FSV Frankfurt had financial problems long before they went down to the third division. They actually did remarkably well for a time, but in the end Frankfurt is too small for having two pro clubs long-time. Only Berlin, Hamburg and Munich can support two (in England, a city like Frankfurt could probably have two Premier League clubs easily, but that's not really how it works in Germany). FSV Frankfurt did well with a modest budget for many years in the 2. Bundesliga, but they still had to spend more than they were earning. The drop from the 3. Liga to the Regionalliga is also a pretty large one. It's probably like going from League 1 in England straight into the National League North/South. Back in the early 90s this was even more extreme, when you dropped from the nationwide, full-time 2. Bundesliga directly into the amateur Oberliga (today's fifth division) - today this system would be impossible to finance, but there wasn't that much money in the game back then. Sugar daddies who would be willing to finance a 3. Liga level budget in the Regionalliga are pretty rare in Germany.
Starting on the Bench for Korona in a friendly against AEK (Greece) Down 0 - 1 after 30 min / 1st half
Support is always focussed on a single team. It's a German thing, probably - there doesn't seem to be any logical reason beyond that, Germans just seem to like to support the same club everyone else does. There are really only three cities that have two teams with a large fan support, and not a single one with three clubs, not even Berlin.
Munich. There's 1860, obviously, and some would argue Unterhaching, who are 10 km away. Unterhaching don't draw when they're in the RL, but they have had fair-to-middling crowds on the few occasions when they've played in BL2 and BL1
Yeah, Munich - the only city that had two teams in the Bundesliga at the same time on a at least somewhat regular basis (for 18 seasons). Hamburg had 8 seasons, Berlin 2. Bochum (3 seasons), Stuttgart (2 seasons) and Cologne (1 season) also had two teams in the Bundesliga at some point, but in those cities the gap between the first and second club is huge (although in Berlin, Union has never played in the Bundesliga so far - only Hertha and TeBe were in the Bundesliga at the same time, where there's also a large gap. But by now Union certainly counts as an established pro club). In the 2. Bundesliga, Unterhaching had attendances of 3k to 5k, about 10k in the Bundesliga. That's not bad for such a small town, but at best it's on the same level as FSV Frankfurt, Stuttgarter Kickers or Fortuna Cologne. Clubs that are too small to compete on the nationwide level on a regular basis, at least in the current era of pro football in Germany (which started in the late 1990s, with the tv rights boom). In Germany, only HSV/St. Pauli, Bayern/1860 and Hertha/Union are on an at least somewhat equal level (at least close enough that a rivalry can exist - when you have a club that has attendances 10 or 20 times higher than its nearest local rival that's usually not the case), comparable to cities in the UK, Italy or Spain that have two pro clubs.
And the gap between the two illustrates your point. Bochum average 17k fans at home, while Wattenscheid averaged 2.7k last season, which was boosted by a few derbies; most home games draw in the 6-800 range. Run down the list of Germany's big cities and the pattern repeats itself; the big team draws major crowds of 35k or more and the small team(s) draw flies. You mentioned Stuttgart. The city proper has a population of 2.7 million and the metro has 5 million. The two biggest sides are VFB (50k average last season) and Stuttgart Kickers (3k average). In comparison, Birmingham & its surrounding West Midlands region also have a population of 2.7 million - and have Aston Villa, Birmingham, West Brom, Wolverhampton and Coventry. Apart from Coventry, they all draw 20k+ and Coventry could drawn in that region again if they get new owners who gave a damn. France is the same. No big second teams in any city, not even Paris or Marseilles. Mind you, in France - esp. the South - rugby is a very big deal, which would suck up much of the oxygen needed for a football team team to be a Derby competitor. That's not the case in Germany
The city of Stuttgart has a bit over 600k inhabitants, 2.7 million would be agglomeration. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuttgart_Region Although there aren't any other pro teams there either way.
It's amazing the information you guys have on this. It's settled, I'm following all of your posts from now
Shawn Barry got his first start for Korona in Poland's top tier today - away from home, against Legia. Match ended 1 - 1
Starts: W takim składzie rozpoczniemy walkę o punkty w meczu #KORCRA z @MKSCracoviaSSA: pic.twitter.com/ng1JONLW5z— Korona Kielce (@Korona_Kielce) July 31, 2017
It should be noted that Barry's manager Gino Letttieri was also his manager for a short time (2nd half of last season) at FSV Frankfurt. Lettieri brought in one other from FSV, in Fabian Burdenski, and several others through his German connections. Nice that Barry has a previous association with his manager. That's a plus to have that in your favor.
"Only two things are certain in life: people die and football managers get the sack." Eoin Hand, Republic of Ireland Manager 1980-85. He was sacked 3 months later.
Starts: ... się nie zmienia, ot co! W takim zestawieniu powalczymy na wyjeździe z @ArkaGdyniaSSA #ARKKOR pic.twitter.com/RnXeIbQlbx— Korona Kielce (@Korona_Kielce) August 7, 2017
He gets the club Twitter machine all excited about what sounds like a goal line clearance: 17': SHAWN BARRY! 👏 Amerykanin kapitalnie asekuruje kolegów w zamieszaniu podbramkowym i wybija piłkę sprzed linii#ARKKOR 0-0— Korona Kielce (@Korona_Kielce) August 7, 2017 17 ': SHAWN BARRY! Will the famously secures colleagues in the confusion of podbramkowym and strikes the ball before the line #ARKKOR 0-0
@Alex_K most of the big intracity rivalries feature a sociological or cultural split of some sort. Catholic v. Protestant, working class vs. middle class, etc. I remember from history that Germany got religious peace when they let each jurisdiction take the faith of its leader. Back when the club system was forming, I'm guessing over 100 years ago, were most German cities almost all Catholic or almost all Protestant? Did Bismarck prevent or at least lessen working class vs. middle class splits? St. Pauli's fan base is famous for being very left. Is Hamburg politically on the right? Or are its fans just not interested in expressing political views through fussball?