Ticket prices are a major issue in the world of soccer right now. Liverpool supporters famously walked out of Anfield in the 77th minute of their game last Saturday to protest a price hike at the new stand at Anfield next season, and supporters of German club Borussia Dortmund unveiled an unconventional method of protesting ticket prices in Stuttgart.
During the first 20 minutes of the German Cup tie between Dortmund and Stuttgart yesterday, Dortmund supporters walked out. When they came back, they threw tennis balls onto the pitch to protest Stuttgart’s pricing for Dortmund’s away section.
https://youtu.be/hHPnaI2tFD8
“We have a German saying: ‘Das ist ganz grosses tennis!‘, it roughly translates to ‘that is great tennis,’ and, in an ironic kind of way, the prices at Stuttgart are great tennis,” Marc Quambusch, a spokesperson for the Kein Zwanni (No to €20) campaign responsible for the protests told ESPNFC. “Should the price hikes continue like that, only tennis fans will show up in the stadiums,” he added.
6,000 tickets were allocated to Dortmund, with the 1,200 standing room tickets being the cheapest priced at €19.50. But the cheapest seats were €38.50, while 1,500 tickets priced at €70 were the highest. German soccer ticket prices are famously low, with Bayern Munich’s season tickets costing as low as $150 for the season in some spots. But even that is misunderstood, according to Quambusch.
“Indeed, the prices of standing tickets are very low compared to the cheapest tickets in England. But there aren’t many standing tickets, and the prices for seats are not far from those in England by now.”
This isn’t the first time tennis balls have been used to interrupt a game. Check out this video of tennis balls being thrown onto the ice at a Canadiens game at the old Forum.
Dortmund won the game 3-1, advancing to the semifinals of the DFB-Pokal for the third straight season.