The history of football in Linz is also the story of two teams that have come a very long way before finally finding their own dimension. However, analyzing the most recent history, starting from about 20 years ago, LASK, when the first and most famous team in the city, played its internal matches at the “Gugl” stadium, located on a hill not far from the center. The stadium, in the shape of a horseshoe, with an athletics track which in those days still had its own reason, due to the popularity of athletics and the many international meetings held on site until 2008. For these same reasons was perhaps not so congenial to football and has never been particularly popular, not even after a series of discreet renovations in 2008, after the idea of a new building was abandoned, following the exclusion of the city of Linz from the shortlist to host the 2008 European Championship, jointly organized with Switzerland.
In the same period of time, Blau-Weiß Linz, founded in 1997 after a merger between FC Linz and SV Austria Tabak Linz, for a long time found itself playing in more modest categories than its black and white rivals, playing its matches in the small “Donaupark”, literally “Danube Park” since the facility was built right on the banks of the famous river. Even this small stadium (or, if you like, a large sports field) is not very far from the historic centre, albeit in the opposite direction and for its small but loyal public, with its own curve of anti-racist tendencies, it has always been sufficient. This was at least until 2011/2012 when their home matches were moved to the same “Gugl” at the same time as promotion to the 2. Bundesliga and finally from the 2016/2017 season, when the stadium’s approval by the Austrian national league was definitively withdrawn , the “Gugl” has definitely become the new home of the Blau-Weiß.
After the 2012 bankruptcy and subsequent relegation to Regional League Middle (third level of the local football pyramid), it was LASK that was forced, mainly for financial reasons, to leave the “Gugl” at the beginning of the 2013/2014 season. After a few years in exile in various stadiums outside or far from his own city, from 2016/2017 the home matches were hosted in Pasching, a small town a few kilometers outside the Linz area, where the stadium was certainly more suitable for professional football since the of FC Pasching, a company whose title was transferred to Wiener Neustadt to create a new ambitious company that would satisfy its master’s desires for greatness which then definitively faded a few years later. The fans obviously never liked this solution, not only as they were forced to play their home games away from their city, but also due to a subsequent change of curve imposed after three years for safety reasons and following which, for several years, they took the policy of attending matches without band banners and without choreography.
Finally in 2019 the decision was taken by the local politicians to rebuild both stadiums on the original site so in autumn 2023 Blau-Weß Linz will be able to inaugurate its new “Donaupark” with a capacity of around 5,000 seats while tonight the first official match in the new “Raiffeisen-Arena” that the fans always call “Stadion auf der Gugl”…
Not that the reconstruction of the stadium has been any less problematic, due to many internal disputes within the club and the pandemic that has postponed its inauguration for more than half a year. Finally, the new stadium with its 19,080 seats has even received approval for international matches. The exterior is not very different from many other new stadiums in Europe. Nice detail is in the entrance of the old stadium which has been saved and left unchanged. Inside, the stadium consists of two rings with the exception of the home curve which has only one higher ring, much more suitable for creating choreography and with plenty of space for banners. This concession to the fans is compensated with a grandstand made up exclusively of VIP seats, reserved boxes and business rooms from the series that nobody gives you anything for nothing, especially in today’s football.
The newly built facility also brings with it new rules for the fans. And if it is true that “zones for pyrotechnics” have been introduced (in Austria it is the law that provides for it: in certain limited spaces the use of torches and smoke bombs is permitted without repercussions but subject to strict observance of certain rules), in at the same time, however, the conquests of the past have been lost: point of sale for the group’s articles, premises for depositing banners or materials for choreography, etc.
Even the sale of tickets for this opening match will not find everyone’s favor. In fact, single tickets for the match have not been put on sale but, for promotional reasons, a sort of mini-season ticket has been launched for the first two matches (today’s match and the second against RB Salzburg) or, alternatively, the possibility of immediately a membership, both not so cheap options. For this reason the stadium is far from being sold out. In the end, attendance stood at around 12,000, some sectors in the second ring remained closed and filled with large advertising sails. It is evident that the dialogue between the club and the supporters regarding all these problems remains at least difficult, as demonstrated by a statement from the “Landstrassler”, in which the organized groups of the LASK supporters converge unitedly in a federation, in which it is announced that the atmosphere – with the exception of the homecoming celebrations – will not go beyond the chants and the traditional colour. In short, the protests are still far from returning completely, despite the fact that some pieces in black and white football have finally been put back in their place…
The guests, the newly promised from Lustenau, are around 300 and arrive in the sector dedicated to them half an hour before kick-off. Choirs of teasing immediately arise between the two fractions and then the first, very loud choruses from the hosts. When the two teams enter the field, after a sort of inauguration ceremony that lasts only about ten minutes (much worse performances have been seen in terms of timing and content…), the simple but beautiful choreography is composed, consisting of a flag and many scarves with a clear reference to the historic name of the stadium, “auf der Gugl”… Many torches are lit in the away sector photo-flash followed by white torches which overall give an excellent glance.
The support of hosts is really intense. Even when not everyone participates, their sector still has double the capacity of Pasching’s and this can be seen and above all felt. The impact is really positive and the single “Landstrassler” banner also contributes to it, precisely to call for unity of the whole black and white fan base. Lots of large flags representing the main groups are kept aloft at all times, creating a nice effect. The guests for their part are always on the move, never failing to wave their flags themselves but against the compact curve of the LASK (moreover located very close to the press gallery) they are unable to make themselves heard too peremptorily.
Under an insistent rain, the new lawn becomes a slide and the two teams are unable to offer a splendid match. However, the curve never stops cheering on their favorites and is finally rewarded with a penalty kick in full stoppage time, which will be the only but decisive goal of the evening. A perfect epilogue for the team that presents itself for the first time under the new curve. Meanwhile the “Landstrassler” banner had been replaced in the last quarter of an hour by another protest banner: “Dress only in the colors the founding fathers gave us” (roughly: We only want jerseys in these colors, the ones that the founders of our company gave us). In fact, for commercial reasons, the away shirt is partially pink, a color that has nothing to do with the history of LASK. In short, if that weren’t enough, other elements of protest are added to the long list of claims of the Linz fans.
When I leave the stadium under a persistent storm, I think back to the evening together with the events and my expectations. I’m generally never thrilled to travel to a new stadium, one with no history or worse still built just for the need to generate more or new profits. But – and there’s always a but – I’m always curious about how the fans on duty can impact the atmosphere of these new structures, bringing their curve’s typical approach to these new spaces and changing their genesis of non-commercial places into temporarily autonomous zones, as Hakim Bey defined them, in which it is always the community that dictates the rules and not only submits to them from the top of some economic or commercial whim. I have already seen beautiful examples such as Stockholm but also the opposite while in this specific case, given the delicate situation that has arisen between the club and the fans, the LASK curve proves its firmness, without derogating from choreography or other shows sons of enthusiasm, it already says a lot about how deep the roots and sporting culture of this square go. It remains to be hoped that in the near future they will be able to focus exclusively on cheering and not that the various reasons for the protest have disappeared.
Jürgen De Meester
