Can we create some kind of local movement?”“We aren’t pivoting blindly,” Smedley says. I chose my dad — the closest person to a sports fan in my immediate circle — and a team: Colchester United, a smaller soccer club in the UK. That’s what makes Oakland Roots a prototypical partner. Unable to attend games in person, diehard fans are ponying up $20 to $30 to have their photos printed out and affixed to the seats at Korean baseball games, German soccer matches, and more.Selling cardboard fans could be a small way to make up some lost revenue. “We had to make it easy for them,” he says.“When players go through the tunnel and you see those supporters in the tribunes, you have the feeling someone is watching you,” says Markus Aretz, head of media and communications for Borussia Mönchengladbach. These commitments come with one big caveat: Officials will only welcome cardboard fans if human fans are not allowed to fill seats in person.As cofounder Edreece Arghandiwal tells it, the Roots were formed in 2018 with a desire to reflect the diversity and camaraderie of the city. “Bayern Munich is really pissed that we came up with it.” (Bayern Munich did not respond to an email seeking comment. Fans of German soccer club Borussia Mönchengladbach are putting cardboard cutouts of themselves in the stands to avoid 'empty' stadiums.
All rights reserved.Unfortunately it didn’t do the trick on match day, despite some familiar events like a minute’s silence taking place in the ground which holds 54,000 people while full - although the cut-outs will remain in place for the side’s next home game.Bundesliga side Borussia Moenchengladbach found that out on Saturday afternoon as the league’s second round of matches took place and they ran out 3-1 losers to visitors Bayer Leverkusen, despite putting in around 12,000 replica fans in place. “It’s fun. For their photos, fans put on their jerseys and wear their scarves. “We are pivoting because we know some of the conversations that are happening at the team and league level.”For him, the big draw of the cardboard fans is not just that they could offset ticket revenue. For 19 euros, or some $20.60, fans of Borussia Mönchengladbach can purchase a cardboard cutout of their likeness, to be planted in the Borussia-Park home stadium seats during games.Such anticipation for a cardboard collection, history has never seen. It’s a statement by the fans that they want to be with the team. “Crack peoples’ awareness.”Back in March, a German filmmaker and soccer aficionado named Ingo Müller was sitting at home, complaining to his wife about not being able to attend the matches of his favorite club team, Borussia Mönchengladbach.My reasons for buying a cutout of my dad were much less sentimental. Another big draw: When the season wraps up, Collinson can take home all 5 cutouts — he expects it will be “a nice memento of what has been a season to remember.”Once bustling with beer-soaked fans, stadiums across the world are now full of cardboard cutouts. And it might also give fans a viable way to support their favorite teams from afar.“It was a great way to show support for the players but also to give the club another form of revenue during these strange times,” Collinson told me this week. Australia’s National Rugby League, Mew says, is “the only game in town” right now. Though Smedley hasn’t yet produced any cutouts, she says she’s received “a couple verbal commitments” from clients, including at least one from a college football bowl game. “Can we give back to local organizations? What a day that will be.Aretz says that no crowd noise will be pumped into the stadium during the games; that’s going a bit too far. To Corton, the cutout is a way to honor the man who got him into soccer in the first place.