In the 2000s, certain German cities that were candidates for hosting matches for the 2006 World Cup chose to give their stadium a makeover. But others decide to wipe the slate clean. Two brand new venues are emerging from the ground: the Allianz Arena, in Munich, and the Zentralstadion, which became Red Bull Arena in 2010, in Leipzig, the rising city of Saxony, in the East.
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This elegant oval enclosure topped with parabolic structures can, today, accommodate up to 47,000 spectators. It hosts RB Leipzig, which has been shining in the first division for several years, only fifteen years after its creation. The club is a regular at the top of the ranking, where it rubs shoulders with the big names in the Bundesliga: it ranked 4th during the 2023-2024 season, just behind Bayern Munich and ahead of Borussia Dortmund.
RB Leipzig has participated in the Champions League several times. This notable performance for such a young club has, at first glance, the appearance of revenge from the East against a West often perceived as privileged and arrogant. But this story is difficult to take: for the community of supporters in Germany, RB Leipzig is not a “traditional club”, but a structure entirely manufactured for the marketing needs of the Red Bull group, inventor of the energy soda of the same name. Its logo, two bulls facing each other printed on all the cans, is everywhere in the stadium: on the roof, in the stands. They have become the very identity of the club.
The region’s football tradition revived
Red Bull deployed an ambitious strategy in Leipzig. When, due to the lack of a professional team in the city, the economic model of the stadium began to fail, once the euphoria of the 2006 World Cup had passed, the Austrian group saw an opportunity to carve out a place of choice in an extremely popular sport across the Rhine. Leipzig is a booming city, with a modern stadium. Red Bull therefore signs a contract with the owner of the venue to rename it, but also creates an ad hoc team.
The brand thus revived the region’s footballing tradition: it was in Leipzig that the German Football Federation was founded in 1900. Like the billionaire Dietmar Hopp, founder of the SAP group, who had the luxury of bringing the small Hoffenheim club, where he played as a child, into the Bundesliga, the Red Bull group propelled the city to the heights of national football. RasenBallSport Leipzig GmbH, the company which has managed the professional team since its accession to the second division in 2014, is 99% owned by the group.
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2024-06-19 06:00:00
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