They didn't buy Markranstädt of course (as this wouldn't be possible). Supposedly the play is to found a new club, "Rasenball Leipzig" which will then take over Markranstädt's license. And I'm amazed... just when you think the joke that is German football has hit rock bottom someone comes along and makes Hoffenheim look not that bad. Rasenball? RASENBALL? Are you ********ing kidding me? Is that even a word?
Honestly, I just find the whole thing funny, and an over-optimistic ploy by (a) Red Bull to get into the German football market and (b) Michael Kölmel to have a team that will fill his stadium, which is trying to repeat the "Hoppenhein" story, but stands a better chance of ending in failure for reasons that I could probably write pages about, but won't bore people with. Since I grew up in the US sports setting for the first 25 years of my life, where teams are bought & sold, moved, rebranded, and "expansion" teams are added to every league on a regular basis, this idea is probably less offensive to me than it would be to somebody from European sports culture, where many (if not most) clubs have a history that stretches farther back than their grandparents. But it's for that reason why I think they might be grasping at straws, and won't ever be successful at pulling a fan base. and yeah, the name.....f#cking awful. Whichever genius in their sports marketing division thought of "Rasen Ball Leipzig" needs to be fired immediately.
Well the only reason for Rasenball is of course that you can abbreviate it to RB Leipzig since they can't use Red Bull. Imo there are not many other possibilities. You can't take Rot-Braun or something like that because I'm sure the club has to play in Red Bull's colours. Of course they'll be able to fill the stadium in case of success since it's a huge city and there are a lot of people who don't care about either Chemie and Sachsen but I'm curious to see the reactions of those who do since they are kinda militant. Also people in Eastern Germany are way more imto anti-capitalism than West-Germans, Union Berlin's club anthem even says "Who won't sell out to the west? - Union Berlin", it could be that the city won't really fall in love with the club. It's going to be interesting.
Yeah, I must say I've seen through this as well . Oh, and Red Bull's colours are red and blue. Rot and Blau in German... Or at least Rasen- und Ballsportverein... but a made up non-sensical word? Probably spelled Rasen Ball, making it even grammatically incorrect?
Leipzig is not the best of places for such a foolish experiment. I'm not sure how this will sit with the Ultras of Lok and Chemie.
Actually it is probably the best [from their POV] place. There is no city that size without a pro club. Except for Essen, maybe, but unlike Leipzig Essen isn't in the middle of a football wasteland (if you aren't a RWE fan in Essen you're probably a Schalke or BVB fan already). Plus Leipzig has a World Cup stadium. And the ultras of the other clubs won't get in there. I think some marketing guy came up with it. "Hm... football... what do I know about it? They play on grass and use a ball... that's it! Now I'll get my money and buy some cocaine!".
if you consider the whole world of pro football a joke , fine , but in that world german football is probably among those who have the lowest "joke" rating . about their name, i'd give them a bit more credit or discredit if you wish. i think they intentionally want to distance themselves from any kind of traditional football connotations a name like rot-blau would induce. they want to present a postmodern concept of football where absolutely everything is possible (including inventing words) and nothing is really important except having fun and buying cans of red bull. yes, i am bullshiting a bit now
Yeah, I do actually - but I certainly don't see Germany ranking low there. Just more hyporcrisy here.
Rasenball Leipzig apparently got "green light" from DFB. They will start in the Oberliga NOFV Süd this coming season. link (german) Michael Kölmel, owner of the Zentralstadion Leipzig: "Even if things go bad, we will promote every two years, so being in the Bundesliga in 8 years seems to be a realistic scenario without pressuring anybody too much..." Congratulations Bundesliga. One more step towards complete commercialisation! Apparently Fans of either Sachsen or Lok have allready "broken into" the stadium of SSV Markranstädt and poisened the entire lawn... ^^ Somehow I have a feeling it will not be fun for anybody in Leipzig to out themselves as a "RB-Fan", at least in the first years.
Hahaha, great! They will probably have such a problem getting people to attend their games that they will start having to run special promotions at the local clubs: Buy a Red Bull & Vodka, get 5 free tickets! Even then, they will still probably have a total attendance of 50....might go up to 100 if they also promise free drinks at the games.
Awwww, they're so modest. Of course they don't really want to wait that long. True but RB won't even care about that as long as they'll be able to fill the stadium when the team promotes to the 2. Bundesliga and they will. Will be interesting to see what local firms will sponsor RB that couldn't be persuaded to put money into either Sachen or Chemie.
If they have the success they will get the crowds. I have no doubt about that. Leipzig is a football-thirsty region, much like Rhein-Neckar (Hoffenheim)... If they manage to go to Pro-Football anytime soon, half of Leipzig will be running around in Red Bull Fan articles... (and the same would go for any other city)
https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?p=17959495#post17959495 That was fast. * soccer wonder * in our hearts we all are bulls
http://www.rb-leipzig-fans.com/ Well, at least they will be able to say "I was a fan before they even played a single game!!!"
True, they will draw attendance when they are successful. Negative? I don't think so. It's the only chance for an East German club to be competitive (and not competitive in the sense of Cottbus = two straight years in Bundesliga somehow). They'll not only draw their attendance from Leipzig when they are going up but from whole East Germany. IMO its positive when somebody invests to give some good entertainment over there - the traditional clubs weren't able to and will never be able to.
Holy shit: http://www.goal.com/de/news/428/deutschland/2009/06/25/1346406/leipzig-sichert-sich-zwei-stars Patrick Bick used to be cool . Yeah, they may not be Ronaldo, but 5th division? Way to go only for the money, guys.
They're going to be a huge success. A friend of mine now lives in Leipzig and he told me there is a massive hype about them already. They're going to be the new media and DFB darling. And once they reached 3. Liga they'll have big crowds and the local notables and business will do everything to be associated with them. Nothing anybody can do, I just don't want to hear the word "miracle" or "wonder" attached to them then.
they're top of the table . and they're called rassenballsport . they play sachsen in the cup now. that could be fun.