At the 1. FC Union it keeps going up. Sporty like that. And also as far as sympathies are concerned. At the end of the past quarter (March 31), the Köpenicker reported a new membership of 53,115. This makes the Irons the eighth largest football club in Germany. Union is now chasing the seventh – today’s home game opponent Stuttgart (3:30 p.m. / Sky). The Swabians have around 77,000 members.
The club with the most members remains FC Bayern Munich, which welcomed its 300,000th member live to the stadium in February before the home game against Union (3-0).
So Union continues to boom. As a reminder: in 2018 the Berliners “only” had 21,000 members. The promotion to the Bundesliga in 2019 then caused the numbers to explode. Two years ago, in spring 2021, Union (with 37,360 members at the time) overtook Hertha as the largest sports club in Berlin for the first time. The Charlottenburgers (currently around 44,500 members) have not only lost sight of their long-ridiculed competitors in terms of sport. The sympathy values in the capital also seem to be shifting.
However: Union membership also has a very practical benefit. Because only fans with a membership card can secure tickets for the games of the Irons, which can always report “sold out” for the home areas at the home games in the Alte Försterei.
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Behind FC Bayern are currently Borussia Dortmund (approx. 169,000), Schalke (approx. 165,000), Cologne (approx. 127,000) and Frankfurt (approx. 120,000). Gladbach (approx. 98,000) and Stuttgart are still below the 100,000 mark. Then comes Union. The Berliners passed the 50,000 mark in January 2023 and could (not just in terms of sport) go head-to-head with Freiburg. The people of Breisgau broke the 50,000 mark in February. So a month after union.