Seven hundred euros for a football match? If you want to be in the DFB Cup final between Eintracht Frankfurt and Rasenball Leipzig at short notice, you either have to be lucky – or dig deep into your pocket. Because the tickets for the final are in high demand. On the auction platform Ebay, sellers are currently offering tickets at significantly inflated prices. For example, a seller on the website charges 1400 euros for two tickets in block 25 in the opposite grandstand of Berlin's Olympic Stadium. Normally, cards in this category cost 160 euros each.
Daniel Schleidt
Coordinator of the business editorial department in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.
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This shows that even before the kick-off of the match, there are winners and losers. While thousands of Frankfurt fans have received tickets for the match against Leipzig, many others are disappointed and angry at having been left empty-handed when the coveted tickets were awarded and are expressing their displeasure on social media. As with previous cup games, the friends of Eintracht have again tried all possible channels to somehow get into the stadium.
Most of them applied for a card through Eintracht. The club – just like the opponent from Saxony – has a total contingent of 23,000 tickets at its disposal, which were allocated according to a sophisticated system. First and foremost were away season ticket holders, i.e. those football fans who accompany their favourite club to other cities and stadiums in their everyday league life. After that, the fan clubs were served. There, fan clubs whose members have fewer than 50 season tickets received 60 percent of the number of these season tickets. So ten season tickets meant six final tickets.
Public Viewing at the Waldstation sold out
This posed a problem for many fan clubs. At Eintracht's last cup final in 2018, the number of members and season ticket holders was even smaller, which is why all Eintracht fans who met both requirements had a ticket secured. But in the meantime, Eintracht has 130,000 members and sells 31,000 season tickets, which means that not every season ticket holder who is also a member automatically received a ticket. Fan clubs with more than 50 season tickets also received one final ticket per season ticket. All other season ticket holders were also able to apply for a ticket from Eintracht. In addition to going through their club, many fans have tried to get tickets through the German Football Association (DFB) as the organizer. According to the DFB, the number of applications was well above the 20,000 tickets that were finally raffled off among all applicants.
Because some Frankfurters are likely to be among the lucky ones, it can be assumed that around 30,000 Frankfurt fans will be in the Olympic Stadium on Saturday. Before that, the meeting point for all Eintracht fans will be Berlin's Breitscheidplatz, where there will be an accompanying program. The public viewing in Frankfurt's Waldstadion is already sold out, and thousands of fans will also watch the game in the city's pubs.
More than 100,000 fans expected
Should Eintracht win the game, there will be a state of emergency not only in the evening in the two stadiums in Berlin and Frankfurt, but also the next day at the team's reception. After a victory in Berlin, the team is expected at Frankfurt Airport at around 13:40 p.m. and will drive a motorcade through Sachsenhausen to the Römer. The fans can expect to arrive there around 17 p.m., where the team and coach will then show up on the town hall balcony.
The motorcade after last year's Europa League victory is said to have attracted more than 140,000 people. Because more than 100,000 fans are also expected in Frankfurt after the cup victory, who will want to see the team in the event of a victory, there will be several visitor zones in the city where the parade and reception will be broadcast live. They are located not far from each other at Römerplatz, Paulsplatz, Mainkai West and Mainkai Ost. Food and drinks will also be provided there.
According to the city, there will be a total of space for around 60,000 fans in these areas. If you want to go to the Römerberg, you should be early and expect strict security checks. It is recommended to travel by public transport, several roads will not be passable during the motorcade.