The 3rd division continues to boom, even if the loss of traditional clubs Arminia Bielefeld and Dynamo Dresden hurts. That’s an average of 11,278 visitors per game. This is already close to last season’s record average, when an average of 11,566 spectators attended 3rd league games over the entire season.

However, it will be difficult to maintain this average, as two crowd pullers, Dynamo Dresden and Arminia Bielefeld, are no longer in the league. They ranked first and fourth in the spectator rankings.

MSV Duisburg, a traditional club, has returned to the 3rd division, but Jahn Regensburg and SSV Ulm 1846 will hardly be able to fill the gaps left by Dresden and Bielefeld.

By way of comparison, Regensburg and Ulm averaged 9,657 and 10,347 spectators per home game in their last third division season (2023/24).

Looking at the first matchday of the current season, most visitors passed through the gates at MSV Duisburg, where 19,652 fans watched the 2-1 victory against VfB Stuttgart’s U23 team. 19,300 visitors were in Essen when RWE played out a 1-1 draw against 1860 Munich in a sold-out stadium on Hafenstraße.

It is clear that Essen urgently needs a larger stadium; after expansion, the stadium will be able to accommodate around 26,000 spectators. VfL Osnabrück was third in the attendance statistics, playing 0-0 against Alemannia Aachen in front of 15,741 fans.

The TSG Hoffenheim U23 team can only dream of such figures. Only 1,015 spectators watched the 0-0 draw against fellow promoted team TSV Havelse. An absolutely minuscule crowd.

With Aachen, Rostock, and 1860 Munich playing their home games next week, 112,000 spectators are expected there. And that’s despite the fact that Stuttgart II, Havelse, SC Verl, and Schweinfurt are not expecting large crowds for their home games.