The Frankfurt Universe football team is withdrawing from the German Football League (GFL). The association cites a “difficult market environment” and insufficient financial resources as reasons. They still want to carry on.
Since last year at the latest, American football has arrived in Germany and especially in Frankfurt. The richest sports league in the world has also conquered the German market with two regular NFL games at Deutsche Bank Park, in which the newly crowned Super Bowl winners Kansas City Chiefs played, among others.
There are also more and more local offers to experience the sport live in the stadium. However, no longer at AFC Universe Frankfurt eV. The club, which has existed since 2007, has announced that its first men’s team will no longer take part in the GFL 2 (German Football League 2) games in the coming season.
But how can this be despite a booming market? According to the club, “despite many positive signals and broad support from politics and business in a difficult market environment, it was no longer possible to raise sufficient financial resources for game operations in a timely manner”. The local market has been particularly competitive since the founding of the European League of Football (ELF) and the Frankfurt Galaxy 2021 team.
From Galaxy to Universe and back again
However, to understand how the two clubs are related, you have to look back around 30 years. In 1991, the World League of American Football, later renamed NFL Europe, was founded. One of the first members back then: Frankfurt Galaxy. In the following years, the Galaxy won the championship four times before the entire league was dissolved in 2007.
Less than a month later, fans and former Galaxy players came together and founded a new club: AFC Frankfurt Universe eV. From 2007 to 2024, Frankfurt Universe played in the German American football league GFL, and from 2015 the PSD Bank Arena was FSV Frankfurt their home stadium.
With ever-increasing attention for sport in Germany, the European League of Football was launched in 2020 by, among others, Patrick Esume, football TV presenter and former coach of the French national football team, and Zeljko Karajica, an entrepreneur in the sports sector. In the course of this, the Frankfurt Galaxy was also re-founded.
New attention for American football in Frankfurt
The competition against teams from other European countries, greater attention through television broadcasts and more fans: This also attracts coaches and players to the re-established Frankfurt Galaxy, including Universe head coach Thomas Kösling and linebacker Sebastian Silva Gomez and Wide Receiver Lorenz Regeler to the new club.
With a statement, the Galaxy expressed their regret about Frankfurt Universe’s withdrawal from the GFL – also due to the shared history of the two clubs. In the future, Universe plans to focus on youth work and building a flag football team as well as the cheerleading department. In the medium term, a men’s team should also take part in league operations again.
Viewer numbers in comparison
The “difficult market environment” for Frankfurt Universe is also reflected in the audience numbers. While they had a total of 2,766 spectators in the 2023 season, there were an average of 6,658 fans in the stadium for the Galaxy’s home games.
2024-02-15 16:29:26
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