Euro Blog 2 – Salzburg : Red Bull as the new cultural icon?

The third day, and third stop on my tour sees me in Salzburg. Trips such as this are never 100% plain sailing, and I come across my first problem while on the train. I have managed to mislay the European-UK plug converter. This may not come across as the most serious loss in the history of these voyages (I have lost my computer once, while another hopper of my acquaintance has managed to lose not one, but four interrail train tickets in a single act of tidying up). Still it is an item that needs to be replaced as all my favourite “boy’s toys” (computer, mobile phone, camera) depend on recharging their batteries. The shops near the station do not yield a solution, but I am told to head for the out of town centre, called Europark – a centre that requites a 30 minute tram ride may have been an inconvenience, except that it is only a couple of stops further on the same tram, to the stadium. The time taken, though meant that I had to abandon my original plan of seeing two games at the stadium. The match between Salzburg and LASK was preceded by a reserve game against Wiener Neustadt, in the Erste Liga (strictly translated that means first division, but as is the fashion these days, first division is of course the second level). By the time I entered the ground, Neustadt were 5-0 up (with ten minutes to play) and had won the title, meaning next season they will return to play Salzburg’s first team.

The stadium is known by a confusion of different names, the oldest of which is Wals-Siezenheim Stadion, after the area in which it was built. Maps of Salzburg, though refer to it as the Euro-stadion, as does the bus timetable. The football club itself would have you call the place the Red Bull Arena. It is a curious site, in that the two stages of construction are clearly shown. The lower tier has concrete steps, and a grey stone exterior – most of the seats are lower than the surrounding ground level, so the stadium must have been literally dug out of the ground. The stands are square to the pitch, with little to interrupt the sight lines, and two areas that allow standing rather than seats, (in the centre behind one goal, for the home fans, and a corner at the opposite end for the away ones). The upper tier is a steel lattice work construction, and appears to have been dumped, literally onto the existing stadium. I guess this is not far from the truth, as it was added a few years after the initial construction, to increase the size to that required for the last European championships. The upper tier does not continue on the West side, where executive boxes and a smaller upper section already existed, and hence the stand appears to come to a dead end. The roof is at the same level all around. From the outside, the newer constructions are more obvious, if only due to the creation of steel staircases rising around the stadium, like giant pillboxes, connected only by a bridge to the actual venue. The pitch, incidentally is 3G artificial and played quite well. It was heavily watered between the two games.

On a city that exists now as a tourist trap, dependent on its culture and history; it is strange that Red Bull has tried hard to eliminate all signs of historical culture from the football club. They actually tried to incorporate the date of their take over (2005) into the name of the club – the Austrian FA would not allow that,although they have no qualms about Austria Salzburg becoming Red Bull Salzburg. I guess this is better than many – it actually keeps the town name. The purple in the strip has been replaced by red and white despite some supporters objections. Not that there is no compensation for the supporters, not only does the day’s victory leave the side on the cusp of retaining the championship, but the fact that a single sponsor is subsidising the budget makes the shirts relatively clean. The Red Bull logo is on the front of the Salzburg shirts, and the wording “Red Bull” on the backs. By comparison, the LASK shirts had five logos on the front, two on the back and one on each sleeve – two more logos are added front and back of the shorts, and not forgetting the socks. This is the way of the majority of clubs in Austria, forced to accept whatever they can for small donations towards the costs. Others accept complete loss of name to a sponsor, hence in recent years we have had two different internet betting sites as football clubs, and Superfund, which first took over Pasching, as FC Superfund, and now with Pasching having sold their licence to Karnten, Superfund fund Kapfenburg, under the title KSV Superfund.

On the field, mid-table LASK put up more resistance than may have been expected, but gave away too many free kicks around the 25 yard mark. Three such kicks in the first 13 minutes saw first a narrow miss, than a good save, and finally a goal. A second was added just after the half hour, when the keeper appeared to misjudge a downward header. Surprisingly, Salzburg could not add to this, and actually conceded a goal to a distant shot with just over 15 minutes to go. This did not turn out to be a rallying call to either side, and the game seemed to tire itself out.

While Salzburg will retain their title and achieve their domestic aim, many fans may feel that the sponsors promised much more from the takeover. Trappatoni is certainly not going to turn up as coach, and the certainly show no signs of being able to achieve success in Europe.