The indoor football event “Baller League” moved to Berlin and experienced its first matchday in the old Tempelhof Airport. How this feels on site and why not every promise of the creators works.
You don’t really want to, but then you are forced to fundamentally become. The “Baller League” (for basic knowledge, please This way). Moved from Cologne to Berlin for her third season, stayed in Hangar seven of the former Tempelhof Airport. And everywhere her slogan is written, which explains what this should be here and why you have to be in principle again: “A new era of football.”
So what this meant would like to know, and it meets that Daniel Donaldson still has time for a small media round shortly before kick -off in the first game. Donaldson is 38 and has such a winning smile that you would at least briefly think about buying a car insurance, even if you don’t have a car at all. Above all, he is CMO of the “Baller League” – Chief Marketing Officer.
A league for whom?
You want to pick up the people who no longer collect classic football completely for various reasons, says Donaldson. Unfortunately, he does not say what reasons are. And whether there are so many people who turn their back on classic football is questionable.
The number of spectators in the stadiums increases rather than they fall. The ratings of the television broadcasts are also stable. And that, although there are actually enough reasons to turn their back on the “modern” football. Corruped associations that whistle on human rights for a lot of money and shake hands with sports washing. Competitions such as the Champions League, which the gap in the national leagues have made so great that the same teams always become masters. The feeling that everything is just commercial. What the circle closes.
Football as an accessory
There is also a hangar seven like in Berlin Tempelhof at the airport in Salzburg. It is a kind of unofficial company headquarters of the beverage giant Red Bull, who started buying entire football clubs from 2005 and purely from advertising purposes. Co-determination options through annoying club members as usual? Not desired. The great power of football was always his permeability and the chance of participation. Red Bull and also the Baller League are the opposite of it.
The Baller League is an exclusive circle, a closed circle. It consists of a few dozen amateur footballers, a handful of mediocre ex-professionals and influencers as so-called team managers who use the Baller League in streams and on social media as content generators. It is a bit like before with Stefan Raab and his WOK World Cup or his tower jumping events or his StockCar race. The fans of the streaming giants Montana Black, Hands of Blood or Knossi would probably have also watched their stars to a betting bracket league. Football is only accessories.
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Spectators as a backdrop
You can feel that on this first Baller League matchday in Berlin. While the red evening sun lies across the sky outside over Tempelhofer Feld, the cool atmosphere of a TV studio dominates in Hangar Sieben before the recording. Many young people scurry around, armed with headsets and cameras. A feeling of “off you go” is in the air. But what actually?
As a result, there is also hustle and bustle between the games. Again and again the draft horses of the Baller League enter the lawn. A lot is laughed and then a lot streamed. However, the approximately 1,000 spectators in the hall are onlookers. One could also say: accessories. Backdrop. You don’t get anything from what is produced live there for the Internet.
It is similar during the games. Which is also due to the fact that there is a kind of indoor spokesman. But it is so bad to understand that at some point you no longer try to understand it. One scoreboard in the hangar is also not a great help. You have to be very in the topic to understand who is playing against whom or why a game is just interrupted.
The streamer Knossi during a livestream on the edge of the “Baller League”.
Minine -long silence
After all, the level on the square has increased significantly, especially compared to season one. The players are athletic and technically good. Even if this means that the encounters are relatively static. Historically, indoor football was always particularly attractive when it was not taken particularly seriously. When small magic mice and fiddling kings could unpacked. The players of the Baller League take the matter terribly seriously and mostly equalize each other. Up to the final minutes of a half, in which so-called gamuchanger rules apply. Then suddenly only three or even just one player face each other. Then goals. Then it can really be heard for the first time that this actually takes place here.
Until then, it is surprisingly quiet in the hall. Often for minutes. Each team has a few supporters who can or should or must or must in the games specially set up during the games. But ultra culture apparently cannot be copied. The permanent support of the Baller League clearly has an endurance problem.
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A new era of fair
Of course, everything looks incredibly cool in Hangar. But probably the annual meeting of the Lausitzer snail breeders would also look cool in the ambience of this historic airport building. There is also a food truck, a pretzel stand and drinks. The many companies that support the Baller League – presumably to pick up to those who no longer pick up classic football for various reasons – have all their casual little stands. And maybe that’s just the best marketing fair of all time that is not a fair. “A New Era of Messe”, so to speak.
Sending: The Day, 03.03.2025, 6:30 p.m.
