Werder Bremen Apologizes for Poor Fan Experience at VfB Oldenburg Match
The Saisonauftakt for the football-Regionalligist VfB Oldenburg was excellent, but the hospitality of the club in Bremen was not. The team won 3-0 against Werder Bremen II. The match was not only the opening game of the new season, but also the inauguration of the newly renovated and modernized Platz 11 next to the Weserstadion. Approximately 2800 spectators came to the game, which is an unusual large number for a home game of Werder II. The attendance was also due to more than 1000 VfB fans who followed their team to Bremen. And on this large crowd of spectators, the organizers were not prepared. „What was experienced in the guest block was a farce“, reports Henning Menke in the new issue of „Nordwestkurve - the VfB-Podcast“. There he is a regular guest of Host Lars Blancke; on Friday, Menke was also in Bremen. There he experienced that for the fans who had followed the team, there were too few toilets and the beverage supply was also very poor, says Menke. Zudem had also the Oldenburger fans, who were due to their age no longer good on foot, a long way to their seats have to take. Ordners had them blocked from taking a shortcut. And finally, Menke complained that the view from the seats in the guest block was very limited, since the fence stood directly in front of the seat rows. And in front of the fence again had the Ordners additionally blocked the view. His conclusion: „That was a burden, you don't do that with guest fans.“ ### Much criticism from VfB fans Also other VfB fans had expressed their discontent – directly on the spot and later in the social media. The surprise was always again, that the Bremeners knew the unusually high attendance already before the game and the framework conditions did not match. Werder reacted now to the complaints, went however only on the issues in the gastronomy. „The culinary provision was not as it was expected by the club as an organizer“, said the club with: „With the high attendance and partly changed circumstances in connection with the new construction of Platz 11, the supply of the fans could not be guaranteed according to the expectations of SV Werder.“ The club will now „critically examine the situation, so that in the future a better service can be offered. SV Werder Bremen apologizes explicitly for the waiting times and the associated discomforts.
