“Fortuna for Everyone: Düsseldorf’s Revolutionary Football Plan to Offer Free Stadium Entry”

Düsseldorf wants to turn the football world upside down and let fans into the stadium free of charge. There’s a lot of concept behind it – and some desperation.

Only about 3,000 people attended the beginning of the new era. So many had gathered on Wednesday afternoon for the live stream of Fortuna Düsseldorf’s press conference on the club’s YouTube channel.

However, what was announced there should interest a larger audience – a much larger one. Because: Fortuna wants to give fans free entry to their games. As the first professional club in Germany.

“We are taking a new path that nobody has disputed before,” said CEO Alexander Jobst, describing nothing less than a revolution in German football.

Starting next season, the whole thing should start with three games and then “increase successively from season to season,” as Jobst’s board colleague Arnd Hovemann, who is responsible for finances, made clear. The goal is clear: “All 17 home games” of the traditional second division team in the Düsseldorf Arena, which has over 50,000 seats, are to be offered free of charge. You have to “wait and see” when that will be achieved.

Several financially strong sponsors are supposed to make this coup possible: printer manufacturer Hewlett Packard, the Targobank and the provincial insurance company. Another “strategic partner”, as club boss Jobst called it, is Common Goal, a “global movement that is committed to the social relevance of football” and supports projects worldwide. Well-known footballers like Mats Hummels or Serge Gnabry donate part of their salary to it.

In the next five years, Fortuna will get 45 million euros. An “economic foundation”, as the club boss explained, and “sponsorship in a way that we don’t know.” However, the whole thing is not an investor model, as Jobst never tired of emphasizing: “We are and will remain an association.”

And that’s exactly why those responsible for Fortuna have listened in the past few months, as they asserted. Listened a lot – especially to fans, citizens and companies in the city.

A concept with which Jobst and Co. want to shake up German football at least a little has been removed. The name: “Fortuna for everyone”. Probably the most important goal: the former German champion and two-time DFB Cup winner should finally return to the Bundesliga.

“We saw that it was very easy to say, but the implementation is much more difficult,” admitted sports director Klaus Allofs, who has been back at his home and heart club since 2020.

Like so many venerable traditional clubs, Fortuna is struggling with the increasing demands of modern football. They have only spent four of the past 30 seasons in the top German division.

Despite a competitive squad, promotion is out of reach again this year. Five games before the end of the season, the club from the Rhine metropolis is in sixth place, nine points behind the relegation rank.

Allofs’ judgment on the overall situation is still surprising. “A ‘Keep it up!’ it just couldn’t exist like before,” said the 56-time German international. Therefore, new paths have been taken on the Rhine – “disruptively”, as has been heard everywhere in the economy for several years. The tried-and-tested should be completely broken up, problems tackled in a completely new and unconventional way, because the gap between income and expenditure was “widening more and more,” says Allofs.

As part of the advertised concept and with the sponsors, the club wants to completely reposition itself. It involves four main elements. They want to “open football to everyone,” Jobst explained cryptically. What that means: In addition to the games with free entry, the fans should be more closely involved. They should also have digital opportunities to get involved. For this purpose, the stadium is to be modernized with the help of the city of Düsseldorf – especially with regard to the digital infrastructure.