A record crowd of more than 30,000 fans is expected for the “Game of the Year” when the Hamburg Sea Devils play Rhein Fire in the European League of Football (ELF) in the Volksparkstadion on Sunday.
The previous audience record for the league (12,055) will be clearly exceeded in the third year, but the top value for a football game in the Hanseatic city could also fall.
30,528 fans came to the Hamburger SV football stadium for the Sea Devils’ last home game in 2007 against the Frankfurt Galaxy in NFL Europe, which was discontinued shortly afterwards. This mark is currently achievable.
At 4:25 p.m. (ProSieben MAXX) the duel against Düsseldorf from the 2nd ELF match day begins, in Hamburg the fever is already rising. “You can feel the tension, the electricity in the team. We expect a good fight from both sides,” says head coach Charles Jones and is certain: “The fans will be behind our team.”
ELF Commissioner Patrick Esume is also looking forward “to next Sunday, when 30,000+ people will be watching the best sport in the world.” The Hamburger wrote on Twitter. “It will be an exciting, important game for us as a league,” Esume had previously emphasized.
Even 20,000 spectators would be “a huge success” for him, but there will probably be significantly more – a maximum of 57,000 fans could find space. The power party with the Active City area and stage program begins at 11 a.m.