VfL Bochum

Why Bochum?

 

Bochum is a cool club to support. A modest little club that gives its youngsters a chance. Although I can understand where you're going with that comment Matt.

 

I agree totally - I lived in Bochum in the 80's and was a regular at the Ruhrstadion during the days of Rolf Schafstall's cracking little team with the likes of Zumdick, Fischer and and Kuntz. I even played for their youth team in the 1984/85 season.

 

Wow, I thought you were going to say something different. That's cool. I've been to the Ruhrstadion a couple of times. Cool place to watch soccer, working class neighborhood and environment. How come you lived in Germany?

 

My parents up and moved there. I was offered little choice in the matter.

 

They used to call them The grey mouse, but the Coach has been successful in changing the perception of the club, through attacking play and his media personality. Despite their current position, I think they’ll be fighting relegation at the end of the season. It is very difficult to establish a club in the Bundesliga if you’re squeezed between the hugely popular Schalke and BVB.

 

That's a relatively new thing though. Bochum used to be as big as Dortmund and much bigger than Schalke. In fact, Gelsenkirchen (Schalke) used to be a suburb of the city of Bochum, a fact the locals like to remind people of whenever they can.

It's only the mismanagement of the mid-90's that allowed Schalke to escape their tin-pot 'nothing-club' image.

 

Well you were there so you should know but I must dissagre. Schalke are a multiple German champion( even if it was all in the pre-Bundesliga era). Were Bochum ever champions? And they only reached Europe once, under Toppmoller. Schalke was probably the worst managed team in Germany before Assauer, but still had big crowds.

 

So? Huddersfield Town once won three consecutive championships, but Leeds United are still a bigger club.

These days the tables in Bochum have turned, but prior to the 1990's, Schalke were nobodies.

 

Well Bochum have not been great in the last 40 years either. Not reaching Europe once before 1997? Kinda like Coventry, managing to stay in the top level for a long period but not doing anything more. And Schalke were relegated 2-3 times but if they didn’t have a bigger fan-base they wouldn’t have been able to turn themselves into big spending club in the mid nineties.

 

Schalke were getting 20-odd thousand in the mid-80's, a time when Bochum could pack anything up to 50,000 into the Ruhrstadion. And often would, not least when Schalke came to visit.

 

Didn’t know that. How come they weren’t more successful ?
It also makes Assauer’s accomplishments even more impressive

 

Schalke got into Sponsorship and the TV thing quicker than Bochum. They also had a better set-up than Bochum following some astute long-term planning in the late 80's/early 90's. Bochum have always been a fairly "gemuetlicher" club ... bumbling along in a more or less permanent state of distracted contentment, irrespective of what the world of football threw at them. They are the Charlton Athletic of German football.

 

What are you talking about?

Schalke was always bigger than Bochum.

Never have been 50000 in the Ruhrstadion, it isn`t big enough for that.

 

Alright, so I exaggerated a bit. But back in the day when it was all-standing, they were packing 'em in. And they certainly got bigger crowds than Schalke in the days I am talking about.

Schalke was not bigger than Bochum in the 1980's. They were a crappy little outfit. Since then (and possibly before, I dunno) yes. But not then.

 

Even in the eigthies when Schalke was going up and down from Bundesliga to 2.Bundesliga every year they got bigger crowds than Bochum.

For example the 1982/1983 season:

http://www.homecourt.de/weltfussball/zuschauer.php?s_id=20&Thema=3&Liga=1&modus=1

Bochum was always a little club fighting against relelgation, with a relativ small fan base.

Schlacke has always been a myth and always had bigger crowds than Bochum.

 

Whatever dude. Just telling it like it was.

Good days ...

 

Cracking site that, though. Like it.

 

Schalke already had more than 20k people at their stadium(they had an average of 21k) in the pre bundesliga and postwar period(1947-1963) ,just like Dortmund(20k), while Bochum had even less audience than big superior glorius legendary and whatever club TSG Vohwinkel 80 (17k). They always were No.3 in the Rhurgebiet and they always will be.

 

Really? Interesting. Like I say, I can only speak for the mid-80's.

 

schlacke has always been (that means since the early 30's) a bigger club than bochum with more fans in stadium and in population.

you can believe me. i'm a bvb fan and still say that.

english source for the average attendance:

http://european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn/attnger.htm

schlacke has an even longer tradition than bvb has. today there are more bvb fans but schlacke is still very popular especially among the elderly.


jonam, schwatzgelb.com