I wasn't aware that SV Austria Salzburg still exists until I stumbled onto their homepage the other day: http://www.sv-austria.at/ It appears that disgruntled former fans of the club now known as Red Bull Salzburg re-founded the old club and have put together a team that plays in the 7th division, similar to the way fans in Wimbledon and Manchester have formed new clubs. They are currently in third place in their division, with a goal differential of 43:2. Their goal is to be playing "in der zweiten Liga" by 2010/11 - although I quickly did the math and don't see how this is possible! They are using the original colors of violet and white, the old SV Salzburg logo and the founding date of 1933. Anyway, check out their site - it is really well done and there is a lot of information on there, provided you can speak German. I gotta say I wish these guys all the best.
I saw two programs on Swiss tv about them before the Zurich - RB Salzburg matches there is a bit of it here towards the end of the 5min http://www.sf.tv/var/videoplayer.php?videourl=http%3A%2F%2Freal.xobix.ch%2Framgen%2Fsfdrs%2Fsp%2F2006%2Fsp_07232006.rm%3Fstart%3D0%3A39%3A48.305%26amp%3Bend%3D0%3A45%3A03.86
I came across them as well a while back, I think through the GC forum. Wish 'em all the best and hope the excitement doesn't fade as the years pass by... (their fan base must be quite a bit lower than Wimbledon or FC United)
That was pretty cool, Magicgam. I hardly understood a word of what the studio moderator said (nor Vonlanthen and Meyer, for that matter!), but the report itself was very good, although a bit gung ho about Red Bull in my opinion.
Yes, there's definitely a danger of that. I think if they achieve the Durchmarsch for the first couple of years that people will really start to take notice. If they can make it into the Landesliga (4th division), then they'll be back on the map. The competition is definitely going to get stiffer the further up they climb though.
Maybe Rivella can drop their support of Bregenz and support Austria Salzburg instead. The battle of beverages in Salzburg. Red Bull vs. Rivella. Austria vs. Switzerland.
SV Austria Salzburg is officially "Herbstmeister" following their latest victory. If they win their next game, they'll spend the break atop the table. http://www.sv-austria.at/aktuelles/austria-salzburg-433.html EDIT: Correction, two more games in this calendar year.
Say what you want, but this warms the heart: http://www.sv-austria.at/aktuelles/pressespiegel.php?id=58 It's about a busload of Borussia Dortmund fans who made the trip down to support Austria Salzburg in an away game in the lowest division.
So after their third promotion in a row, Austria Salzburg will play in the Erste Landesliga (fourth division) next season. So they're still on track.
Wow, fantastic that they're still on track to get back to the top flight, really hope they can keep it up!
Fourth consecutive promotion!! http://www.austria-salzburg.at/aktuelles/austria-salzburg-ist-zum-4-mal-in-folge-meister-1953/ So next year they'll be playing in the Regionalliga (third division). My prediction: sooner or later they'll be back in the Bundesliga, and when that happens they will outdraw Red Bull Salzburg.
So four years later I've done the math again, and it looks like they exceeded their goal by two levels. Great job Austria Salzburg.
What a fantastic story. I wonder if any team has won four straight promotions in Austria before? (I'd be surprised.) Two more, and they'll be in the Bundesliga!
I sure hope so and destroy Red Bull Salzburg once and forever. The Red Bull soccer experiment must end.
Awesome. As you can imagine I usually feel for purple teams. The sooner they're back in Bundesliga the better. Red Bull (Salzburg AND NY versions) is an aberration.
I really doubt any other team in Austria has done that before. I saw a thing in an Austrian soccer forum where apparently Austria Salzburg has now been crowned champion at all 7 levels of Austrian soccer, if you count this team as the rightful heir to the 1933 version. Definitely no other team can claim that. As a Rapid Vienna fan I by rights should hate the color violet, but I guarantee that every single Rapid fan is cheering for Austria Salzburg to make it back to the Bundesliga. The Red Bull version is pathetic... sometimes it's all they can do to bring 100 fans to away games at Rapid, and the atmosphere at their stadium sucks. As far as the New York version goes... okay, I was never a MetroStars fan, but Metro never had the tradition that Austria Salzburg had. The MetroStars started driving away their fans from day 1 - now they have an owner that plunked down a spectacular stadium for them and is willing to spend serious money on guys like Thierry Henry. Seems like if I had been a MetroStars fan I wouldn't be as unhappy about the way things have developed than if I had been an Austria Salzburg fan.
Looks like they'll have to settle for consolidation in the 3rd tier this season rather than another title and promotion. Onwards and upwards next season though! Inspiring story and I really hope they can make it all the way back.
Well, it's not over yet. The Red Bull Salzburg Amateurs have a 12-point lead over Austria Salzburg, but the amateurs cannot be promoted to the Erste Liga. So it's a race for second place in the table. With six matches to go, Wattens has a six-point lead on Austria Salzburg. (Dornbirn and Anif are three points behind Wattens.) Tough order, but all six remaining opponents are below Austria Salzburg in the standings.
Yeah, that was my only consideration. I only looked at the table quickly, but I wasn't sure if Red Bull juniors could be promoted or not. Cheers for the info, be great if they could grab promotion. I was looking at their average attendances (not sure the validity of the figures mind) and they seem to be hovering around the 1000-1500 mark. Compare this to Red Bull Salzburg who's attendances are around 10,000. By deduction it seems that the number of fans who turned to the new club is very low in comparison to those that stuck despite the takeover and rebranding. To me I find this fascinating, I don't understand how these people could hang around despite their club being bastardized like that. How do the SV fans view those that remained, and vice versa? Very interesting scenario, it is going to be a bizarre occasion to say the least when () they play each other.
I think basically with a club like Salzburg, you probably had around 2,000 hard-cores prior to the rebranding, with the rest being sort of fair-weather fans. After the split the 2,000 hard-cores followed Austria down into the 7th division, while the fair-weathers stayed with Red Bull. That is noticeable if you attend a Red Bull game - either at home, where the atmosphere is now crap, or away, where they don't have any traveling support to speak of. Austria by contrast has lower attendance but better atmosphere. I think the re-branding hurt attendance in a way as well. If Red Bull had taken over the club, invested in it to the same degree, remained a sponsor but not changed the name and colors, they would probably have very healthy attendance of around 15K. As it is though, they are missing the 2,000 or so hard-core Austria fans, and the remaining fans aren't passionate enough to follow Red Bull even when they aren't in first-place. All that money invested and they don't even ever break 15K attendance unless Rapid is in town. I know some Austria Ultras and they are pretty dismissive of the Red Bull fans. A friend of mine though was an Austria fan before but continued supporting after the jump to Red Bull. Which I don't understand, as it's a completely different club now. I guess when they're both playing in the Bundesliga that attendance will be even or Austria will have higher attendance. There is no passion for Red Bull at all, and since Mateschitz is basically going to be concentrating on Leipzig from now on and using Salzburg as a farm team of sorts, they're not even going to be consistent enough to regularly draw the fair-weather fans.
Thanks for your insight. It is much appreciated. Fascinating to here to how the atmosphere has becomes so sterile and the away support almost evaporated alltogether. I guess it's a pretty vivid representation of the two types of fans than follow the modern game. Once the hardcore is stripped away you're left with just an empty shell of a club left behind.
With four rounds to go, Austria Salzburg trails Wattens by seven points for second place [ official table ]. It's now going to take a miracle.
Well kids, Austria Salzburg today won the Regionalliga West title. On June 2 and 5 they'll do a two-leg playoff with the Regionalliga Ost champion (most likely FAC in Vienna) to see who gets promoted to the Erste Liga (second division overall). They absolutely dominated their league this year and have to be considered the favorites against FAC. I started this thread nearly eight years ago when Austria Salzburg started from the bottom in the 7th division, and now they're on the verge of returning to the professional ranks.