FC Bayern clearly won their first Bundesliga home game of the 2023/24 season. Where there is sunshine and sunshine in sport, there are now problems on other levels. Because the fans of the German soccer record champions have clearly criticized a decision by the club bosses.
In the end, it was 3-1 on the Allianz Arena scoreboard after the match between FC Bayern and FC Augsburg had ended. In a good mood, those responsible for the German record champions around Honorary President Uli Hoeneß and club boss Jan-Christian Dreesen went into the VIP rooms of the stadium, after all, their 100 million purchase Harry Kane had scored two goals against FCA and thus decisively for the first Home success of the young season contributed. Kane had already scored at the start of the league in Bremen.
But what Dreesen and Co. had to hear from the south curve during the game, they probably didn’t like that much. There the Bayern fans showed an oversized banner with the inscription: “Must a club that pays more than 100 million euros for a player cancel 2500 standing room tickets? 50 instead of 15 euros – how patronizing!”
A clear indication of Kane’s transfer and at the same time a clear criticism of the recent renovation work on the home stadium.
Background: A good 75,000 people can be seated in the Allianz Arena in Munich, which opened 18 years ago. The home arena is always completely sold out. Particularly popular: the 6,800 standing places on the south side behind one gate, from which area the protest banner was also shown, and the – previous(!) – around 5,200 standing places on the north side behind the other gate.
“Previously” because the last-named seats no longer exist in this way, because drastic changes were made during the summer break and the coveted standing room behind the goal on the north stand was eliminated and replaced by significantly more expensive fixed seats. The already mentioned 50 euros are now due at the same place.
To compensate, the two curved areas of the north stand, which were previously equipped with foldable seat shells so that fans could stand there during league games and sit for international games, have now been transformed into large and connected standing areas for an entrance fee of 15 euros.
As a result, “a small percentage” of standing room was lost, it was said recently by the people of Munich. However, the poster on the south curve now denounces the loss of 2,500 seats, which would correspond to about half the previous standing capacity on this side.
“Bild” recently reported that the conversions were done in coordination with the “Fan Dialogue Working Group”. The anger of Bayern fans is therefore all the more surprising.