Since the ”crowdFANding” project was launched on 6 June, it has attracted an increasing level of interest. So far, fans from 23 different countries have already pledged their support. More than 1,250 of them have contributed to the recent breaking of the 100,000 euro mark. crowdFANding is therefore more than a regional project.
Its supporters are based in Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, Austria, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, Hungary, Wales – and Germany, of course. New interim goals have already been set, and we are looking forward to being able to welcome country number 25 on board soon.
In the run-up to the next Olympic Games, we are also focusing on making the campaign even more international and reaching many more supporters. In view of the success so far and the numerous ideas, 15 August seemed too early as the cut-off date for funding. Considering the existing potential, we made the unusual decision of extending the project duration until 15 September. We are hoping to gain even more wide-spread support over these last months, in line with what the founder of the modern Olympics said: ”The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part!”
The active fans of FC Carl Zeiss Jena intend to co-design the redevelopment of the football stadium at the Ernst-Abbe-Sportfeld grounds for the benefit of this generation of fans as well as future generations to ensure that the SÜDKURVE stand at the southern end of the stadium, the traditional base of the active FCC fans, can be retained. ”The 'Südkurve' is an incredibly important place for the local fan scene when it comes to socializing, and it is also a place they particularly identify with […] finding a new location inside the stadium for them and the associated restructuring is far more likely to have a detrimental effect on the desired improvement of stadium safety,” the sports sociologist Prof. h.c. Dr. Gunter A. Pilz also emphasized in an interview yesterday.
The idea behind crowdFANding
Against the background of the most recent European football championships in France, we Fraunhofer economists are supporting the crowdfunding campaign ”crowdFANding – Südkurve bleibt!”, which is aimed at an international audience, from a scientific perspective with the objective of investigating the success factors for crowdfunding campaigns, especially in the sports area. Crowdfunding is developing into a successful financing alternative that emphasizes the community and team spirit demonstrated in the game and also by its fans. Not least, this project is special because people from different countries and backgrounds are cooperating across and with various subcultures. It is precisely this mix that constantly enriches crowdFANding with new ideas.
In keeping with the motto ”One voice has little chance of being heard – hundreds maybe – but thousands of voices cannot be ignored!”, the Unser Stadion Jena e.V. citizen's initiative and the financing experts from the Fraunhofer Center for International Management and Knowledge Economy IMW are providing the fans and supporters of FC Carl Zeiss Jena with an innovative financing method to ensure that the SÜDKURVE can remain the place where the active FCC fans gather to support their club and watch the home games.
Fraunhofer Center for International Management and Knowledge Economy IMW
