German football’s fan membership figures continue to climb
The Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 continue to have some of the best supported clubs in the game, with recent figures showing an increase in club memberships in both leagues.
Eintracht Frankfurt recently announced that they had reached the extraordinary figure of 150,000 members, giving them the fourth most members in German football. Bayern Munich then followed that on their 125th anniversary with the big news of having passed 400,000 members, while Borussia Dortmund sit in second with an also impressive 218,000. Their fierce rivals Schalke, despite their recent struggles in Bundesliga 2, lie in third with an immense 190,000 members – the most in the league by some distance and in fact the fifth highest of any football club in the world.
Not only do these figures highlight the popularity of their teams, it also speaks to how football clubs in Germany are able to connect with their fans and make them an active part of their organisation.
Bayern president Herbert Hainer said when announcing the club's latest record figures, that saw the Bavarians once again overtake Benfica as the world's largest football club by members: "Bayern stands for sporting success, financial reason and social commitment. We have also intensified our dialogue with members in recent years. The club is close, and people realise that."
That followed his November 2023 explanation of the club's increasing membership: "Some 78 percent of the new members gave the reason that they want to be part of the Bayern family. The community is just as important for them as sporting success, and that our club upholds values and takes a stance."
Union Berlin, who joined the Bundesliga ahead of the 2019/20 season, famously had their Stadion An der Alten Försterei home rebuilt by the fans themselves in 2008, and have since tasted UEFA Champions League football and almost six seasons in the Bundesliga.
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The Union fans were rewarded with the opportunity to actually own the stadium they had helped save just a few years later in 2011, when they were offered the chance to own shares in the Alte Försterei.
Schalke have followed their example recently, launching their new registered cooperative society at the end of 2024, which effectively enables fans to buy shares in the club through the cooperative, which will also increase their voice through involvement in voting decisions.
While these membership figures are impressive, they also represent a steady increase over the past few years. The growth doesn’t stop with the top 10 teams, however, as other clubs such as Werder Bremen, Hertha Berlin and Mainz have also seen growth in memberships and match attendances.
Hertha president Fabian Drescher announced at the end of 2024 that “Our club has grown by almost exactly 17,000 members“ since 2022, meanwhile, Dr Hubertus Hess-Grunewald, president and chairman of the supervisory board at Werder, also announced at the end of 2024 that “We now have more than 56,000 Werder members".
Mainz also hit a positive milestone in the 2023/24 season, exceeding the 30,000 mark in average attendances. They launched their regular club-fan dialogue concept in 2022, which provides the opportunity for the fans and clubs to communicate on a consistent basis and discuss topics such as club politics, fan events and any other club updates. Taking the proactive step to ensure their fans feel heard certainly hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Their current competitors for European football, Freiburg, who sit just inside the top 10 clubs for membership numbers, set up a fan advisory board in 2023 with similar intentions. They created this in response to growing membership, in order to make sure that effective communication is maintained between the club and fans despite their growth, and the results are encouraging.
Each of the top 10 discussed above presents an incredibly well-supported club, with their fanbases underpinning a rich history in the game which has developed them into some of Europe’s most popular clubs. The huge numbers achieved by the Bundesliga’s top four membership clubs are not just impressive within the Bundesliga either – they also make up four of the top 10 clubs with the highest membership numbers worldwide – sitting alongside the likes of other historic clubs such as Benfica, Boca Juniors and River Plate.
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