Free Beer for Soccer Fans

I just wanted to share a last story with you today about Hertha BSC, the Berlin Soccer team.

Last Saturday was the last day of the Bundesliga (German Soccer League). It had not been so tight in the standings in a long time, if ever. The top four teams in the standings- VfB Stuttgart, FC Bayern, Hertha BSC, and Wolfsburg- are seperated by one game or less, and it all hung on just one day of play that determined the Deutsche Meister.

Entering the weekend, Wolfsburg was on top. FC- Bayern is often compared to Baseball's "evil empire" for their buy-sell and win now attitude, and sat at #2 followed by Hertha and VfB Stuttgart.

I was pulling either for VfB Stuttgart, my original German city and team, or my current team Hertha. Alas, Wolfsburg pulled it out for the win, and FC Bayern took second completing an amazing comeback after having an awful season start. VfB jumped up to 3rd leaving Hertha a dissapointing 4th. Our Berliner kickers are however normally not even in contention, and it was a season of excitement and success.

To celebrate this unprecedented drama and the enthusiasm for Hertha's breakout season, Hungarian Midfielder Pal Dardai promised to buy fans a beer if attendance broke 55,000 at each of the last 5 games. True to form the Berliners responded and beer coupons for were handed out at last Saturday's game to 74,000 fans!

While I seriously doubt that one player paid for each of them, and that the organization footed the bill, it was still a very cool gesture of thanks for a lot of support from our local Füßballfreunde who passionately support their team.

Imagine if they did that at an Eagles game? People would go wild! It wouldn't cost the team much and is probably cost effective marketing.

That's what was talked about at the cafes, and bus stops last week, hope you enjoy!