billsportsmaps.com

September 15, 2023

Germany: 2023-24 Bundesliga – Location-map, with 3 Charts: Attendance, Seasons-in-1st-Division & All-time German Titles list./+ FC Union Berlin: from the 2nd division to the Champions League in 5 seasons./+ Illustration for: The official Bundesliga Team of the Season 2022/23./+ The 2 promoted clubs (Heidenheim, Darmstadt).

Filed under: Germany — admin @ 5:37 pm

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Germany: 2023-24 Bundesliga – Location-map, with 3 Charts: Current Attendance, Seasons-in-1st-Division & All-time German Titles list




By Bill Turianski on 15 September 2023; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-2023-24 Bundesliga (en.wikipedia.org).
-World Football.net site…worldfootball.net/bundesliga.
-All the new Bundesliga jerseys for the 2023/24 season (from bundesliga.com/en).

The map page shows a location-map for the 18 clubs in the 2023-24 Bundesliga, with recently-promoted and -relegated teams noted. (Promoted in 2023: Darmstadt, Heidenheim; relegated in 2023: Schalke, Hertha [Berlin].) The map also shows the 16 Federal States of Germany, and the 14 largest cities in Germany, with 2021 population estimates listed at the the top of the map.

The 3 charts are
A) 2022-23 Attendance & 2022-23 finish, with teams playing in Europe noted. There are also columns listing Venue-capacities and Percent-capacities.
B) Seasons-in-Bundesliga by club, with consecutive seasons listed.
C) All-time German titles list (including the pre-1963-64/pre-Bundesliga amateur era), with current level [2022-23] of each title-winning club listed.





Thomas Tuchel’s Bayern Munich took control of the 2022-23 Bundesliga title race in week 26, on the 1st of April, when they beat Dortmund 4-2. Bayern Munich have now won an absolutely unprecedented ten straight titles. Dortmund finished in second place, even on points, but with a goal-difference that was 15 less than Bayern’s. Third place went to Rasenballsport Leipzig. And fourth place – and the coveted final German spot in the UEFA Champions League Group Stage – went to former second-division mainstay FC Union Berlin. Union Berlin have reached the Champions League Group Stage in only their fourth season of Bundesliga football {see this (dailymail.co.uk/sport)}. {Also see this: Seven Bundesliga teams to play in European competition in 2023/24 (bundesliga.com/en).} Union Berlin will play in UCL Group C, with Napoli, Real Madrid, and Braga.

Union Berlin are a club from Köpenick, Berlin (population: around 67,000). A large part of Köpenick is pine forests and expanses of water, and Köpenick is often referred to as the “green lungs” of Berlin (Grüne Lunge Berlins). During the Cold War, Köpenick was part of the Soviet sector of East Berlin, before the Berlin Wall fell down in November 1989. 1. FC Union Berlin was founded in 1966, after the East German football authorities decided there needed to be a third East Berlin club, a “civilian counterpart”, to the Army club of East Berlin (ASV Vorwärts) and to the Police club of East Berlin (SV Dynamo). So TSG Berlin was established as the Workers’ club of East Berlin, out of the merger of three existing sports clubs in East Berlin, and 3 years later, in 1966, Union Berlin emerged as the football wing of TSG Berlin. Union Berlin played 15 seasons of East German 1st-division football (in the DDR-Oberliga). And in 1968, Union Berlin won the East German Cup (the FDGB-Pokal). After German reunification in 1990, Union Berlin had a hard time advancing in the Bundesliga league-system, because at that point in time Union had been a 2nd-division East German side, and only 8 spots for East German clubs were being allotted at first, in 1991-92. The top 2 East German clubs went into the 1991-92 Bundesliga (Hansa Rostock and Dynamo Dresden); and 6 more East German clubs went into the 1991-92 2.Bundesliga. So Union Berlin ended up being a 3rd-tier club for 10 years (1991 to 2001). Union Berlin finally won promotion to 2.Bundesliga in 2000-01. Union Berlin played 18 straight seasons in the second tier (2001-’19). In 2019, when Union Berlin won promotion to the Bundesliga, they became the first Bundesliga club from the former East Berlin (and the 6th from the former East Germany, after Dynamo Dresden, Hansa Rostock, VfB Leipzig, Energie Cottbus, and RB Leipzig).

Union Berlin play at the 22.0-K-capacity Stadion An der Alten Försterei (English: Stadium at the old forester’s house). The stadium was last renovated in 2009 and last expanded in 2013, with some work carried out by over 2,300 Union Berlin supporters, who donated work and building materials. {See this 10-minute video: The Fans Who Literally Built Their Club – Union Berlin (youtube.com/uploaded by Copa 90 Stories).} In 2022-23, Union Berlin drew 21,911 per-game (at 97.5 percent-capacity). Union Berlin’s top scorer last season was Sheraldo Becker (a Dutch-born Suriname international). Their manager is the Swiss-born Urs Fischer, who, in his first season at the helm in 2018-19 got Union Berlin promoted to the Bundesliga.
Below: Stadion An der Alten Försterei, home of Union Berlin, who have gone from the 2nd tier to the Champions League Group Stage in just 5 years
union-berlin_stadion-an-der-alten-forsterei_f_.gif
Photo credits above – uslatar at stock.adobe.com/images [October 2021]. 2023-24 FC Union Berlin jersey, photo from footballkitarchive.com.




The official Bundesliga Team of the Season 2022/23
-The official Bundesliga Team of the Season 2022/23 (bundesliga.com/en). -ea.com/games/fifa/fifa-23/ultimate-team/tots/bundesliga. -{See also, Kicker magazine Bundesliga team of the season…en.wikipedia.org/[Kicker magazine 2022-23 Bundesliga Team of the season]; Kicker magazine 2022-23 Bundesliga Team of the season (reddit.com).}
germany_2022-23_bundesliga_team-of-the-year_g-kobel_j-frimpong_m-de-ligt_n-schlotterbeck_a-davies_j-brandt_j-bellingham_j-musiala_m-diaby_r-kolo-muani_n-fulkrug_b_.gif
Photo credits above -
-Gregor Kobel GK (Dortmund), photo by Imago/Ostseephoto via sportbuzzer.de/fussball. -Jeremie Frimpong DF, RB (Leverkusen), unattributed at manutdnews.com. -Matthijs de Ligt DF (Bayern Munich), photo by Getty Images via fussballeuropa.com. -Nico Schlotterbeck DF, CB (Dortmund), photo by Imago via kicker.de. -Alphonso Davies DF (Bayern Munich), photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images via cbc.ca/sports. -Jude Bellingham MF (Dortmund), photo unattributed at football-espana.net. -Jamal Musiala MF (Bayern Munich), photo by Fantasista/Getty Images via bavarianfootballworks.com. -Julian Brandt MF (Borussia Dortmund), photo by Imago via ligainsider.de. -Moussa Diaby FW (Leverkusen), photo by PictureAlliance/Icon Sport via sport.fr/football. -Niclas Füllkrug FW (Werder Bremen), photo unattributed at rnz.de/sport. -Randal Kolo Muani FW (Eintracht Frankfurt), phot by Jan Huebner/Imago via fr.de.




2023: Heidenheim, promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time ever…
1. FC Heidenheim first played in the 3rd tier in 2009-10. Five years, later, in 2014, Heidenheim won promotion to the second division for the first time, joining 2.Bundesliga in 2014-15. Eight years later, in May 2023, Heidenheim won promotion to the German top flight for the first time, in dramatic fashion…on the final matchday of the season, Heidenheim scored two goals in stoppage time, to beat Jahn Regensburg. This put Heidenheim into the automatic promotion-places, at the expense of Hamburg, whose fans had already invaded their pitch in celebration {see this, from dw.com}. (Heidenheim finished top of the table, ahead of Darmstadt on goal difference.) The city of Heidenheim is in Baden-Württemberg [Southwestern Germany], and is located, by road, 53 miles (85 km) E of Stuttgart, and is just west of Baden-Württemberg’s state border with Bavaria. Heidenheim is a rather small city to be the home of a Bundesliga club (population: around 49,000). Heidenheim wear Red-and-White, and play at the 15-K-capacity Voith-Arena, which, at 1,821 feet (555 meters) above sea level, is the highest stadium in German professional football {see photos and captions below}. Heidenheim’s manager is Frank Schmidt, who has been their manager for 16 years (since 2007), and has led Heidenheim to 3 promotions. {See this article, Who are Heidenheim, the Frank Schmidt-led club who have defied the odds to make it to the Bundesliga?}
http://billsportsmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/heidenheim_promoted-2023_voith-arena_b_.gif
Photo credits above – Heidenheim 2023-24 jersey, from footballkitarchive.com. Heidenheim an der Brenz with the castle Helfenstein in foreground, photo by Manuel Shoenfeld/Adobe Stock via outdooractive.com. Aerial drone shot of Voith Arena, by octofly at dronestagr.am/voith-arena-heidenheim-germany.




2023: Darmstadt, promoted back to the Bundesliga after 4 years…
Darmstadt is in Hesse [Southwestern Germany], located in the southern part of the Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region), located 21 miles (44 km) S of Frankfurt. The city of Darmstadt has a population of around 161,000. SV Darmstadt 89 wear Blue-and-White and play at the 17.6-K-capacity Merck-Stadion. Darmstadt first played in the Bundesliga in 1978-79, but went straight back down to the second division. Darmstadt had another one-year-spell in the Bundesliga in 1981-82. In the 1990s, financial mismanagement led to the club slipping to the third and fourth divisions. In 2008, Darmstadt barely avoided insolvency, with debts of around €1.1 million. In 2011, the club won the Regionalliga Süd, and were promoted to the third division. Three years later, in 2014, Darmstadt won promotion to 2.Bundesliga for the first time in 21 years. In 2015 Darmstadt then secured their second straight promotion, by finishing in 2nd place in the 2.Bundesliga, thereby returning to the Bundesliga after a 33-year absence. Darmstadt had a 2-season-spell in the Bundesliga from 2015-2017. So for 2023-24, this will be Darmstadt’s fourth spell in the Bundesliga, but only their 5th season in the 1st division. Darmstadt’s manager is Torsten Lieberknecht, who has been their manager since June 2021.
darmstadt_promoted-2023_merck-stadion-am-böllenfalltor_b_.gif
Photo credits above – Darmstadt 2023-24 jersey, from footballkitarchive.com. Merck-Stadion am Böllenfalltor, aerial drone shot, unattributed at pinterest.com/dein_stadion. Traveling Darmstadt fans with banners etc, photo by Stefan Holtzem at sv98.de/fanhinweise-zum-auswaertsspiel-in-duesseldorf.
___
Thanks to all at the following links
-Blank map of Germany, by NordNordWest at File:Germany location map.svg (Wikimedia Commons).
-Globe-map of Germany by Rob984 at File:EU-Germany (orthographic projection).svg.
-Populations of 14 largest German cities from List of cities in Germany by population (en.wikipedia.org).
-Bundesliga; -List of German football champions (en.wikipedia.org).
-(West) Germany – List of Champions (rsssf.com).
-2022-23 attendance figures and 2022-23 capacity figures: from soccerway.com.

December 12, 2022

Germany: 2022-23 Bundesliga – Location-map, with 3 Charts: Current Attendance, Seasons-in-1st-Division & All-time German Titles list.

Filed under: Germany — admin @ 10:01 pm

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Germany: 2022-23 Bundesliga – Location-map, with 3 Charts: Current Attendance, Seasons-in-1st-Division & All-time German Titles list




By Bill Turianski on the 12th of December 2022; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-2022-23 Bundesliga (en.wikipedia.org).
-World Football.net site…worldfootball.net/bundesliga.
-Official site of Bundesliga (English)…bundesliga.com/en/bundesliga.
-Deutsche Welle [in English]…DW/en/sports.

The map page shows a location-map for the 18 clubs in the 2022-23 Bundesliga, with recently-promoted and -relegated teams noted. (Promoted in 2022: Schalke, Werder Bremen; relegated in 2022: Arminia Bielefeld, Greuther Fürth.) The map also shows the 16 Federal States of Germany, and the 14 largest cities in Germany, with 2015 population figures listed at the the top of the map.

The 3 charts are
A) Current attendance (up to World Cup break of November/December) & 2021-22 finish, with teams playing in Europe noted. There are also columns listing Venue-capacities and Percent-capacities. And, as you can see, the Bundesliga is currently playing to a whole lot of full stadiums, with 12 of the 18 clubs drawing above 90%-capacity, including four clubs drawing above 99%-capacity (Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Union Berlin, FC Köln).
B) Seasons-in-Bundesliga by club, with consecutive seasons listed.
C) All-time German titles list (including the pre-1963-64/pre-Bundesliga amateur era), with current level [2022-23] of each title-winning club listed.

The Bundesliga will re-start on the 20th of January 2023, with the 16th match-week. {worldfootball.net/competition/bundesliga.}




___
Thanks to all at the following links
-Blank map of Germany, by NordNordWest at File:Germany location map.svg (Wikimedia Commons).
-Globe-map of Germany by Rob984 at File:EU-Germany (orthographic projection).svg.
-Populations of 14 largest German cities from List of cities in Germany by population (en.wikipedia.org).
-Bundesliga;
-List of German football champions (en.wikipedia.org).
-(West) Germany – List of Champions (rsssf.com).
-Attendance figures from worldfootball.net/[Bundesliga Attendance, 2022-23)].

October 20, 2021

Germany: 2021-22 Bundesliga – Location-map, with Seasons-in-1st-Division for the current 18 clubs & All-time German Titles list./+ the venues of the 2 promoted clubs (Bochum, Greuther Fürth), and the new venue for SC Freiburg.

Filed under: Germany — admin @ 8:50 am

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Germany: 2021-22 Bundesliga – Location-map, with Seasons-in-1st-Division for the current 18 clubs & All-time German Titles list



By Bill Turianski on the 20th of October 2021; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-2021-22 Bundesliga (en.wikipedia.org).
-World Football.net site…worldfootball.net/bundesliga.
-Official site of Bundesliga (English)…bundesliga.com/en/bundesliga.
-Deutsche Welle [in English]…DW/en/sports.

Germany: 2021-22 Bundesliga – Location-map, with Seasons-in-1st-Division for the current 18 clubs & All-time German Titles list…
The map page is pretty self-explanatory, it being my usual basic location-map. The map-page also includes 2 charts – one chart which shows each current club’s Seasons-in-1st-division; the other chart shows the full German football titles list (including the pre-Bundesliga/amateur years from 1903 to 1963).

There is one small addition I have made: on the map I have shown the promoted and relegated teams, via small color-coded boxes…green-edged boxes for the two promoted sides (Bochum and Fürth), and red-edged-boxes for the two relegated sides (Schalke and Bremen). Also shown, not on the map-page but further below, are captioned photos of the promoted clubs’ venues [Bochum and Fürth]. Those features I will continue to show in three upcoming maps, which are for the top-flight leagues in Italy, France, and Spain. However, my next post is for the 2021-22 FA Cup 1st Round, and that will be out in about a fortnight.

    2021-22 Bundesliga – the 18 clubs, with the 14 largest cities in Germany…

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Credits above – Location-map by Bill Turianski. Blank map of Germany by NordNordWest at File:Germany location map.svg (Wikimedia Commons). Populations of 14 largest German cities from List of cities in Germany by population (en.wikipedia.org).




VfL Bochum – promoted back to the Bundesliga for the first time in 11 years…
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Photo credit above – Imago images at transfermarkt.us/vfl-bochum/stadion.

Greuther Fürth – promoted back to the Bundesliga for the first time in 8 years…
greuther-furth_promoted-2021_sportpark-ronhof-thomas-sommer_d_.gif
Screenshot credit above – from video uploaded by Stadiums from the sky at youtube.com.




New stadium for SC Freiburg (opened October 2021)…
freiburg_new-stadium-2021_s-c-stadion_aka-europa-park-stadion_d_.gif
Photo credits above – Picture Alliance/DPA/SC Freiburg via heidelberg24.de/sport. Andreas Schwarzkopf at File:Europa Park Stadion in Freiburg von der Georges-Köhler-Allee gesehen 8.jpg (commons.wikimedia.org).
___
Thanks to all at the following links
-Blank map of Germany, by NordNordWest at File:Germany location map.svg (Wikimedia Commons).
-Globe-map of Germany by Rob984 at File:EU-Germany (orthographic projection).svg.
-Populations of 14 largest German cities from List of cities in Germany by population (en.wikipedia.org).
-Bundesliga;
-List of German football champions (en.wikipedia.org).
-(West) Germany – List of Champions (rsssf.com).

December 7, 2020

Germany: 2020-21 Bundesliga – Location-maps, with Seasons-in-1st-Division for the current 18 clubs & All-time German Titles list./+ Illustrations for the 18 venues in 2020-21 Bundesliga.

Filed under: Germany — admin @ 5:55 pm

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Germany: 2020-21 Bundesliga – Location-maps, with Seasons-in-1st-Division for the current 18 clubs & All-time German Titles list

By Bill Turianski on 7 December 2020; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Links…
-2020-21 Bundesliga (en.wikipedia.org).
-World Football.net site…worldfootball.net/bundesliga.
-Official site of Bundesliga (English)…bundesliga.com/en/bundesliga.
-Deutsche Welle [in English]…DW/en/sports.



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Credits above – Location-map by Bill Turianski. Blank map of Germany, by NordNordWest at File:Germany location map.svg (Wikimedia Commons).

    2020-21 German Bundesliga venues – the home stadiums of the 18 current Bundesliga clubs
    (Shown in order of the league table, from 8 December 2020 (after 10 weeks of the season)…

1st place, Bayern Munich: Allianz Arena, in Munich, Bavaria.
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Photo credits above – Diego Delso at File:Allianz Arena, Múnich, Alemania, 2013-02-11, DD 16.JPG (commons.wikimedia.org). Inset aerial photo, by Shutterstock via techwireasia.com.

2nd place, Bayer Leverkusen: BayArena, in Leverkusen [Greater Cologne], North Rhine-Westphalia (part of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region).
bayer-leverkusen_bayarena_d_.gif
Photo credit above – Arne Müseler at File:Bayarena Leverkusen 2020.jpg (commons.wikimedia.org).

3rd place, RB Leipzig: Red Bull Arena, in Leipzig, Saxony.
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Photo credit above – Steffen Schellhorn/Imago via rblive.de/leipzig-stadion.




4th place, Borussia Dortmund: Westfalenstadion [aka Signal-Iduna Park], in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia (part of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region).
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Photo credit above – screenshot of video image uploaded by Borussia Dortmund at youtube.com.

5th place, VfL Wolfsburg: Volkswagen Arena, in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony.
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Photo credit above – signify.com.

6th place, Union Berlin: Stadion An der Alten Försterei, in Köpenick, south-eastern Berlin.
union-berlin_stadion-an-der-alten-forsterei_d_.gif
Photo credit above – Ralf Roletschek at Datei:19-08-17-Stadion-an-der-alten-Foersterei-DJI 0275.jpg (de.wikipedia.org).

7th place, Borussia Mönchengladbach: Borussia-Park, in Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-Westphalia (part of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region).
monchengladbach_borussia-park_d_.gif
Photo credit above – nuernbergluftbild.de/luftbilder/[stadion-borussia-park-moenchengladbach].





8th place, VfL Stuttgart: Mercedes-Benz Arena, in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg.
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Photo credit above – Carsten Reidl via tagblatt.de

9th place, Eintracht Frankfurt: Waldstadion [aka Deutche Bank Park], in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse.
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Photo credit above – unattributed at br.pinterest.com.

10th place, Hoffenheim: Rhine-Neckar Arena, in Sinsheim, in the Rhine-Neckar metro-region in Baden-Württemberg.
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Photo credit above – unattributed at usports.in.

11th place, FC Augsburg: Augsburg Arena [aka WWK Arena], in Augsburg, Swabia, Bavaria.
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Photo credit above – Ulrich Wagner/Archivfoto via augsburger-allgemeine.de/sport.





12th place, Hertha Berlin: Olympiastadion, in the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district of the city-state of Berlin - the home of Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club.
hertha-berlin_olympiastadion_c_.gif
Photo credit above – stadionbetreiber.de/[berlin-olympiastadion].

13th place, Werder Bremen: Weser-Stadion, in Bremen, Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (city-state).
hwerder-bremen_weser-stadion_b_.gif
Photo credit above – bremen.eu/weser-stadium.

14th place, Freiburg: Schwarzwald-Stadion, in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg.
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Image credit above – screenshot of video uploaded by Google Earth Stadium Flights at youtube.com.

15th place, FC Köln: Rhein Energie Stadion in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia (part of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region).
koln_rhein-energie-stadion_b_.gif
Photo credit above – rundschau-online.de.





16th place, Arminia Bielefeld: Bielefelder Alm, in Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia.
arminia-bielefeld_bielefelder-alm_b_.gif
Photo credit above – arminia-bielefeld.de.

17th place, Mainz 05: Opel Arena, in Mainz, Greater Frankfurt, Rhineland-Palatinate.
mainz-05_opel-arena_c_.gif
Photo credit above – allgemeine-zeitung.de.

Last place, Schalke 04: Veltins-Arena, in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia (part of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region).
schalke-04_veltins-arena_b_.gif
Photo credit above – PA via offthepitch.com.

___
Thanks to all at the following links
-Blank map of Germany, by NordNordWest at File:Germany location map.svg (Wikimedia Commons).
-Map with Federal States of Germany from States of Germany (en.wikipedia.org).
-14 largest German cities from List of cities in Germany by population (en.wikipedia.org).
-Bundesliga;
-List of German football champions (en.wikipedia.org).
-(West) Germany – List of Champions (rsssf.com).

May 11, 2020

Germany May 2020 Bundesliga restart: Location-map, with COVID-19 timeline in German football & Bundesliga table before the restart; plus a chart with: final attendance figures, titles, and seasons-in-1st-division for the 18 clubs.

Filed under: Germany — admin @ 8:06 am

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Germany May 2020 Bundesliga restart: Location-map, with COVID-19 Timeline in German football, league table before the restart, final attendance figures, titles, and seasons-in-1st-division for the 18 clubs



By Bill Turianski on 11 May 2020; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Links…
-2019–20 Bundesliga (en.wikipedia.org).
-World Football.net site…worldfootball.net/bundesliga.
-Official site of Bundesliga (English)…bundesliga.com/en/bundesliga.
-Deutsche Welle [in English]…DW/en/sports.
-Summary – 2019-20 Bundesliga: fixtures, tables, results, stats, etc…us.soccerway.com.

-Here is a map I posted in August 2019: it shows German clubs by Membership-Size (56 clubs)…Germany: 2019-20 map showing Club Membership sizes (top 3 levels: Bundesliga, 2-Bundesliga, 3-Liga/56 teams) (figures from January 2019).

-Bundesliga restart after the coronavirus halt: The 10 big questions answered (by Matt Pearson at dw.com/en on 8 May 2020).

-Coronavirus: Dynamo Dresden cases leave Bundesliga restart in the balance (by Matt Ford at dw.com/en on 10 May 2020).

2019-20 Bundesliga: COVID-19 Pandemic Timeline in German football
8 March 2020: German health minister recommends cancelling events with more than 1,000 people.

9 March: DFL announced that the Bundesliga season would be completed to ensure planning for the following season, and that any postponements would be to matchdays ‘en bloc’.

11 March: Catch-up match between Borussia Mönchengladbach and FC Köln was played behind closed doors (first time in league history).

13 March: All Matchday 26 games were suspended (Round 26, 13-16 March).

16 March: DFL suspended the leagues until at least 2 April.

6 May: German chancellor Angela Merkel and the leaders of the 16 Federal States of Germany approved resumption of the leagues.

7 May: DFL announces Bundesliga will resume on 16 May, with Matchday 26. All matches to be played behind closed doors, with no more than 332 people in support of the match there at the stadium (figure includes players, coaches
and referees, journalists, doping control officers, stewards, emergency services, groundskeepers and ball boys and ball girls.

(Germany’s ban on large-scale social events remains until the end of August.)

The final Matchday (Round 34) will take place on 27 June.
___
Thanks to all at the following links…
-Blank map of Germany, by NordNordWest at File:Germany location map.svg (Wikimedia Commons).
-Globe-map of Germany, by Rob984 File:EU-Germany_(orthographic_projection).svg (Wikimedia Commons).
-Map with Federal States of Germany from States of Germany (en.wikipedia.org).
-Attendance figures and Stadium Capacities from World Football.net site…worldfootball.net/bundesliga.
-14 largest German cities from List of cities in Germany by population (en.wikipedia.org).
-Closed door match info from -Bundesliga restart after the coronavirus halt: The 10 big questions answered (dw.com/en).
-COVID-19 timeline and Stadium capacities from 2019–20 Bundesliga (en.wikipedia.org).

August 6, 2019

Germany: 2019-20 map showing Club Membership sizes (top 3 levels: Bundesliga, 2-Bundesliga, 3-Liga/56 teams) (figures from January 2019).

Filed under: Germany — admin @ 7:20 am

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Germany: map showing club membership sizes (top 3 levels/56 teams) (figures from January 2019)




By Bill Turianski on 6 August 2019; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Links…
-World Football.net site (for Club Membership totals, which can be found at each club’s Profile page there)…worldfootball.net/bundesliga.
-2019–20 Bundesliga (en.wikipedia.org).
-Official site of Bundesliga (English)…bundesliga.com/en/bundesliga.
-English-speaking Bundesliga blog…bundesligafanatic.com.
-Summary – 2019-20 Bundesliga: fixtures, tables, results, stats, etc…us.soccerway.com.

The map…
The total amount of dues-paying members of each of the 2019-20 German 1st, 2nd and 3rd division clubs are shown by the circles – large or small – which are centered on each club’s location. The larger the circle, the larger the club membership size. I simply doubled the club-membership-amount and used that figure for the square-pixel-size of the club’s circle. I had to stop at ~12-sq-pixels, though, or the 6-sq-pixel location-dots for each of the small clubs would have obscured their club-membership-circles. However, all 56 clubs on the map have their club crest shown in about the same size…approximately 50-by-50 pixel-size (ie, disc-shaped crests are 52-square-pixels; while the more block-shape crests are a few pixels less, and attenuated crests like ‘Gladbach’s and Werder’s are a few pixels more). It got a little tight in the densely-populated and fussball-centric Rhine-Ruhr region of western Germany, but I was just able to fit in all the clubs, from the top 3 divisions, there.

But when it came to the planet-Jupiter-like size of Bayern Munich’s club-membership circle, as well as the planet-Neptune-like size of both Schalke’s and Dortmund’s club-membership circles, I had to accommodate for that. So, the rather big circles for the 3 German mega-clubs with the largest number of members are placed partially outside the map, so as to not obscure aspects within the map.

The membership totals for each club are listed in the chart at the far right, along with 2019-20 divisional levels, with any promotions or relegations noted. (Note: Germany uses Roman numerals for divisions [Levels]… I=Bundesliga, II=2.Bundesliga, III=3.Liga.) Also listed in the chart are three more things…2018-19 home league average attendances, Seasons played in the 1st division (counting 2019-20, there will have been 57 seasons of Bundesliga), and German titles (with last title noted). All 2019-20 Bundesliga clubs, as well as all the clubs with more than 10,000 dues-paying members (27 clubs), are shown on the map via a thin horizontal band which notes their membership-size.

The 50+1 rule in German football.
Excerpt from en.wikipedia.org…‘The 50+1 rule (German: 50+1-Regel) is an informal term used to refer to a clause in the regulations of the Deutsche Fußball-Liga. The clause states that, in order to obtain a license to compete in the Bundesliga, a club must hold a majority of its own voting rights. The rule is designed to ensure that the club’s members retain overall control, protecting clubs from the influence of external investors.’ {End of excerpt.}
Exceptions have been made for ex-company-teams with more than 20 years of financial support…Bayer Leverkusen (funded by Bayer [pharmeceuticals]), and VfL Wolsburg (funded by Volkswagen [motor vehicles]), as well as Hoffenheim (funded by SAP [a computer firm run by longtime Hoffenheim supporter Dietmar Hopp]). Nevertheless, there is now the whole charade of RB Leipzg, which does have (a few) club members, but that membership is exclusive. The average fan cannot join Rasenballsport (Lawnballsport) Leipzig, as a club member. RB Leipzig, which is owned by Red Bull [energy drink purveyors], have been a Bundesliga club for 4 seasons now, and are good enough to qualify for the Champions League, and are popular enough to draw over 38-K-per-game. Yet RB Leipzig have less than 1,000 club-members. That is because club-membership in RB Leipzig is open only to select corporate cronies, for a vast sum. Thus making a mockery of the 50+1 rule.

Football club membership in Germany usually entails benefits like discounts and first dibs on tickets, discounts on merchandise, and a free subscription to the club newsletter (or magazine), and usually (but not in every case) it gives a club-member voting rights, and plus sometimes even more free stuff {see 2 sentences below}. And in some cases (like with the biggest clubs), you can’t buy tickets without being a member, like with Bayern Munich and also, I think, with Dortmund (it’s confusing). Yearly dues are usually in the €25 to €60 range for adults.

I looked at all the big clubs’ websites for info on all this, and I decided to use the example of Borussia Mönchengladbach, because this Rhine-Ruhr-based club near the Dutch border had the most straightforward online pitch, and they offer plenty of “stuff”…
https://mitglied.borussia.de/index.html [Become a club member (aka FohlenClub)/English translation]…
Membership in Borussia Mönchengladbach gets you: A selection from 3 gifts: Fan scarf with slogan; or a 10-Euro-donation to Borussia foundation; or a knit cap with slogan. Right of first refusal on day tickets. Discounted season tickets. 10%-off at FoalShop. Invitation to exclusive member events. 8 issues of the club-magazine, which is called FoalenEcho – The Magazine. Discount for Fanproject (community outreach) membership. Participation in the annual General Meeting (with voting rights). Free admission to the Borussia Mönchengladbach Women’s team, and to the Youth-teams. Member card. Price: Under-18s: €40, Adults: €60 (which is $67 USD)…

Sounds like a decent deal to me, and it seems that more than 85 thousand Mönchengladbach fans would agree.

German clubs with the largest Membership sizes, and clubs with the highest ratio of Members-versus-Crowd-size…
As mentioned further above, the 3 German clubs with the largest amount of dues-paying members are: Bavarian giants Bayern Munich (290,000 club-members), and two clubs 16 miles (22 km) apart in the Rhine-Ruhr: FC Schalke 09 (155,400 club-members), and Borussia Dortmund (155,000 club-members).

The fourth, and only other German club with more than 100-K in club-membership, is FC Köln of Cologne. FC Köln, who were just promoted back to the Bundesliga, have 102,000 members. After that, there are 4 other German clubs with over 50-K in club-membership…Hamburg (who are still stuck in the 2nd division) have 85.5 K club-members; the aforementioned Borussia Mönchengladbach, have 85.1 K club-members; the just-relegated VfB Stuttgart have 65.5 K club-members; and Eintracht Frankfurt have 59 K club-members.

Some medium-large clubs that are Bundesliga mainstays, have slightly less actual dues-paying members than their average attendance (70 to 90% ratio). Like Werder Bremen (36.5-K-in-membership / 40.2 K avg attendance: 90% ratio), and Hertha Berlin (36-K-in-membership / 49.2 K avg attendance: 73% ratio), and Wolfsburg (20.1-K-in-membership / 24.4 K avg attendance: 82% ratio). And note that two of these three (Wolsburg and Werder), the ones with ratios close to 100%, have won German titles in the last 15 years.

Some German clubs, though not exactly Bundesliga mainstays, draw above-or-near-to 40 K per game, yet have only have dues-paying membership in the 20-to-25-K-range (ie, nearer to a ~50% ratio). Falling into this category are: current-Bundesliga side Fortuna Düsseldorf, as well as the just-relegated sides Hannover 96, and FC Nürnberg.

As of mid-2019, within the top 3 levels of German football, there are 9 clubs that have more dues-paying members than their 2018-19 average attendance (ie, a +100% ratio). This category comprises the top 7 highest-drawing clubs in Germany last season, plus Bayer Leverkusen (the 19th highest-drawing German club), plus the currently-3rd-division side 1860 Munich (who are the 27th highest-drawing German club).
The list below includes A) Club-membership Rank; B) Club-membership total / 2018-19 Avg Attendance; C) Percent-capacity; D) Level.
1) Bayern Munich: 290 K club-members / 75 K avg attendance (100%-capacity) [1st div].
2) Schalke: 155.4 K club-members / 60.9 K avg attendance (98%-capacity) [1st div].
3) Dortmund: 155 K club-members / 80.8 K avg attendance (99%-capacity) [1st div].
4) FC Köln: 102 K club-members / 49.5 K avg attendance (99%-capacity) [2nd div in 18/19; promoted to 1st div for 19/20].
5) Hamburg: 85.5 K club-members / 48.8 K avg attendance (86%-capacity) [2nd div].
6) Mönchengladbach: 85.1 K club-members / 49.6 K avg attendance (92%-capacity) [1st div].
7) Stuttgart: 65.5 K club-members / 55.5 K avg attendance (90%-capacity) [1st div in 18/19; relegated to 2nd div for 19/20].
8) Eintracht Frankfurt: 59 K club-members / 49.7 K avg attendance (95%-capacity) [1st div].
11) Bayer Leverkusen: 28.3 K members / 27.9 K avg attendance (93%-capacity) [1st div].
15) 1860 Munich: 22.4 K club-members / 14.9 K avg attendance (70%-capacity) [3rd div].

And finally…One club that is not a large club by any means, yet are rather well-supported in terms of club-membership-size-versus-average-crowd-size, bears mentioning. That is the newly-promoted FC Union Berlin, a club that hails from the former East Germany. FC Union Berlin play at a 22-K-capacity stadium in the eastern part of Berlin, which is called Stadion An der Alten Försterei (Stadium at the old forester’s house). In 2013, this stadium was re-built and expanded with the labor of, and funds from, the club’s supporters. FC Union will play in the Bundesliga for the first time in 2019-20. FC Union have 20,000 dues paying members, and they averaged 21,200 per game last season in 2-Bundesliga, when they finished in 3rd place, and then won the Relegation Play-offs over VfB Stuttgart, 2-2 aggregate and on the away goals rule. It was the first time the 2nd-division team won the Bundesliga Relegation Play-off in 7 years.
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Thanks to all at the following links…
-Blank map of Germany, by NordNordWest at File:Germany location map.svg.
-World Football.net site (for Club Membership totals, which can be found in each club’s Profile page there)…worldfootball.net/bundesliga.
-E-F-S site, european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn.htm.
-2019–20 Bundesliga (en.wikipedia.org).
-2019-20 2. Bundesliga (en.wikipedia.org).
-2019-20 3. Liga (en.wikipedia.org).

October 25, 2018

All-time Bundesliga (Germany/1st division): Chart of all clubs with at least one season in the German 1st division (56 seasons/since 1963-64/55 clubs); with German titles listed.

Filed under: Football: All-time 1st Div,Germany — admin @ 9:50 am

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List: All-time Bundesliga + German titles



By Bill Turianski on 25 October 2018; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Sources…
-Germany – Bundesliga All-Time Tables 1963/64-2017/18 (rsssf.com).
-All-time Bundesliga table;
-List of German football champions/Performance by club;
-Bundesliga (en.wikipedia.org).
-Small kit illustrations from each team’s page at en.wikipedia.org.

This chart is similar to the one I made for England earlier this year {here: England, 1st division – all-time: List of all clubs with at least one season in the English 1st division (120 seasons/since 1888-89/65 clubs).}.

The German chart here is a bit more complicated than the England chart. That is because Germany did not have a country-wide national (pro) league until the Bundesliga was instituted in 1963-64. Before that, starting in 1903, the German football title was decided by round-robin tournaments with representative teams from the several regional leagues. So unlike in England, in Germany, there were national football titles long before there was a national 1st division league.

There are 7 clubs that won German titles in the pre-Bundesliga era (1903-63), that ended up never playing in the Bundesliga. Those clubs are shown in the section at the foot of the chart. Most of these clubs have evolved into small and amateur lower-leagues clubs. The exceptions are Holstein Kiel, a 2nd division side; and Austrian club Rapid Vienna. (SK Rapid Vienna [Wein] played in the German football system from 1938-45; Rapid Vienna currently play in the Austrian Bundesliga [Div I, Austria].)

There are a few other things different on this All-time-1st-Div-Germany list than on the All-time-1st-Div-England list…
A). At the centre of the chart, I combined two columns: the column for “Consecutive Seasons in the 1st Division” is now combined with the column for “Last season that the club was previously in the 1st Division”. I combined them because it is an either/or situation.
B). I had to scrap the column, at the right-centre of the chart, that shows a segment of the jersey worn by each club from the most recent season that the club was in the 1st division {via historicalkits.co.uk}. I had to scrap that because, to my knowledge, no such imagery exists online for any country on the Continent. So I had to settle for the primitive kit illustrations that Wikipedia uses for football clubs. The plus side of this is that it is easier to tell which clubs on the chart are currently [2018-19] in the top flight.
C). Clubs are listed with their most popularly-used name at the far left of the chart, and with their full name at the far right of the chart.

I will continue on with this format with All-time-1st-Div-Italy, to be posted in mid-December 2018. All posts in this format will be in the new category >Football: All-time 1st Div, which can be found near the very top-right of the Categories list.

I also have ones ready for All-time-1st-Div-France (to be posted in mid-January 2019), plus one for All-time-1st-Div-Spain.

Below: the 10 clubs in German football with the most seasons spent in the Bundesliga…
Sources: club-membership numbers from worldfootball.net/competition/bundesliga, in the Profile section on each club’s page there; attendance figures from european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn.htm; population figures from en.wikipedia.org.
Joint-1st. Werder Bremen (55 of 56 Bundesliga seasons). A founding member of the Bundesliga in 1963-64, Werder Bremen are from Bremen, which is a city-state in the northwest of Germany. (Bremen is one of 3 city-states in Germany, and is the smallest of the 16 federal states of Germany.) Bremen has a population of around 568,000 and a metro-area population of around 2.4 million {2017 figures}. Werder Bremen claims 36,500 members, which is slightly less their recent average attendances (Bremen drew 38.7 K last season and drew 40.8 K in 2016-17). Werder Bremen have only been relegated once, in 1980, and they bounced straight back to the Bundesliga the following year. Werder Bremen have won 4 German titles (1965, 1988, 1993, 2004). Werder Bremen wear Blue/Green-with-White.

Joint-1st. Hamburg (55 of 56 Bundesliga seasons.) A founding member of the Bundesliga, Hamburger SV are from the city-state of Hamburg in northwest Germany. (Hamburg is the 2nd-largest city in Germany after Berlin.) For years, Hamburg took pride in the fact that they were the sole German club to have played in every season of the Bundesliga. They even had a clock at their stadium which displayed how long, consecutively, they had been in the top flight. As the decade of the 2010s wore on, that clock became an albatross on the shoulders of the team. {See this article from the New York Times from Feb. 2017, Time and a Relentless Clock Weigh on Hamburg Soccer Team (by Andrew Keh at nytimes.com/soccer).} And so the relegation that Hamburg had been flirting with for years, became a reality, in the spring of 2018. Hamburg have won 6 German titles (1923, 1928, 1957, 1976, 1980, 1983). That last title in 1983 coincided with their winning of the 1983 European Cup. Hamburg sport a flag-shaped blue crest which features a black and white diamond, but despite that, their primary colour is red: they wear White-and-Red-with-Blue-socks.

3rd. Bayern Munich (54 of 56 Bundesliga seasons). Fußball-Club Bayern München are called Bayern Munich in the Anglophone world. In Germany, because of the giant shadow they cast – and all the drama they create, and all the self-entitlement they project – they are often called FC Hollywood. Bayern Munich are basically one of the most successful football clubs in the world, with 28 German titles [the most by far] and 4 European titles (last in 2013). They could easily be called the New York Yankees of Germany. Bayern Munich have the most club-members by far in Germany – over 290,000. Bayern Munich are the second-best-drawing club in Germany (behind only Dortmund), and they always play to 100% capacity, drawing exactly 75 K, in their space-age Allianz Arena (or so they say). The odd thing is, the club was not selected to join the inaugural season of the Bundesliga in 1963-64. That was because of the rule which stipulated that only one club per city could be part of the first Bundesliga…and at that point in the mid-1960s, the now-3rd-division club 1860 Munich was the most successful club from the Bavarian city of Munich. Bayern Munich did not join the Bundesliga until the 3rd season. Since then, Bayern Munich have essentially dominated German football. The club currently has a 6-consecutive-titles streak, but that streak is in jeopardy this season, as there is looking to be a multi-team title race, and Dortmund, or Bremen, or ‘Gladbach (or Leipzig), could wrest the title from Bayern Munich come April 2019. Bayern Munich’s crest features the white-and-blue-diamonds that are on the flag of the Free State of Bavaria (which is the largest state in Germany). They wear Red-with-White-trim, and often feature dark-blue trim.

4th. Stuttgart (53 of 56 Bundesliga seasons). A founding member of the Bundesliga, VfB Stuttgart are from Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, in the southwest of Germany. (Stuttgart is called the cradle of the automobile and is home to Mercedes-Benz and Porsche.) Stuttgart were a founding member of the Bundesliga; they have been relegated twice: in 1974-75 (spending 2 seasons in the 2nd tier), and in 2015-16 (bouncing straight back to the top flight). Stuttgart have won 5 German titles (1950, 1952, 1984, 1992, 2007). Stuttgart wear White-with-Red; their badge features black deer antlers on a yellow field. (Deer antlers are part of the coat of arms of Württemberg. By the way, deer antlers are also featured on the Porsche logo.)

5th. Dortmund (52 of 56 Bundesliga seasons). A founding member of the Bundesliga, Borussia Dortmund are the highest-drawing football club in Germany, and have been drawing between 79 K and 81 K per game since 2010-11. In fact, Dortmund are the highest-drawing football-club in the whole of Europe, and have been filling their 81.3-capacity Westfalenstadion in excess of 97-percent-capacity for eight straight seasons. Dortmund have 155,000 club members, which is basically the same amount as their nearby rivals Schalke, and only Bayern Munich have more club members. Dortmund are from Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, which is part of the Rhine-Ruhr mega-city, the largest urban area in Germany, with a population exceeding 5 million {see this en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine-Ruhr}. (Each season in the Bundesliga there are usually around 4 or 5 top-flight clubs which are from the Rhine-Ruhr region, and in 2018-19 there are 6 Rhine-Ruhr clubs: Dortmund, Schalke, Mönchengladbach, Köln, Bayer Leverkusen, and Fortuna Düsseldorf.) Dortmund have won 8 German titles, and have been repeat-champions twice (1995 & 1996, 2011 & 2012). Dortmund wear Yellow-and-Black.

Joint-6. Schalke (51 of 56 Bundesliga seasons). A founding member of the Bundesliga, FC Schalke 04 are from Gelsenkirchen, in the Rhine-Ruhr mega-city, only about 22 miles, by road, west of Dortmund. Schalke and Dortmund contest the Revierderby. Schalke are the 3rd-highest-drawing club in Germany, usually drawing between 60 and 61 K, and they boast over 155,000 club members. But Schalke have under-achieved for years, and have not won a German title in over half a century: the last of their 7 titles was won pre-Bundesliga, in 1958. Scalke wear Blue-with-White.

Joint-6. Mönchengladbach (51 of 56 Bundesliga seasons). Borussia Mönchengladbach are from the far-western edge of the Rhine-Ruhr mega-city, very close to the border with the Netherlands. ‘Gladbach’s glory days were in the early-to-mid-1970s, when they won 5 titles in 8 seasons, including back-to-back-to-back titles in 1975-77. (Bayern Munich are the only other club to have won 3 Bundesliga titles in a row.) Their nickname of Die Fohlen (the Foals) came from this era, reflecting the squad’s youth and dynamism. But the club evolved into a bottom-half of the table side by the 1990s, and suffered relegations in 1999 and in 2007. But since moving into their 54-K-capacity stadium in 2004, ‘Gladbach’s fortunes have, in general, improved. Borussia Mönchengladbach boasts 83,000 members, and by that metric, are the 6th biggest club in Germany. They wear White-with-Green-and-Black-trim.

8th. Eintracht Frankfurt (50 of 56 Bundesliga seasons). A founding member of the Bundesliga, Eintracht Frankfurt are from Frankfurt, Hesse (the 5th-largest city in Germany after Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, and Cologne). (“Eintracht” means harmony, and is the German equivalent of a club having “United” in its name.) Frankfurt may have participated in the lion’s share of Bundesliga seasons, but (like Schalke) they have never won the competition: Eintracht’s sole German title came in 1959. But the Eintracht Frankfurt team these days is rather competitive, and they won the DFB-Pokal [German Cup] in 2018. Eintracht Frankfurt usually wear Red-and-Black, but are sporting Black-and-Grey this season.

9th. Köln (48 of 56 Bundesliga seasons). A founding member of the Bundesliga, 1. FC Köln, are currently in the 2nd division. Köln are from Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, on the southern edge of the Rhine-Ruhr mega-city. (Köln are often called Cologne in the English-speaking sports world.) FC Köln have 102,000 members, making them, by that measurement, the 4th largest club in Germany. But that is a bit misleading, because Koln usually are the 7th or 8th-best drawing team in the country, drawing between 46 and 48 K. Since the mid-1990s, the team has periodically imploded, and they have suffered 4 relegations in the last 31 years. Köln were relegated in 1998, in 2006, in 2012, and once again in 2018. Köln have won 2 German titles (in the inaugural season of the Bundesliga in 1964, and in 1978). Köln wear White-with-Red-trim, and sport a crest that features a billy-goat (their mascot) and a silhouette image of the Cologne Cathedral (Germany’s most-visited landmark).

10th. Kaiserslautern (44 of 56 Bundesliga seasons). A founding member of the Bundesliga, Kaiserslautern, are currently in the 3rd division. They are from Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate in western Germany. Kaiserslautern are probably most renowned for being the most-recent team in the Big Five Western European leagues to gain promotion to the 1st division and then go on to win the title the following season. This happened in 1997-98. (The most recent team to achieve this unique accomplishment in England was, of course, Nottingham Forest in 1977-78; and before that it was Ipswich Town in 1961-62.) Kaiserslautern are the team in this top ten list that is from the smallest city, by a large margin: the city of Kaiseslautern has a population of only 99,000 {2017 figure}. So it is not surprising that Kaiserslautern have had a tough time of maintaining their status as a top-flight club, and indeed, they found themselves relegated to the 3rd division in 2018. Kaiseslautern wear Red-with-White.
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Thanks to all at the links below…
Germany – Bundesliga All-Time Tables 1963/64-2017/18 (rsssf.com).
All-time Bundesliga table; List of German football champions/Performance by club; Bundesliga (en.wikipedia.org).

December 5, 2017

Germany/2nd division: 2. Bundesliga, location-map for 2017-18 season, with: 16/17 attendance data, seasons-in-1st-division-by-club & major titles listed./+The top two teams in 2. Bundesliga as of 5 December 2017 (Holstein Kiel and Fortuna Düsseldorf).

Filed under: Germany — admin @ 3:10 pm

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Germany/2nd division: 2. Bundesliga, location-map for 2017-18 season, with: 16/17 attendance data, seasons-in-1st-division-by-club & major titles listed



By Bill Turianski on 5 December 2017; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-Teams, etc…2017-18 2. Bundesliga (en.wikipedia.org).
-English-speaking Bundesliga coverage…bundesligafanatic.com.
-Official site of the Bundesliga in English (offizielle webseite der Bundesliga)…bundesliga.com/en/.
-2. Bundesliga site (in German)…bundesliga.com/de/2bundesliga.
-Table, fixtures, results, stats, etc…2. Bundesliga [2016-17] Summary (us.soccerway.com/national/germany/2-bundesliga).

-From The Set Pieces.com, Doing It Their Own Way – the Union Berlin Story (by Daniel Rossback on 2 May 2017 at thesetpieces.com).

-From bundesliga.com/en, here is an informative illustrated article, Fan-friendly Bundesliga the best attended league in Europe.

2. Bundesliga, the second division of German football, was instituted in 1974-75. 2. Bundesliga replaced the five Regionalligas that comprised the German 2nd level, from 1963 to 1974. Like the German 1st division (the Bundesliga), there are 18 teams in 2. Bundesliga. The top two teams win automatic promotion to the Bundesliga each season, while the 3rd place finishers in the second division play in a two-legged Relegation play-off with the 16th-place-finisher in the 1st division. But usually, the 16th place finisher from the Bundesliga wins that play-off, and only 2 teams get promoted (which is what has happened for the last 5 seasons). As for relegation, the same format described above also applies between the 2nd division and the 3rd division (which is called 3. Liga).

2. Bundesliga is one of the two the highest-drawing second divisions in the world. In terms of drawing power, only the English Football League Championship is comparable. There really are no other second tier leagues – anywhere – that even come close. (The next closest are drawing about 10-K-per-game less: Spain’s 2nd tier and France’s 2nd tier both draw in the 7-K-range.) Both the English 2nd division and the German 2nd division draw in the 17-to-21-K range, depending on the precise make-up of the clubs in the two leagues each season. The two alternate as the top-drawing second division, with the amount of big clubs stuck down in the 2nd tier in any given season being the difference. So when Newcastle (as well as Aston Villa) were stuck in the 2nd tier in 2016-17, the Championship drew 20.0 K overall. And meanwhile, last season saw two big-and-high-drawing German clubs also stuck in the 2nd tier (Stuttgart and Hannover), and so in 2016-17, the German second division’s overall average attendance was a staggering 21.7 K. That was higher than the French 1st division! This season, the EFL Championship is on pace to draw in the 20.1 K range; while 2. Bundesliga is on pace to draw in the 17.1 K range. The reason for the ~4.6-K-drop in overall average attendance in the German second tier this season is because there are a whole bunch of smallish clubs now in 2. Bundesliga that don’t draw above 11 K, yet are punching above their weight, such as Holstein Kiel and Jahn Regensburg and Sandhausen and Heidenheim. Plus, last season, 1860 Munich imploded and were relegated [and then were further relegated down to the 4th division for financial reasons], thus putting even more of a dent in the overall average attendance of the German second tier (for now). (Three seasons ago, in 2015-16, when there were fewer large clubs down in both of these 2nd tiers (and fewer minnows), the German 2nd division drew 19.7 K overall, while the English 2nd division drew 17.5 K overall, and one could look at those figures as a sort of crowd-size-baseline for the two leagues.)
{Sources for attendance figures: european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn; en.wikipedia/[17/18 EFL C'ship]; en.wikipedia/[17/18 2.Bund.].}

The promotion race in 2. Bundesliga…Last season in the German second division, both teams that won promotion were large clubs, both of which bounced straight back to the Bundesliga (the aforementioned Stuttgart and Hannover). But so far in 2017-18, among the promotion contenders in 2. Bundesliga, there is an interesting mix of a few would-be-Bundesliga-newcomers (Kiel, Union Berlin, and Jahn Regensburg), several clubs that have had multiple stints in the 1st division (Düsseldorf, Nürnberg, Bielefeld, and Duisburg), and one newish club with a recent-two-season-spell in the top flight (Ingolstadt). And it bears mentioning that one of those that I just listed above is a club that was in the 4th tier two seasons ago…Bavarian side Jahn Regensburg, who have currently won 13 points out of a possible 15, and have now moved up to 7th place, 7 points off the play-off place. And the 6th through 3rd places have been gaining on the automatic promotion spots. So, in other words, this season’s 2. Bundesliga promotion race is shaping up to be a compelling one. Below are short profiles of the top 2 teams as of the second week of December 2017.

    The top two teams in 2. Bundesliga as of 5 December 2017 (Holstein Kiel and Fortuna Düsseldorf)…
    Holstein Kiel.

Seasons in German top flight: none.
Major Titles: 1 German title (1912).
Average attendance [as of 5 Dec. 2017]: 10.4 K (at 78%-capacity).
Manager of Holstein Kiel, Markus Anfang (age 43, born in Cologne, W Germany). After running Bayer Leverkusen’s youth team and then their U-17 team, Anfang was hired by Holstein Kiel in the summer of 2016. In 2016-17, Anfang’s Kiel had the best defense and the second-best scoring rate in the third tier, and won promotion to the second division.

The biggest surprise of the German second division this season is Holstein Kiel.
Holstein Kiel won a German title a little over a century ago, in 1912, beating Karlsruher 1-0. (This was back when the German title was decided by the regional winners playing in a round-robin format.) Kiel regularly made the national playoffs in the 1920s. In 1930, Kiel almost won their second national title, losing in the final 5-4 to Hertha Berlin. But since the Bundesliga was instituted in 1963-64 and the lower leagues were re-organized, Kiel has been primarily a third-or-fourth-tier side, with only one 3-season-spell in 2. Bundesliga (1978-81), and zero appearances in the top flight. Kiel were in the 3rd division for 36 seasons before winning promotion from 3. Liga in May 2017 (as 2nd-place-finishers behind MSV Duisburg).

Now, in their first season back in the second division since 1980-81, Holstein Kiel have come out of nowhere to lead the German second division, with 47% of the season played (16 of 34 matches played). Kiel leads the second division in scoring, with 2.25 goals per game (36 goals). The team has been propelled to the top of the 2. Bundesliga table with the help of two players: 23-year-old FW Marvin Ducksch, who is on loan from FC St Pauli, and 27-year-old FW Dominick Drexler (see photos and captions further below). Ducksch has scored 10 goals (2nd-best) and has made 2 assists, while Drexler has netted 8 times plus made 4 assists. Both players had been instrumental in Holstein Kiel’s successful promotion campaign in the 3rd division in 2016-17, and now both are doing it again in the second tier. The only problem is, should Kiel win an unexpected second consecutive promotion, Marvin Ducksch will not be part of Kiel’s Bundesliga debut, as FC St Pauli intends on re-calling him back for the 18/19 season.

Holstein Kiel are from Kiel, which is a port-city on the Baltic Sea. Kiel is the largest city within the German portion of the Jutland Peninsula. Kiel has a city-population of around 246,000 and a metro-area population of around 643,000 {2015 figures}, making it about the 29th-largest city in Germany {source}. Kiel is, by road, 60 miles (97 km) north of Hamburg, and Kiel is about 60 miles south of the border with Denmark. Kiel is the largest city of the northern-most state of Germany, Schleswig-Holstein.

The area around Kiel was first settled by Vikings or Normans, and Kiel was founded as a city in 1233. Kiel was a member of the Hanseatic League for over two centuries (1284-1518). Kiel was capital of the duchy of Holstein, which was the northern-most territory of the Holy Roman Empire (up to the late 18th century). Kiel was situated only a few miles south of the Danish border then, and the duchy to the north, Shleswig, was part of Denmark back then. But from 1773 to 1864, Kiel and all of Holstein, though comprised of a German-speaking majority, was owned by (but not administered by) the Danish crown, in a complex arrangement {see this: Schleswig-Holstein Question}. This was only resolved by the two Schleswig wars of the mid-1800s (1848-51: Denmark v Prussia; 1864: Denmark v Prussia/Austria). Kiel and its larger region (duchies of Shleswig and of Holstein, as well as a northern part of Lower Saxony) was won in 1864 by the German Confederation, in the Second Schleswig War, and became part of the Kingdom of Prussia.

Holstein Kiel wear Royal-Blue-and-White with Red trim, and wear a blue circular badge that features the coat of arms of Kiel, which is a stylized nettle [the symbol of Holstein] (the outer red-white-jagged-edge badge-shape), and a curved Viking ship (the black crescent-shape in centre: “the boat refers to the name of the town, kiel being German for keel” {-excerpt from crwflags.com}). You can see the coat of arms of Kiel in the illustration below.

Holstein Kiel, as befitting a club that has just been promoted after more than three decades in the 3rd tier, are not that big of a club, and play in a small-but-well-maintained 13,400-capacity venue, called Holstein-Stadion (see below). Kiel are currently drawing just 15th-best in the second tier, at 10.4 K (78-percent-capacity). Nevertheless, locals have responded to Kiel’s great form this season, and average attendance is up by 4.7 K, meaning that Holstein Kiel have almost doubled their crowd-size this season (Kiel drew 5.7 K in 2016-17).

Holstein Kiel’s last match, on Saturday the 2nd of December, was a battle between 1st and 2nd place, and Kiel ended up drawing with Fortuna Düsseldorf, 2-2, in front of 11.7 K at Holstein Stadion. So Kiel, as of 5 December, have a 3-point lead on 3rd place and a 6-point lead on 4th. Of course there is much more to be contested in the German second tier this season, but Holstein Kiel have an excellent chance to finally win promotion to the top flight, and bring Bundesliga football to the Jutland Peninsula for the first time ever.

holstein-kiel_holstein-stadion_2017-18-promotion-campaign_i_.gif
Photo and Image credits above – Holstein Kiel 17/18 jersey, photo by holstein-kiel.de/fanshop jpg. Aerial shot of Kiel, photo by Klaas Ole Kürtz at File:KielerStadtzentrumLuftaufnahme.jpg (commons.wikimedia.org). Holstein-Stadion, photo by Ulf Dahl via kn-online.de. Holstein Kiel fans with banners, photo by groundhopping.se/HolsteinKiel. Marvin Ducksch, photo from fcstpauli.com. Dominick Drexler, photo by Oliver Hardt/Bongarts via zimbio.com.

    Fortuna Düsseldorf.

Seasons in German top flight: 23 (previously: a one-season spell in Bundesliga in 2012-13).
Major Titles: 1 German title (1933). 2 DFB-Pokal titles (1980).
Average attendance [as of 5 Dec. 2017]: 26. K (at 48%-capacity).
Manager of Fortuna Düsseldorf, Friedhelm Funkel (age 64, born in Neuss in the Rhine-Ruhr metro-area of North Rhine-Westphalia). Funkel is a well-traveled manager who has had stints leading several top flight and second-tier clubs (KFC Uerdingen, Duisburg, Hansa Rostock, Köln, Eintracht Frankfurt, Hertha Berlin, Bochum, Alemannia Aachen, and 1860 Munich). He has been managing Fortuna Düsseldorf since March of 2016. Düsseldorf finished in 11th place in 2. Bundesliga in his first full season at the helm, in 16/17.

Currently [5 Dec. 2017], Fortuna Düsseldorf are in second place, but the team has not won in 5 matches (3 draws and 2 losses). And meanwhile, Nürnberg, Union Berlin, Arminia Bielefeld, Ingolstadt, Jahn Regensburg, Duisburg, and Braunschweig are all gaining on them. And cause for alarm can seen in Fortuna’s home loss in the last week of November to Dynamo Dresden, by a 1-3 score, with the then-relegation-threatened Dynamo Dresden scoring three times in the first 10 minutes.
fortuna-dusseldorf_esprit-arena_2017-18-promotion-campaign_c_.gif

Photo and Image credits above – Fortuna Düsseldorf 17/18 jersey, photo by otto.de jpg. Esprit Arena, aerial shot, photo unattributed at pinterest.com. Esprit Arena, exterior photo by Jörg Wiegels at File:ESPRIT arena in Duesseldorf-Stockum, von Sueden.jpg (en.wikipedia.org). Esprit Arena, close-up exterior photo, by groundhopping.se/[Dusseldorf]. Fortuna Düsseldorf fans, photo unattributed at footballtripper.com.
___
Thanks to all at the links below…
-Blank map of Germany by NordNordWest, File:Germany location map.svg (en.wikipedia.org).
-Attendances from E-F-S site, european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn.htm.
-2016-17 stadium capacities (for league matches) from Fußball-Bundesliga 2016/17 (de.wikipedia.org).
-List of German football champions (en.wikipedia.org).
-Seasons-in-1st-division data from All-time Bundesliga table (en.wikipedia.org).

October 17, 2017

2017-18 Bundesliga (Germany/1st division) location-map, with: 16/17 attendance data, seasons-in-1st-division-by-club & major titles listed./+ the 2 promoted clubs (VfB Stuttgart and Hannover 96).

Filed under: Germany — admin @ 5:28 pm

germany_2017-18_bundesliga_map_w-16-17-attendance_seasons-in-1st-div_titles-listed_post_f_.gif
2017-18 Bundesliga (Germany/1st division) location-map, with: 16/17 attendance data, seasons-in-1st-division-by-club & major titles listed



By Bill Turianski on 17 October 2017; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-Teams, etc…2017-18 Bundesliga (en.wikipedia.org).
-English-speaking Bundesliga coverage…bundesligafanatic.com.
-Official site of the Bundesliga in English (offizielle webseite der Bundesliga)…bundesliga.com/en/.
-Table, fixtures, results, stats, etc…Bundesliga 2017/18 – Summary (us.soccerway.com/national/germany/bundesliga).

-From Associated Press via Daily Herlad.com, BUNDESLIGA 2017-18: Guide to the 2 promoted teams (by Ciaran Fahey on 14 Aug.2017).

A brief re-cap of the 2016-17 Bundesliga…
16/17 Bundesliga champions
Bayern Munich [German: Bayern München]. The Bavarian giants have now won 5 straight Bundesliga titles. Bayern Munich have won the most German titles (27, their first German won in 1932), and the most Bundesliga titles (26, their first Bundesliga title won back in the 6th season of the competition, in 1969).
Teams that qualified for Europe
17/18 Champions League Group Stage: Bayern Munich, Lawn Ball Sport Leipzig, Borussia Dortmund.
17/18 CL GS play-off round: Hoffenheim.
17/18 Europa League Group Stage: FC Köln, Hertha Berlin.
EL GS 3rd qualifying round: SC Freiburg.

Teams that were relegated out of Bundesliga, into the 2nd division (2. Bundesliga), in May 2017…
Ingolstadt (17th place) and Darmstadt (last place) were both relegated to the 2nd division, while 16th place finishers Werder Bremen survived by winning the Relegation play-offs by a 2-0 aggregate score over Eintracht Braunschweig (who were the 3rd-place-finishers in 2. Bundesliga).

Teams that were promoted in May 2017
VfB Stuttgart and Hannover 96. Both clubs, who were relegated in 2015-16, bounce straight back to the Bundesliga. I am pretty sure this is the first time this has happened in Germany (ie, all teams relegated one season then going on to win promotion straight back up, the following season). I checked every Bundesliga season for this, and it looks like this is the first time it’s happened, but I honestly could only find one reference to this online, which only mentions this (and doesn’t necessarily confirm it as an unprecented thing), at the following link: {Guardian/football/The Knowledge from 13 Sept.2017, question #3: Bouncebackabilty [scroll down one-third-of-the-way, in the article there] (by John Ashdown at theguardian.com/football).

VfB Stuttgart.
Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg [in south-western Germany].
Stuttgart is located, by road, 128 miles (206 km) S of Frankfurt; and Stuttgart is located, by road, 145 miles (233 km) NE of Munich. The closest large city to Stuttgart is in France: as the crow flies, Stuttgart is only about 50 miles (80 km) from the French border and Stuttgart is 92 miles (148 km), by road, from Strasbourg, France.
Rivals: Stuttgart are sort of bereft of a rival, currently…Stuttgart’s biggest local rival, Stuttgart Kickers, have not been in the 1st division since 1992, so that rivalry has faded, while their rivalry with Karlsruher SC (about 47 miles away) has increased in importance in the last couple decades (Stuttgat v Karlsruher is called the Baden-Württemberg-Derby). But the just-relegated-to-3rd-division Karlsruher are now 2 divisions lower than Stuttgart. The nearest current Bundesliga team to Stuttgart is Hoffenheim (the two clubs are located about 57 miles apart), but, owing to Hoffenheim’s meteoric rise out of the lower leagues into the 1st division a decade ago, Stuttgart and Hoffenheim have never developed a real rivalry.

Stuttgart returns straight back to the Bundesliga after winning the 2016-17 2. Bundesliga title, two points above the 2nd place finishers [Hannover], and 3 points above 3rd place. Stuttgart’s 2016-17 average attendance was 50,573 (at 83.6 percent-capacity); Stuttgart had the best attendance in the 2nd division, and the 5th-best attendance in all of Germany in 2016-17 {source: european-football-statistics.co.uk/[attendance]}. Currently, now back in the 1st division, Stuttgart’s crowds are the 4th-largest in the Bundesliga, averaging 51.8 K (at 90-%-capacity) [as of 17 Oct. 2017] {source: us.soccerway.com/[Bundesliga}.

Colours: White jerseys with Red trim and sometimes also Black trim, and White pants (usually); their badge features black deer antlers on a yellow field, and the deer antlers have been part of the Stuttgart crest since 1912, when Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart was formed via a merger of two predecessor clubs: Stuttgarter FV and Kronen-Club Cannstatt {1912 VfB Stuttgart crest}. Deer antlers are part of the coat of arms of Württemberg {see this article from espnfc.com/9th paragraph there}. (By the way, deer antlers are also featured on the Porsche logo.)

Seasons in 1st division: counting 2017-18, VfB Stuttgart have played 52 seasons in the Bundesliga [2017-18 is the 55th season of Bundesliga (est. 1963-64)].
Stuttgart’s major titles:
5 German titles (last in 2007).
3 DFB-Pokal titles (last in 1997).
Manager: Hannes Wolf (age 36), born in Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia.
vfb-stuttgart_promoted-2017_mercedes-benz-arena_e_.gif
Photo and Images credits above – 17/18 Stuttgart jersey, photo unattributed at footballshirtculture.com. Mercedes-Benz Arena, photo from File:Mercedes-Benz-Arena Stuttgart.JPG by MSeses at commons.wikimedia.com. Tifo, photo from File:Cannstatter Kurve 2013.JPG by RudolfSimon at commons.wikimedia.org.

Hannover 96.
Hanover, Lower Saxony [in north-central Germany].
Hanover is located, by road, 99 miles (159 km) S of Hamburg; and Hanover is located, by road, 131 miles (212 km) NE of Dortmund.
Rivals: Hannover 96′s biggest rival is fellow Lower Saxon side Eintracht Braunschweig, and the cities of Hanover and Braunschweig are only about 41 miles apart. Last season, Hannover beat out Braunschweig by one point for automatic promotion.

Hannover 96 returns straight back to the Bundesliga after finishing in 2nd place in the second tier, two points behind Stuttgart, while finishing one point ahead of their big rivals Eintracht Braunschweig, and 7 points ahead of 4th place [FC Union Berlin]. Hannover’s 2016-17 average attendance was 36,647 (at 74.4 percent-capacity); Hannover had the second-best attendance in the 2nd division, and the 12th-best attendance in all of Germany in 2016-17. Currently, now back in the Bundesliga, Hannover has the 10th-largest crowds, averaging 47.1 K (at 96-%-capacity) [as of 17 Oct. 2017].

Colours: Red jersey, usually with Black pants, and a Green-and-Black badge. Hannover have always had a green-and-black badge {see this, Hannover 96 badges through the years}, but they played in blue jerseys for their first 18 years. Hannover’s red jerseys date back to 1913, when a merger with another local club – Ballverein [BV] 1898 Hannovera – led to the club adopting BV’s red jerseys, while retaining their green-and-black badge.

Seasons in 1st division: counting 2017-18, Hannover 96 have played 29 seasons in the Bundesliga.
Hannover’s major titles:
2 German titles (last in 1954).
1 DFB-Pokal title (last in 1992).
Manager: André Breitenreiter (age 44), born in the Langenhagen district of Hanover, Lower Saxony.
hannover-96_promoted-2017_d_.gif
Photo and Images credits above – 17/18 Hannover 96 jersey, unattributed at footyheadlines.com HDI-Arena, photo unattributed at skyscrapercity.com/showthread[HD-Arena/Hannover 96]. Tifo, photo unattributed at pinterest.com.

Note: I will soon post a map-and-chart of the German second division, 2. Bundesliga, in mid-December 2017.
___
Thanks to all at the links below…
-Blank map of Germany by NordNordWest, File:Germany location map.svg (en.wikipedia.org).
-Attendances from E-F-S site, european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn.htm.
-2016-17 stadium capacities (for league matches) from Fußball-Bundesliga 2017/18 (de.wikipedia.org).
-List of German football champions (en.wikipedia.org).
-Seasons-in-1st-division data from Fußball-Bundesliga/Vereine der Bundesligasaison 2017/18 (de.wikipedia.org).

September 30, 2016

2016-17 Bundesliga (Germany/1st division) location-map, with: 15/16 attendance data, seasons-in-1st-division-by-club & major titles listed./+ promoted clubs from 2.Bundesliga (SC Freiburg, RasenBallsport Leipzig).

Filed under: Germany — admin @ 3:56 pm

germany_2016-17_bundesliga_map_w-15-16-attendance_seasons-in-1st-div_titles-listed_post_d_.gif
Germany: 2016-17 Bundesliga location-map, with: 15/16 attendance data, seasons-in-1st-division-by-club & major titles listed



By Bill Turianski on 30 September 2016; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-Teams, etc…2016-17 Bundesliga (en.wikipedia.org).
-English-speaking Bundesliga coverage…bundesligafanatic.com.
-Official site of the Bundesliga in English (offizielle webseite der Bundesliga)…bundesliga.com/en/.
-Table, fixtures, results, stats, etc…Bundesliga – Summary (soccerway.com/national/germany/bundesliga).

    Below: the 2 promoted clubs from 2.Bundesliga to the Bundesliga for 2016-17
    (SC Freiburg, RB Leipzig)
    • SC Freiberg

(Est. 1904). City-population of Freiburg im Breisgau: around 220,000 {2014 figure}. Freiburg is, by road, 205 km (127 mi) SW of Stuttgart. Freiburg is, by road, 70 km (44 mi) N of Basel, Switzerland.

Colours: Red-with-Black. Nickname: (none). Coach: Christian Streich (age 51), born in Weil am Rhein, SW Baden-Württemberg.

-From Bundesliga official site, from May 2016, Youth-oriented Freiburg are back. After relegation to 2.Bundesliga in May 2015, SC Freiburg retained their coach, Christian Streich, and much of their young squad. In 2015-16, they bounced straight back up to the Bundesliga with relative ease, clinching automatic promotion with 2 games to spare. Seen below are the top two scoring threats for Freiburg last season: Nils Petersen and Vincenzo Grifo. Both return for 2016-17.

Counting 2016-17, Freiburg have spent 12 seasons in the Bundresliga…
Freiburg’s previous stint in the top flight was a 6-season spell from 2009-10 to 2015-16. Freiburg’s fanbase is pretty faithful, seeing as how the club these days pretty much always plays to near-capacity (above 97 percent-capacity since 2012-13 [4 seasons]). The club saw barely any drop-off in attendance at all when they were down in the second division last season (in 2015-16). Last season Freiburg drew 23.3 K in a 24.0-capacity stadium, and they only drew 473 less than they were drawing in the 1st division in 14/15. That less-than-one-percent drop-off in crowd-size reminds me of Norwich City. Norwich City also loses less than one-percent of their crowd-size when they (invariably) get relegated. So SC Freiburg are kind of like Norwich City in that way. Plus both clubs are from relatively small cities to be having a 1st division team (some seasons), and both clubs are from cities which are tucked in somewhat outlying corners of their respective countries.

Freiburg im Breisgau is located in far south-western Germany, about 18 km (11 mi) E of the French border, and about 67 km (42 mi) N of the Swiss border. Freiburg is situated on the western edge of the Black Forest, and the city is located within the Baden wine-growing region. Freiburg has one of the highest standards of living in Germany, and is renowned for its advanced environmental practices. An example of how green and eco-conscious Freiburg is can be seen in the fact that in 1996, SC Freiburg were the first football club in Germany to install solar panels on their stadium (on three-quarters of the roof-space [see photo below]). Freiburg is so green that the coach, Christian Streich (a Freiburg-area native), rides his bicycle to the team’s home games at the Schwarzwald-Stadion.

-From the Transition site [an academic site],
The Future for SC Freiburg’s stadium is still bright (by Jessica Porter on 24 June 2015 at transition.web.unc.edu).

freiburg_schwarzwald-stadion_2016-promoted_nils-petersen_vicenzo-grifo_christian-streich_i_.gif
Photo and Image credits -
16/17 Freiburg jersey, photo unattributed at 3.bp.blogspot.com. Freiburg, aerial photo by Thomas Maier at File:Freiburg-im-Breisgau-Luftaufnahme-16072004.jpg. Schwarzwald-Stadion, aerial shot, photo by badenova.de. Schwarzwald-Stadion, interior shot, photo by Picture Alliance via kicker.de. Photo of Vincenzo Grifo, photo by Joachim Hahne at suedkurier.de/sport/sport/Spielernoten-So-stuermte-der-SC-Freiburg-an-die-Spitze. Nils Petersen, photo by Alexander Scheuber/Bongarts via zimbio.com. Photo of Freiburg players still celebrating during post-game press conference of coach Christian Srteich, image from screenshot of animated gif at kretschmannland.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/sc_freiburg_celebrate_promotion_29_04_2016.gif; kretschmannland.wordpress.com/category/the-daily-prompt/page/2/.

    • RasenBallsport Leipzig

(Est. 2009). City-population of Leipzig: around 560,000; metro-area population: around 1.0 million/ 10th-largest city in Germany {2015 figures}. Leipzig is, by road, 149 km (93 mi) SSW of Berlin. Leipzig is, by road, about 152 km (95 mi) ENE of the Czech Republic border at the Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge).

Colours: White-with-Taurine-Red-and-Dark-Blue-and-Gummy-Bear-Yellow. Nickname: die Roten Bullen (the Red Bulls). Manager: Ralph Hasenhüttl (age 49), born in Graz, Austria.

Only 5 teams from the former-East-Germany have ever played in the Bundesliga (1991-92 to 2016-17)…
RB Leipzig are the first team from the former-East-Germany to play in the Bundesliga in almost a decade, since Energie Cottbus (who were last in the German top flight in 2008-09). Now, counting RB Leipzig, since German reunification/football-leagues consolidation in 1991-92 (when the top 2 teams in the last season of DDR-Oberliga were promoted over into the Bundesliga), only 5 teams from the former-East-Germany have ever played in the Bundesliga…
Hansa Rostok (12 seasons in Bundesliga, last in 2007-08),
Dynamo Dresden (4 seasons in Bundesliga, from 1991-95),
VfB Leipzig (one season in Bundesliga in 1993-4),
Energie Cottbus (6 seasons in Bundesliga, last in 2008-09),
•and now, RB Leipzig.
RB Leipzig make their first-division debut in 2016-17. Seen further below are the top four scoring threats for RB Leipzig last season, when they finished in second place in 2.Bundesliga, clinching automatic promotion with one game to spare (by beating Karslruhrer 2-0 on 8 May 2016).

And for the first time in 22 years, there finally is a team in the Bundesliga from the 6th-largest metro-region in Germany – the Central German Metropolitan Region (Leipzig/Chemnitz/Halle/Dresden: population of around 4.6 million {2009 figure}, see this, Metropolitan regions in Germany). (The previous team in the Bundesliga from this metro-region was Dynamo Dresden, who last played in the Bundesliga from 1991-95.)

That is the good news. The rest is good news only if you like the concept of corporations taking over the sports world…
That is because the seven-year-old “club” RB Leipzig is part of the Red Bull pro sports empire, which is growing like a cancer. From Guardian/football, from 8 September 2016, by Phillp Oltermann, How RB Leipzig became the most hated club in German football (theguardian.com/football). From the Supporters Not Customers site, Against Red Bull Football (by Ben Dudley on 11 June 2013 at supportersnotcustomers.com).

In most of the following cases below, the energy-drink purveyors Red Bull took over a football club, changed its colours, crest, and name, thereby stripping the club of its history and re-branding it in the name of further corporate conquest. Three other teams were founded by Red Bull GmbH (a minor-league soccer team in NYC, a 5th-division Brazilian side, and a now-defunct Ghanain team)…

red-bull-teams_bull-scheiss_c_.gif
Image above originally appears as result of search query “red bull football teams” at google.com.

Football “clubs” and soccer franchises that Red Bull GmbH owns…
-RB Leipzig (Leipzig, Saxony, Germany/1st div/est 2009, re-branded from a club which dated back to 1990 [SSV Markranstädt].
-Red Bull Salzburg (Salzburg, Austria/1st div/est 2005, re-branded from a club which dated back to 1933 [SV Austria Salzburg]) (now is merely a feeder-”club” for RB Leipzig).
-New York Red Bulls (Harrison, New Jersey, USA/1st div [Major League Soccer]/est 2006, re-branded from a franchise which dated back to 1995 [the NY/NJ MetroStars]).
-FC Liefering (Grödig, Greater Salzburg, Austria/2nd div/est 2012, re-branded from a club which dated back to 1947 [FC Anif]) (feeder-”club” for other Red Bull teams).
The following are teams which Red Bull started from scratch…
-Red Bull Brasil (Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil/4th div/est 2007).
-Red Bull Ghana (2008-14/defunct).
-New York Red Bulls II (Harrison, New Jersey, USA/quasi-3rd div/est 2015) (feeder-minor-league-team in USL-1, for the New York Red Bulls of MLS).

-(Red Bull GmbH also owns 1st-division ice hockey teams in Munich and Salzburg; and Red Bull GmbH owns motor racing teams in Austria [F1], Italy [F1], and next year [2017] in Brisbane, Australia [Super-8].)

In the case of RB Leipzig, Red Bull GmbH took over the 5th division side SSV Markranstädt (1990-2009)…
The Red Bull corporation bought the 5th-division club SSV Markranstädt (of Markranstädt, Saxony near Leipzig), in 2009, with the announced intention of turning it into a Bundesliga team within 8 years. (They made it into the Bundesliga in 7 years.) The club was re-named RB Leipzig (RB is the shortened term for RasenBallsport, which translates as “LawnBallsport” [seriously]). Red Bull GmbH got around the 50+1 rule in Germany…and frankly have made a mockery of that rule…by making RB Leipzig a “club” that is so prohibitively expensive to join that there are only 17 members – virtually all of whom have financial-and/or-job-related ties to Red Bull GmbH (the club reserve the right to reject any application without a reason). It costs €1,000 a year to simply be a non-voting member of RB Leipzig. By comparison, it only costs around €70 per season to join Bayern Munich (and have full-voting-privileges). Bayern Munich is a club which has over 225,000 members. FC Schalke has over 140,000 members (also with voting privileges; as with the next few examples). Borussia Dortmund has around 139,000 members. Borussia Mönchengladbach has over 75,000 members. Hamburger SV has over 70,000 members. Even small-and-relative-newcomers-to-the-Bundesliga, clubs like FC Augsburg (12,200 members) and Darmstadt (5,500 members), have considerably more members than the less-than-two-dozen members which comprise the “club” known as RB Leipzig.

In the case of Red Bull Salzburg, in 2005 Red Bull GmbH took over a club – SV Austria Salzburg – with a long history in the Austrian 1st division including 4 Austrian titles…
SV Austria Salzburg wore purple and white colours; they averaged around 7-to-8 K per game (circa the mid-2000s); the supplanted team Red Bull Salzburg has ended up with about the same crowd-size, drawing 8.4 K in 2015-16. Back in 2005, when the fans of SV Austria Salzburg realized Red Bull GmbH’s identity-stripping intentions with the club they supported, and protested, Red Bull said something very condescending, to the effect that, If they liked purple so much then maybe the complaining fans would be happy if the Red Bull Salzburg goalkeeper wore purple socks. Here is an excerpt from the article linked to further above (and, again, here), entitled Against Red Bull Football…
“The Austrian Bundesliga side were purchased by Red Bull in the same way as their franchise in Leipzig, with the only part of the club the new owners truly cared about being the license to play. The violet and white colours of Austria Salzburg were replaced with a kit more suitable for the marketing of ‘the brand’, with supporters’ protests completely ignored by the clubs hierarchy. Also gone was the clubs traditional badge, once again replaced by a tawdry Red Bull infected logo without a shred of pride or passion. As supporters protested furiously for the return of Austria Salzburg’s soul, Red Bull’s offered a so-called compromise. “If colours are so important to the supporters, the goalkeeper can wear violet socks” said Red Bull.”…(excerpt by Ben Dudley at the Supporters Not Customers site).

So fans in Austria, upset with Red Bull, formed their own club in 2006, SV Austria Salzburg
Fan-owned protest club SV Austria Salzburg were placed in the 7th tier of Austrian football and initially had a good start, with 4 consecutive promotions and then five years later, a fifth promotion in to the Austrian 2nd division in 2015. But that promotion into the Austrian second-tier was so costly (debt of €900,000 by November 2015) that SV Austria Salzburg were relegated right back last season (2015-16), and are now again a 3rd-division-side, this time with severe financial problems. And meanwhile, the “club” that supplanted SV Austria Salzburg, Red Bull Salzburg, who after failing in 9 attempts to qualify for the UEFA Champions League Group Stage, have – as per orders from Red Bull corporate HQ – become merely a feeder club for Red Bull’s new flagship sports “brand”, the newly-promoted-to-the Bundesliga team RB Leipzig. So Red Bull took the identity of Salzburg’s biggest club from their supporters, then eleven years later, when that “product” failed to launch properly, turned that club into a mere feeder-team for their flagship brand (RB Leipzig).

Criticisms of RB Leipzig…
{The following excerpts are from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RB_Leipzig#Criticism.}…”The establishment of RB Leipzig has caused much controversy in Germany. The controversy has revolved around the apparent involvement of Red Bull GmbH and the restrictive membership policy. This has been seen as contrary to common practice in Germany, where football clubs have traditionally relied on voluntary registered associations, with sometimes very large number of members, and where the 50 + 1 rule has ensured that club members have a formal controlling stake.RB Leipzig has been criticized for allegedly being founded as a marketing tool and for allegedly taking commercialization of football in Germany to a new level. The club has been rejected as a “marketing club”, a “commercial club” or a “plastic club”. The criticism has been widespread. Critics have been found both in the management and among coaches and supporters of other clubs.
The introduction of RB Leipzig was met with protests from supporters of other Leipzig football clubs, notably 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig and FC Sachsen Leipzig. They feared a decline of traditional fan culture in Leipzig, and a commercialization of football in the region. After the partnership with SSV Markranstädt had become known, protests immediately appeared in Leipzig suburbs. Red Bull advertising boards at the Stadion am Bad in Markranstädt was smeared with graphitti and the pitch was purposely destroyed by a weed killer. Apart from these actions, protests in Leipzig were generally non-violent.”…/
…”The German economist Dr. Tobias Kollman said in 2009 that he saw Red Bull GmbH as a company with clear economic goals for its projects. Consequently, he described RB Leipzig as a “marketing club” and said that it was the first of this kind in Germany. He further described the activities of Red Bull GmbH in Leipzig a “sports political earthquake” in Germany. Borussia Dortmund chairman Hans-Joachim Watzke and Eintracht Frankfurt chairman Heribet Bruchhagen warned in 2013 that clubs backed by major companies or financially strong patrons could pose a threat to the entire Bundesliga, talking of a “clash of culture”.

rb-leipzig_lawnballsport-leipzig_red-bull-arena_emil-forsberg_marcel-sabitzer_davie-selke_dominik-kaiser_h_.gif
Photo and Image credits -
16/17 RB Leipzig jersey, photo by RB Leipzig at redbullshop.com r. Aerial shot of Red Bull Arena, photo by Philip at flickr.com. Photo of central Leipzig, photo unattributed at independent.co.uk/travel. Shot of 2015-16 RB Leipzig players celebrating a goal at the Red Bull Arena, photo by Getty Images via dailymail.co.uk/football/Borussia-Dortmund-supporters-groups-boycott-Red-Bull-Leipzig-visit. Emil Forsberg, photo by Boris Streubel/Bongarts via zimbio.com. Marcel Sabitzer, photo by Katrina Hessland/Getty Images via zimbio.com. Davie Selke, photo by Boris Streubel via gettyimages.com. Dominik Kaiser, photo by Ullstein Bold via gettyimages.com.
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Thanks to all at the links below…
-Blank map of Germany by NordNordWest, File:Germany location map.svg (en.wikipedia.org).
-Attendances from E-F-S site, european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn.htm.
-2015-16 stadium capacities (for league matches) from Fußball-Bundesliga 2015/16 (de.wikipedia.org).
-List of German football champions (en.wikipedia.org).
-Seasons-in-1st-division data from Bundesliga (en.wikipedia.org).

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