Football: Fortuna Düsseldorf expands free tickets scheme

German football club Fortuna Düsseldorf is extending its revolutionary free tickets scheme into a second season and expanding the offer to four home games, the club announced on Thursday.

Second-division outfit Düsseldorf unveiled their "Fortuna for All" project ahead of the 2023/24 campaign in which they gave away tickets for three home games free of charge.

The plan was to compensate for lost ticketing revenue by convincing prominent local businesses to back the socially inclusive scheme as new club sponsors.

At the same time, the club hoped to increase attendance at its MERKUR Spiel Arena, which hosted five matches at this summer's European Championships but is rarely sold out for Düsselorf home games.

Although Fortuna ultimately missed out on promotion to the top-flight Bundesliga in a dramatic play-off penalty shootout, the club has concluded that the first season of "Fortuna for All" was a success.

"We can only keep reiterating that continuing with 'business as usual' was no option for us," said club chairman Alexander Jobst, referring to increasing operating costs and falling broadcast revenues.

"This is our answer to how we as a club want to respond to some of the challenges facing German professional football," he added. "Without 'Fortuna for all,' we would probably be facing some difficult decisions today."

'Fortuna for All' sees overall ticket revenues increase

Fortuna revealed that they received 350,000 ticket requests for the three free home games against Kaiserslautern in October (a dramatic 3-3 draw), Hamburg-based St. Pauli in January (a 1-2 defeat) and Eintracht Braunschweig in April (a 2-0 win) – over five times the usual demand.

And despite earning no revenue from ticket sales for three home matches, the club reported that overall ticketing revenue for the whole season increased by 28%.

Membership of the entirely member-controlled club reportedly increased by a record 20% to over 33,000, while ticket sales for the coming 2024/45 season were up 19%.

One concern attached to offering tickets free of charge was the potential for "no-shows" given the lack of monetary value attached to a ticker, but the club said the average "no-show rate" was lower than for normal games.

According to a survey conducted by the club among its members, 70% thought "Fortuna for all" had gone well and only 9% were unhappy with it. "Our goal is to convince that 9%," said Chairman Jobst.

Fortuna: 'We need more partners'

"Fortuna for All" has not all been plain sailing, however.

Shortly before the start of last season, one key sponsor, Düsseldorf-based insurance group Provinzial, dropped out of the project following a reported disagreement over the use of fans' personal data, which the insurer had reportedly hoped to access for advertising purposes in exchange for their financial backing.

And, looking back at the scheme's first season, Jobst admitted that "we need more partners in order to reach our goals."

"We underestimated how long it takes and how difficult it is to convince businesses of this type of sponsorship," he said. "Patience is needed."

Confirming the extension of "Fortuna for All" into a second season, Düsseldorf announced an increase in the number of free home games to four: Hamburg in October, Elversberg in November, Darmstadt in January and Preußen Münster in April.

Düsseldorf begin their season away to Darmstadt on 4 August.

Edited by: Roshni Majumdar