In the meantime, and as announced, discussions with fan representatives in the stadium working group of the fan and members' meeting have taken place. Zingler informed the club members of the outcome in a letter yesterday.

The following is the text of the president's letter:

Dear Unioner,

At the end of September, we first informed you, our members, and then the public that we had decided to build the Stadion An der Alten Försterei as presented in 2024, but to initially open it with a capacity of 34,500 seats. The aim was and is to speed up the approval process required for planning law. Based on our decision, the Senate Departments for Urban Development, Construction and Housing and for Mobility, Transport, Climate Protection and the Environment have declared that a ‘viable compromise for the transport concept’ has been found. In a joint statement, we also announced that the commissioning with reduced capacity is only an interim step and that the goal of all parties involved is to subsequently extend the approval to the originally planned 40,500 capacity as soon as possible.

In recent weeks, alongside the stadium working group of the fan and member department and other relevant groups within our club, we have discussed possible options for the distribution of seats and standing room and the specific layout of the Waldseite. As a result, we have agreed to have the entire Waldseite and the lower tier of the expanded stadium as standing room only. During the reduced capacity approval phase, this standing room will hold a correspondingly reduced occupancy rate. The losses encured will be mitigated by a slight price increase for all stadium visitors, which will not completely offset the loss of revenue, but will reduce it.

The capacity of 34,500 seats will initially be divided into 22,500 standing places and 12,000 seats. In this way, we are preserving standing room terrace culture as a fundamental part of our stadium experience while also accommodating the wishes of many, especially older Union fans, for seats.

In the meantime, we have agreed with the Olympic Stadium to use it during the 2027/28 season and are in the process of preparing the relevant contracts. We are therefore adjusting our construction schedule and now expect to play our last home game at the Alte Försterei in May 2027 and return to Köpenick for the first home game of the 2028/2029 season. We are currently working flat out to prepare the planning law implications of the reduced stadium capacity so that the agreement at political level can be followed as quickly as possible by the necessary approvals from the authorities in order to put this schedule into practice.

With Eisern regards,

Dirk Zingler.

President