Line by line, Martin Eifler draws the white markings on the green lawn with his chalking machine. The groundsman in the Karl Liebknecht Stadium in Babelsberg recalls that he had already chalked off a field for American football for film work, but it is the premiere for the German Football League (GFL), the German elite league of US sports. It took the helpers a good six hours on Friday to prepare the field for the Potsdam Royals’ home start on Saturday (4.30 p.m.) against the Kiel Baltic Hurricanes.
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“We made almost 400 lines,” said Royals board member Tobias Nowack before the “Karli” premiere of the royal team, who started the season with a 55: 6 win against the same opponent away from home the previous week – after more than one and a half year break from competition. “There is also a robot that automatically draws the lines,” Nowack knows, “but we couldn’t afford one yet.” So many volunteers had to lend a hand in preparation in the stadium on Friday. There will be up to 40 on the game day itself. Of course also Royals President Jens Torsten Müller. “It is a beautiful stadium and we are grateful to everyone who makes it possible for us to use it,” says the club boss and lets his gaze wander from the stands over the field. “But there are also a lot of imponderables and a lot of tension.”
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500 fans are allowed into the stadium today at the Potsdam comeback of the Royals. “That is the absolute limit, we are sold out,” says club spokesman Lutz Nichelmann. “In the Karli you sit close to the pitch and experience strength and dynamism all over again,” says Müller happily. The cheerleaders from the Berlin Dance Team should also heat up the fans. The Royals footballers have to move this season because their actual home ground, the Luftschiffhafen stadium, is being rebuilt.
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The flying visit to Babelsberg should also be successful in terms of sport. The Royals want to go to the GFL playoffs. President Jens Torsten Müller is optimistic: “We have seldom had such a homogeneous team that is also there for each other,” he enthuses about the chemistry in the group. “I have never seen this team spirit in any of our teams.”
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In any case, everything is now ready for a good start at the “Karli”. Also thanks to greenkeeper Martin Eifler. Incidentally, he doesn’t worry about his lawn: “It was never as good as this year after the winter,” he says. And when football rolls again in August, it can simply make the American football lines disappear again with green paint.
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