ELF Stadium – Berlin Thunder – Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark

What can you say about it? The stadium was certainly a respectable sports venue in the past. Nowadays, however, it is more of a ruin and an imposition to host competitions at international level. The visitors used the porta-potties that were set up outside. The visiting team could be found in the intermediate corridor behind the stadium during the break, as the “changing room” is a little way away in a school complex. There the Musketeers were, sitting on the loading area of the broadcast trucks, holding their halftime meeting. It had been raining heavily that day. The tunnels into the inner area were more like Venetian waterways than paths. Wooden beams were laid out so that you could at least get into the inner area with reasonably dry feet. However, this was only possible through one of the two entrances anyway. Most of the already modest power party had already been dismantled by then. In addition, there is not just one lane around the stadium, there is practically an entire area around the pitch. So the 200 spectators had to watch the action from 50m away. When we collected our accreditation, we couldn’t be found on the list. We were told to simply write our names on it so that we could then receive our neon yellow photographer’s vest. All in all, I’m very happy that the stadium has finally come to an end. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a solution yet that’s anywhere near as good. I can only hope that the city of Berlin will not only invest in the NFL, but that some of the non-existent money will also flow into local sport. It would definitely be sustainable.