I am planning a trip to Germany in August. I will be going to Frankfurt Airport (surprise) and would like to catch a Bundeslinga game. (1) How late in August do I need to schedule my trip to see the game? (2) Will Frankfurt be back in the first bundesliga next season or do I have to travel somewhere to catch the game? (3) When does the schedule get announced. I know the nail is not yet in the coffin on this year's season, but I need to start making plans and really would like to catch a game. While I am on the subject of long term planning. How would I (and American) go about getting teams to see the German national team play in Portugal in 2004 at the European competition?
If I'm not mistaken, the BL schedule usually comes out pretty late (say late June), so it's going to be hard to plan in advance. The season usually starts in August, and given Euro 2004, probably pretty early in August (say first week). That being said, the August fixture list can be kind of spotty, with usu. one weekend devoted to German Cup cames and perhaps another to internationals. I'd put Frankfurt's odds on making it to the BL next season at maybe 50%; they and Mainz and Fuerth are all close. If Frankfurt doesn't make it, or isn't home, the closest BL team is probably Stuttgart (or maybe Kaiserslautern), although if Mainz make it instead of Frankfurt, they'd be closest (I think, and without benefit of a map; also consider Cologne, who has clinched promotion, and might be a bit closer than Stuttgart; between Frankfurt, Mainz, Stuttgart, Kaiserslautern and Cologne, I would think one of those teams would be home while you were there).
A quick look at the Euro 2004 qualifiers shows that there are two qualifiers on August 20 (Wales and Serbie and Faroe Island and somebody else), but that most of the qualifiers won't happen until September. So my guess is that you won't have an "international" weekend to contend with.
More info (or speculation, as the case may be): the BL started last season on the weekend of August 10; they played the first three weekends, and then broke for German Cup games and, I think, internationals. So, if my theory holds that they will start earlier because of Euro 2004, the second week in August (9-10) would probably be your best bet--it would probably be the second week of the season, although it could be the first week, and it likely won't be a Cup week. Keep in mind that wherever you go, it will most likely be the team's first home game of the season, so tix might be more scarce than usual.
It's true what Wolfsburgh said. The schedule will most likely be released in late June. I recently heard about the start of the next season and think it was the date wolfsburgh suggested (August 9/10). Concerning Frankfurt: I wouldn't bet too much on them promoting to Bundesliga. They struggled lately as well as rival Mainz (they meet next weekend), so my take for the third promotion spot is Fürth, which rallyed up lately. Even if Frankfurt makes it, it might be difficult to get tickets as their stadium is under construction for the WC (plus euphoria at the season start, especially for promoted teams).
Thank you very much for this information. If I actually make it to a game, I will put up a post. I had forgotten that Frankfurt is building a new stadium -- I hope they get the size and audience needed to run a top quality team.
No problem. Last time I went to Munich (March 2001), I decided I had to see a game and did what you were doing: picked the week to visit around the soccer schedule. There were two BL.1 games the weekend I picked: the Munich derby on Saturday, and Unterhaching/Stuttgart on Sunday. My first choice was to attend the Munich derby, but the Unterhaching game gave me a fall-back option. As it turns out, I was unable to obtain tix for the Munich derby through authorized means, and my hotel's concierge strongly advised against trying to scalp, plus it was rainy. So I ended up going to Unterhaching and buying tix at the stadium's ticket booth (a sloppy 0-0 tie, so I have yet to see a goal scored in Germany).
If you can, wait until the sched comes out. Thats what I did back in 99 and it worked out like a charm. Saw VfL win 2-0 vs then defending champs K'lautern and then saw a Tuesday 0-1 away win in Frankfurt and then flew home. I'll be doing the same for my upcoming trip... hope the VfL - Hannover (if they stay up, which I think they will) game is in 2004 and not 2003..
FWIW, Allen Hopkins mentioned on one of the BL broadcasts on FSW this weekend that the BL will start the first weekend August (8/2). Of course, this was the same guy who aptly pointed out on Sunday that Bielefeld's Brinkmann just missed a scoring opportunity (5 minutes after he had been sent off).
By the way Cologne is not the closest town (that's Mainz), but it's ownly 1 1/4 h by train (with a spectacular track, it was opened last year)