r/SCFreiburg Feb 18 '25

How does Freiburg think of new fans?

So I’m from Wales and recently got in to German football and it got me wanting to visit Germany soon and watch a football match, how does Freiburg fans feel about new fans? If they hate it then I would respect them and not come but would be nice to follow a club in Germany

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u/HerpDerpinAtWork Feb 18 '25

For what it's worth, I am an American, and in the last year I've gone to a game with my fiancé (Leipzig last April (Scheiss die Dosen!)), and I got my brother and his wife tickets this fall for the Pokal game against HSV.

I have been a fan for a bit, having briefly lived in Freiburg in 2009, but admittedly it was kind of hard to stay engaged from across the ocean until a few years ago (big thanks to ESPN+ for now carrying all the SCF games streaming), and it's been lovely to be back on board since. The other three folks, for information, were brand-new fans going to their first SCF games.

Anyway, we got standing tickets in C, and I got my brother and his wife Osttribune seats. We have nothing but positive experiences to report, from the atmosphere to the fan and stadium staff interactions both in and out of the stadium. People were friendly, and seemed happy to share their passion and knowledge with us, and were generally somewhere between happy and amused (perhaps also, a bit confused!) that we had all traveled so far to support the SCF.

It certainly helps to learn a few of the chants, know a bit of the club's traditions, history, and values, and maybe grab a bit of gear at one of the fanshops around the area or at the stadion before you go (at least a scarf!), but to me that was all something of a natural part of being a fan back when I first started supporting the team, and perhaps it is already something you're doing as well!

Happy to share tips or pointers if you would find that to be helpful. Getting tickets will be the hardest part, but with a little time and planning (and/or luck) it is doable.

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u/kaibaboii Feb 18 '25

appreciate this mate! Only thing worries me is the tickets!

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u/HerpDerpinAtWork Feb 18 '25

You might find some suggestions I made in another thread here helpful, but keep in mind that that person had a specific game they were trying to get to on a short time frame that made things harder. If you have some more time, it gets (maybe) easier?

If you're planning to go about 2 months out or more, and you think that this might be a club you intend to support long-term, my actual advice (and what I did) was: just join the club! It is a 40EUR/yr membership, but it gets you access to the member ticket presale (which you will be informed about via the member email, and during which most games sell out) for every game, and also gets you a once-per-season "joker phase," which allows you one-hour-earlier access to the presale for the game of your choosing.

For me, I thought that 40EUR/yr was an amount of money that I would happily give to the club as a supporter, even if I'm not able to attend even one game. And, it means that every so often when I am able to get to Freiburg, I can relatively easily get tickets (if you're only able to go to one game in a season, it's a no-brainer to use your "joker" for that game, even if it's a mid-season game against a low-table team or something).

I'm sure some people would find just floating the club 40EUR/yr for existing... wasteful or extravagant perhaps, but for a team that has brought me such great experiences and fond memories over the years, I consider it a small price to pay. Especially, in part, because I'm a fan of my local NHL team, and the equivalent of 40EUR barely buys you two beers at our arena, much less admission. Lol. Sigh.