The beginning of 2010 was characterized by severe frost and a lot of precipitation. Germany experienced a winter of the century. It was also icy cold in Hamburg, the city was slumbering under a blanket of snow. On Kollaustrasse, where FC St. Pauli has its training ground, coach Holger Stanislawski trudged across the training grounds with large and small shovels one early January morning. For the following unit he thought of something special and constructed a kind of mini golf course out of snow using self-made ramps and tracks. Hours later, the second division players could be seen wrapping up in bobble hats, winter jackets and gloves, throwing footballs at the obstacles and cheering as enthusiastically about successful hole attempts as they would four months later celebrate the fifth Bundesliga promotion in the club’s history.
13 years later, the fans of the neighborhood club can once again look forward to Bundesliga football, and the little anecdote from the deep snow illustrates quite well how much the conditions for the brown and white team have changed since then. In addition to old claims such as “Freudenhaus der Liga” and “buccaneers of the league”, the club has also gradually managed to shed the supposedly sexy coquetry with empty coffers and a lack of know-how – ultimately nothing more than mismanagement and lack of planning.
Above all, St. Pauli succeeded in economic and sporting evolution without having to sell its values and becoming a completely normal football operating company. St. Pauli still stands for a clear political stance, for grassroots democracy, lived cultural and social values, but also for professionalism and success in the sporting and structural areas.
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Relationship with impostor
“You can no longer compare the club from the year of promotion in 2010 with the one today,” says Fabian Boll, top performer and identification figure from that time. The 44-year-old, who played for FC St. Pauli from 2002 until the end of his career in 2016, was also at the forefront of snow golf at the time and remembers: “We would always go to the stadium for training and of course play there the entire pitch, which left it in a catastrophic condition on match days. Then we had to go back to the training ground, but the pitch wasn’t cleared.”
From the regional league to the Bundesliga: St. Pauli’s Timo Schultz, Fabian Boll and Fabio Morena (from left)
Source: picture-alliance/dpa/dpaweb/Kay Nietfeld
Framework conditions that provide an explanation for why, after promotion, there was only an interlude in the Bundesliga. After 34 match days, we were relegated to bottom of the table. Boll and his team were only able to collect 29 points.
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“We had to change in a container village back then, but now the structures are all there,” says the former midfielder. “It is also unthinkable today that so many of us who had already played together in the regional league received a contract for the first division as a gift. That would be sorted out. There were so many unconventional gestures in the Bundesliga season like the one before the derby against HSV, when it was said that substitute goalkeeper Benedikt Pliquett would play because he was something like the quintessential St. Paulian. And that’s exactly why it was such a good time.”
A beautiful, exciting year. But ultimately unsuccessful. Just like they knew from their Bundesliga adventures in the past. FC St. Pauli was promoted to the Bundesliga five times in its history, always accompanied by discussions about positions, presidents and pennies. When they were first promoted in 1977, they had a debt burden of two million marks, and the following year they went straight back into league two. After promotion in 1988, liabilities of 5.5 million marks became public. After all, it was enough for three seasons in the upper house. In 1995 there were two, in 2001 and 2010 there was only one each. This time, however, the club has grown and seems ready for more, which, given the current balance of power in the city, raises an exciting question that seemed unrealistic until a few months ago.
Polonäse Blankenese: In his last Bundesliga year so far, St. Pauli won 1-0 at HSV
Source: picture-alliance/Press photo ULMER/Bjoern Hake
“We are number one in the city,” chanted the fans of FC St. Pauli after last weekend’s win against Rostock and with a view to the upcoming derby against HSV on Friday evening. The table undoubtedly proves the euphoric appendix right. But how long can the condition last? Is football on the Elbe and Alster currently experiencing a changing of the guard? With the jump into the Bundesliga, St. Pauli could become the city’s new number one in the long term.
“Can’t argue away the importance” – Will St. Pauli make promotion clear in the city derby?
FC St. Pauli can secure promotion to the Bundesliga with a win in the city derby against Hamburger SV. Coach Fabian Hürzeler is looking forward to the game with great anticipation.
Because the constellation that the small district club plays at a higher level than its proud neighbor has never existed before. HSV was always the big number and the figurehead of the city with over a million inhabitants. The club of Uwe Seeler, von Happel, Magath and Keegan. A heavyweight in Europe and a dinosaur in the Bundesliga. One city, one club, always there. Champion, European Cup winner. Raute, Rothosen, Hrubesch, but in the coming season especially Rostock or Regensburg.
HSV has history, St. Pauli has potential
“I do believe that it is possible to bring about this change in the city permanently,” says Michael Meeske, justifying his statement with a current example from the German capital: “See Union versus Hertha. Nobody would have believed that a few years ago.”
For him, the fact that the balance of power that has been manifested over decades can be overthrown so quickly is also due to a changed society: “People are becoming more flexible, which contradicts the football purist idea. But in the past the bonding forces were simply more stable. Today the kids are no longer socialized through their village club, but through EA Sports. The classic football family with three generations together in the stadium will pass it on. But all the other people who are interested in football today are socialized in a much more diverse way and are therefore not quite as calibrated to one path. That’s why success or perhaps a very special orientation is very attractive for this group. And if one club offers this and the other doesn’t have it anymore, you just change again.”
Meeske deals a lot with the analysis and development of markets in sports. As managing director at VfL Wolfsburg, the 52-year-old is responsible for marketing, sales, internationalization and digitalization, sat on the executive board of the DFL and previously worked as CFO at 1. FC Nürnberg. From 2004 to 2015 he was commercial director of FC St. Pauli and thus also experienced the migration after promotion in 2010. The executive committee at the time rejoiced at the change in business seat and box owners who came over from the Volkspark to the Millerntor. This time, in addition to the brand, it is also the sporting aspect that speaks against HSV. If you want to offer your customers first-class football, you have to go to FC St. Pauli in Hamburg from now on.
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Meeske is also surprised and impressed by the fact that HSV has lost little of its marketing potential in the six years after relegation. Although the second class has led to losses and a significant regionalization in the area of the sponsorship pool, the numbers have so far remained relatively stable, particularly in ticketing and hospitality. Will it stay that way if another club offers Bundesliga football just a few kilometers south in the future?
In the end, HSV drew its appeal from its likeable stupidity in reliably squandering the return to the Bundesliga that it was striving for with all its might on the home straight of the season – and its great history. But that was a long time ago now. A 15-year-old doesn’t know Uwe Seeler and can’t relate to Felix Magath.
In addition to sporting success, HSV also lacks creativity
Quelle: picture alliance/dpa/Marcus Brandt
“And then comes this ‘alternative lifestyle’ that St. Pauli exudes,” adds Meeske: “This rebellious, unconventional quality, coupled with great social responsibility. This is really an issue. Certainly not for everyone, but for many young people. And if HSV can no longer serve this performance aspect, then it will also lose some of its legitimacy in the long term. Then in the end he is just a second division team in a big city who enjoyed great success in the past. Similar to 1. FC Nürnberg, which also had to reinvent itself. In any case, I can hardly imagine that 55,000 people still go there after 20 years of the second division.”
FC St. Pauli may be facing a historic opportunity. But in order to do that, the class must first be maintained next season. At least this time, neither financial problems nor a winter of the century – that much seems clear – will cause problems for the club. In January the team prepared for the second half of the season in Benidorm, and in February they spontaneously went back to Mallorca in the Spanish sun. “We had to train here in deep snow back then,” remembers Boll, “but today they are flying to Spain for a week because there are puddles on the pitch.”
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