On June 11, the European League of Football will experience the biggest stage in its history. On the second match day of the 2023 season, the Hamburg Sea Devils will face Rhein Fire in the 57.000-seat Volksparkstadion. Fans are eagerly awaiting the duel between the two title candidates in the HSV Arena: Only two weeks after the start of pre-sale, 10.000 tickets have already been sold.

"Entire football family in the north"

"This will not only be a festive day for our league and the two teams, but for the entire football family in the north. For me, it is a very emotional story, because coming back to this place will be associated with many special moments and memories. I played in the old stadium myself, and after the new stadium was built, I was coaching there in the NFL Europe. Now I will be able to watch the game in Volkspark as Commissioner of the European League of Football. I'm already extremely excited about that," says Patrick Esume, looking ahead.

A new regular season record?

Almost four months before kickoff, it is already clear that a new attendance record will be set for the regular season since the start of play in the "Champions League" of European football in the summer of 2021. This record is held by Rhein Fire against Frankfurt Galaxy with 12.055 spectators in the Schauinsland-Reisen-Arena in Duisburg. The championship game will take place there on September 24 - and more than 20.000 tickets have been sold.

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"In the 2021 season, despite severe restrictions, while still into the Corona pandemic, we had a total of around 100.000 spectators. 2022, it were 250.000 fans already. As in all areas, we will continue to improve. Our goal and our ambition are to play in the big stadiums regularly in the future. Hamburg will be the first," emphasizes Zeljko Karajica, Managing Director of the European League of Football.

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