The TC Freisenbruch is not a normal football club. In the Waldstadion Bergmannsbusch, home of the Essen district league club, the time for football romantics seems to have stopped with the Aschenplatz and the dilapidated replacement benches. But it has little to do with romance if a community of 683 registered football managers decides on the lineup for the next game, the position of the coach or the admission prices. Years ago, the first online manager game with a real connection to a club was created in Freisenbruch.
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When the corona crisis stopped all play in amateur football, the TC Freisenbruch was also affected. The last game was on March 8th. Shortly afterwards, the community expressed the idea of supporting the club with virtual tickets for the home games that had been missing for weeks. There are plenty of role models: For example, second division club VfL Bochum sold tickets for the home game against 1. FC Heidenheim, which was initially closed to the public and ultimately canceled. Clubs such as Rot-Weiß Oberhausen, Lok Leipzig or Kickers Offenbach followed suit from the regional leagues.
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Geisterspieltickets.de was launched on April 1st
“At first we were not so convinced of the idea,” says Peter Wingen, media officer at TC Freisenbruch told SPIEGEL. The makers of the manager game did not seem to reconcile the effort and earnings “But then we had the idea of turning it into a solidarity campaign among sports clubs.” This is how the idea for the platform geisterspieltickets.de came about. It started on April 1st.
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Clubs can register there to create an individual website with little effort, on which spectators, fans or supporters of the respective club can virtually buy tickets, beer and a stadium sausage – at self-chosen prices. “The settings take less than five minutes and then the clubs can get started right away,” says Wingen.
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Without people like André Schneider, many amateur clubs would be thrown out – he calls himself “all-purpose weapon”. At SV Hochlar 28 in the Recklinghausen district, he is a senior player, youth coach, deputy sports director and secretary in personal union.
“I became aware of the campaign on the Facebook page of TC Freisenbruch,” Schneider told SPIEGEL. “As a fan of VfL Bochum, who also sold virtual tickets, I thought about a similar idea.” Technically, however, this is not feasible for an association like Hochlar. He suggested the idea in the club, “and then it only took a few minutes for our chairmen to approve the action.”
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“What hurts us is the loss of home games”
The district club was one of the first clubs to use ghost tickets last week. Hochlar is not existentially threatened by the corona crisis. The club has almost 800 members, many volunteers maintain normal game play with four senior and 16 youth teams as well as a ball habituation group. There are also numerous mass sports groups. Now Schneider and his colleagues are breaking down important income. “What hurts us is the loss of home games and the open clubhouse in training.”
Depending on the opponent and the weather, up to 200 spectators come to the home games in Hochlar on good days, but it can also be significantly less. The income varies between 200 and 500 euros. “I am overwhelmed by what has already come together and how the campaign is being supported,” says Schneider. “We took over 500 euros after just a few days.”
The “Pottperlen” want to sell 600 tickets
In Hochlar the idea also came up to put a beer crate for sale for the team – as is the custom in amateur football on match days. Otherwise, the TC Freisenbruch deliberately kept the offer narrow. Billing takes place at the end of the month, and virtual viewers have various payment options available to process the donation. 74 clubs are currently participating, according to Wingen 658 tickets, 463 sausages, 920 beers and 30 beer crates have already been sold: “The clubs have already raised around 6000 euros.”
Freisenbruch keeps 20 percent of its sales in order to pay fees and operating costs. “If we have covered our costs, we will support #WeKickCorona from Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka with the remaining money,” says Wingen.
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The offer should not only appeal to football clubs, Wingen hopes to involve small creative artists. VC Allbau Essen is a second division volleyball team. There the last three home games of the season are canceled, which means for the club according to coach Marcel Werzinger a loss of 1800 euros. The “Pottperlen” therefore hope to sell 600 ghost game tickets – so many spectators fit in the Bergeborbeck sports hall. “The campaign got off to a great start, at the moment we have 150 tickets,” said Werzinger about SPIEGEL.
They haven’t got that far yet at TC Freisenbruch. “We haven’t advertised the campaign yet,” says Wingen. “With us, the online community is still voting on the exact prices.”
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