The regional football club SV Babelsberg 03 wants to set an example and is converting one of its two food stands in the Karl Liebknecht Stadium to vegan nutrition. Even the professionals have already been sent to test meat withdrawal.
There are still an hour and a half before the regional league game between Babelsberg 03 and Berliner AK kicks off. In the Karl Liebknecht Stadium, the loudspeakers are tested with rock music, and the stadium gates are about to be opened. Behind the north curve, the deep fryer sizzles warmly. Two employees from the catering company are busy with the final preparations in the wooden booth of the stadium snack bar.
Vegan sausages (chorizo-like, bratwurst-like or the good old currywurst), soy steaks, vegetable schnitzel, vegan meatballs and nuggets are prepared in silver canteen vats and on the grill. There are also fries and “Chana Masala” – a chickpea curry.
Babelsberg wants to set an example – for climate protection
Thoralf Höntze, Marketing Manager at SV Babelsberg 03, is proud of this wide range. “We wanted to set an example,” he says, because: “There are many stadiums where fries are the only vegan alternative. That’s not wrong, but that doesn’t set an example.” Babelsberg therefore wants to do things differently. The association is primarily concerned with climate protection. They want to spread the knowledge that factory farming is a huge problem for the environment. “Young people are taking to the streets and demonstrating because we just keep going the way we have been. We have to break this chain,” says Höntze. That’s why there is a completely vegan stand in Babelsberg.
The Babelsbergers had actually announced the change in diet for the public at the start of the season, but the actual introduction dragged on until mid-October. Obstacles of an “unexpected kind” arose, explains Höntze. Different cold chains, for example, than with the meat dishes. In addition, they wanted to find a partner (i.e. food manufacturer) that fits the club. The result was a deal with the Spanish company “Heura”, which has already made it from Barcelona to Holland and, according to Höntze, now also wants to enter the German market.
Since the home game against Meuselwitz two weeks ago, the “Karli” (the affectionate nickname of the stadium) has been divided in culinary terms: A stand with classic, meaty stadium sausages at the main entrance and one that only sells vegan products on the north stand. You don’t need more than two food stands here, on average around 2,500 spectators come to the games.
The “classic” sausage still scores in the barbecue duel
The stadium gates are now open. It’s almost an hour before the game kicks off, but today it’s not just on the field that’s important, but also on the grill.
And that’s where the classic sausage dominates. A long line forms in front of the meat stand at the entrance. “It simply tastes better,” says Marco on behalf of those waiting here, while squeezing mustard from the vat onto his bratwurst. Bratwurst and beer, that’s also German football culture that has been learned for decades.
The queue at the vegan stand: Rather short, sometimes not there at all. Only half an hour before kick-off does it slowly get busier here. “Hunger brought me here,” says Valentin. He actually looks like someone who could be standing here on purpose: a week-long beard, hip clothes, roughly in his mid-20s. He thinks it’s “good” that his club is promoting vegan nutrition, but: “I think I’m more likely to go to the traditional sausage.” He only ended up at the vegan stand because the queue on the other side of the stadium was so long. This is also representative of those waiting here. It’s just stupid that there are no longer “normal” sausages at the stand behind the north curve. Valentin looks amazed. “What, not at all?!” Not at all… Valentin shrugs his shoulders and then just orders vegan. Others turn away and go back to the fuller sausage stand, slightly annoyed.
Marketing boss Höntze observes “emotional project”
It can be described as a courageous step what SV Babelsberg is daring to do – switch 50% of the food offer to vegan. The animal protection association “Peta” once compared the vegan offers in the Bundesliga stadiums in a statistic in 2019, Babelsberg would be at the forefront with its current offer of eight to nine different vegan dishes – as a regional league. Dirk Zingler, the president of Bundesliga leaders Union Berlin, for example, announced not long ago in a “Sportbild” interview that there would be no vegan sausages in the An der Alten Försterei stadium for the foreseeable future.
“I’ve been doing this for 20 years now and I have to say that this project is one that people react to most emotionally,” says Thoralf Höntze. The opinions on the vegan food stand are mostly positive. The club was also encouraged by their own fans to take the step. In January, Babelsberg conducted an online survey to improve the stadium experience. According to Höntze, around 20% of the 144 participants suggested increasing the range of vegan dishes.
Babelsberg Marketing Manager Thoralf Höntze in front of his latest project: the vegan food stand.
And for his core area of marketing, vegan food could be a complete success. The club has received a lot of (positive) press so far, as reported by “Die Zeit” and the football magazine “11 Freunde”. In the case of the latter, Babelsberg’s main sponsor “Oatly”, a Swedish oat drink manufacturer, was also allowed to place a sponsored advertising article about vegan nutrition for professional athletes. The oat drink marketing geniuses conducted a study with the club a little over a year ago (with real scientists): part of the professional team ate vegan for eight weeks in the summer preparation, the rest normal. The performance and nutritional values were compared and one came to the conclusion: professional sports and vegan nutrition are not mutually exclusive.
Player Hoffmann: “We are a club that takes positions”
The Babelsberg central defender Markus Hoffmann was in the vegan group at the time. Even today he eats “90%” vegan, as he says himself. The spectators (whether with bratwurst or vegan chorizo) can see that this does not weaken him in the game against the BAK. After the kick-off, it’s still crucial on the pitch – and things are going well there, Babelsberg are fighting for a 0-0 lead. Hoffmann then takes the time to talk about his employer’s vegan offensive.
“I’ve already noticed that. We have our main sponsor on our chests and we’re also a club that takes positions on new ways of thinking. I think that at least it’s not wrong and that it suits us,” says Hoffmann . Before the previous field study in 2021 (the results of which were only made public this summer), there were already concerns in the team that the test was carried out in the middle of the preparation, i.e. in a phase where the players are being pushed to their performance limits. He finds the results all the more meaningful: “We were under a lot of stress and yet the body didn’t react negatively, but on the contrary: positively,” says Hoffmann.
Main sponsor, stadium, nutrition – SV Babelsberg thinks holistically
For SV Babelsberg, the vegan food stand is by no means the end of development. “Of course everything is related to everything else,” says Thoralf Höntze. The vegan food stand, the main sponsor of oat milk – whereby he emphasizes that Oatly has been a partner of the club since 2018 and has only expanded its commitment – and also the stadium, in which the Babelsbergers have been promoting their “Green Stadium” initiative since 2017 Solar system and electric vehicle fleet.
“The field is huge,” says Höntze. Together with the club partners, they want to check where energy can be saved or the environment can be protected. But everything with a sense of proportion, which is why there is a real sausage stand in the stadium. It’s not like 100% of people want to be vegan. “That,” says Höntze, “society won’t give up.” On the contrary: According to the Federal Statistical Office [externer Link] the average German still consumes 55 kilos of meat per year. However, that number is declining while the market for meat substitutes is booming. So you could say that SV Babelsberg is following the trend.
The classic sausage is still the favorite and also the perceived winner in the duel between the two grill stalls when the stadium gates close. But as the saying goes in football: after the game is before the game.
