By Paul Nicholson
November 19 – One of Europe’s most iconic clubs is undergoing a revolution, Viennese style. SK Rapid, better known to most European fans as Rapid Vienna, has a new president, plans for a new stadium and is targeting a new era as one of Europe’s top clubs in the world’s best city to live in according to Mercer’s latest Quality of Living ranking.
The Austrian club will be remembered by most football fans for its pre-Champions league exploits in the old European Cup Winners Cup, reaching the final in 1985 and 1996. The club has won the Austrian league 32 times and the Austrian Cup 14 times.
But as one insider close to the club said, “the past is like my arse, it’s behind me. The future starts now and this is what we are building for.”
After 12 years as president of the club, former Austrian finance minister Rudolf Edlinger is being replaced by 53-year-old Michael Krammer, previously CEO of telecoms giant Orange.
Krammer was elected by members on a seven-point plan: the outsourcing of financial operations to a non-listed company; a new 25,000 seater stadium built on the site of the current Gerhard Hanappi stadium; the set up of new sales and marketing models; the medium term goal of acquiring 10,000 new members; increased transparency; an offensive in the field of mobile services and social media; a push to open up the Club internationally.
It is an ambitious plan but Krammer has gathered a board around him with the expertise to deliver. What is interesting in the club’s ambition is that it expects to achieve its objectives through harnessing its local assets and international reputation, rather than via a cash from a big-money investor, either from overseas or domestically.
Medium term the club is targeting breaking into Europe’s top 50 clubs through regular participation in the Group Stages of UEFA competitions. It is currently sitting second in the Austrian league and in the group phases of the Europa league for the fourth time in the past five seasons.
The club has said that the current operating deficit of €1.4 million needs to be cleared initially to prepare the foundation to take the club forward. The club is also realistic in that it wants to balance its accounts domestically, without having a dependency on qualification for European competition.
10,000 new members at €100 per membership goes a long way to wiping out the deficit.
At the core of Rapid’s self belief is the reach of its fanbase and the recognition of its name. Research continually puts the club in the top tier of the most recognised football brands, and it is easily the best recognised club name from Austria.
The club reckons to have a worldwide fanbase of 1.7 Million of whom 700,000 are in Austria. It is activating and growing the 1 million outside Austria that will push the club to the next level and creating the global brand. But there are few clubs in Europe who have such a strong starting point.
Key to the plans will be the building of a new stadium. While a third of the costs for the stadium will come from public funds, two thirds has to be privately financed.
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