physically “bled for Union,” as the campaign was called. And they literally built the terraces on which they stand.
Football has been played on this plot of land in Köpenick in south-east Berlin since 1920, surviving war, occupation, division and re-unification. Now, with the stadium’s centenary approaching, Union have announced plans to expand the stadium’s 22,012 capacity to 37,000, including room for 28,692 standing fans - even more than Borussia Dortmund’s famous Yellow Wall.
“It was important for us not to touch the existing terraces which were built by the fans themselves,” Christian Arbeit, the club’s head of media and communications, tells The Sportsman the day before the match, with the sun still shining down on the German capital.
“We didn’t want to alter the fundamental characteristic of the stadium as a standing stadium, where terraces play the dominant role.”
The plans do include around 4,500 additional seats opposite the main stand and above the away end – a begrudging concession to fulfil Bundesliga regulations in the event that Union, after a fourth-place finish last season, do get promoted.
“Last season, we reached a limit which made it almost impossible to get tickets through the normal channels,” explains Arbeit. “People want to come to Union but it’s always sold-out. It’s become a bit of a closed shop. Obviously, we have to give our members priority because it’s their club. But that means that new fans can’t discover us.”
‘A wild and happy metropolis’
Berlin may no longer be the hipster hotbed it became in the decade immediately following re-unification, when low to non-existent rents attracted a young, alternative and creative new population particularly in the former eastern districts, but it remains one of Europe’s most vibrant, multicultural and international cities – “a wild and happy metropolis,” as Arbeit says.
Not only has Berlin’s appeal grown, so has Union’s – and in the queue at the ticket office, accents and languages can be heard from all over Germany and further afield.
“We don’t really know what the attraction is,” says Arbeit. “All we can see is that the way in which we present football here seems to go down well elsewhere – in England, for example. We notice that there is a huge longing for the simple things. For terraces. For the chance to have a beer while watching the game.”
Between 800 and 1,000 British supporters attend each Borussia Dortmund home game. Others make trips to Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Cologne and here to Berlin. “The English fans in particular are astounded and tell us, ‘This is the football of my dreams! I can stand, I can be loud, nobody’s telling me to sit down!’” says Arbeit.
Nevertheless, he insists that the expansion plans are not aimed to cater for visitors. The focus remains the local supporters in this green, wooded part of the capital.
“We do football here the way we like it, the way people here like it, not for TV viewers or anyone else,” he says.
"We don’t sit down and think: ‘What can we do to attract people from another part of town, from a different city or from abroad?’ We do it the way we like it and if other people appreciate that and want to come too then that’s great.”
Safe standing – a no-brainer for Union
The stadium work is due to begin in 2019 and, when it’s complete in summer 2020, 77.5 per cent of the capacity will be standing – a stark contrast with England’s silent, gentrified, all-seater stadia.
“These all-seater stadia have attracted a different type of audience,” believes Arbeit, who lived in London for a time. “There’s effectively been a crowd swap. Now, the only people who go are those who can afford it.
With momentum growing behind the Safe Standing Campaign in England, Arbeit is following developments closely. The so-called “rail seating” proposed by the Safe Standing Campaign is not the same as the open terraces at Union Berlin, where traditional crush barriers are still in place, but Arbeit insists that standing is not inherently dangerous.
“Nothing has ever happened to anyone here because of standing,” he says. “On the contrary, it’s much more emotional, people feel closer to one another and look out for each other.
“But in England, it has to be these rail seats, which is still a step in the right direction. At least you’ll be able to stand but it won’t be quite like here.”
As the rain continues to pour, the decision is made to abandon the match and re-schedule for two days later, Union eventually running out 2-1 winners, rounding off a good pre-season ahead of another assault on promotion to the Bundesliga. “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life” is next on the stadium playlist and despite the weather, it seems supporters in this part of Berlin really do have little to worry about.
