Pays to be the home team
It’s pay day at Djurgården, or make that pay dirt. The Stockholm club said it stands to make between 6 million and 8 million kronor ($930,000 to $1.2 million) from ticket sales and concessions at the season opener April 4. The reason? DIF plays city rivals AIK in its opener and ticket sales are booming. According to the club, DIF and AIK combined have sold more than 16,000 tickets to the game, which they are playing at Råsunda Stadium, Stockholm, and the sales keep coming.
“We had two other derbys at the start of the season and we had crowds of more than 30,000 for each of those,” said Djurgården ticket manager Thomas af Geijerstam. “There’s no reason to think we won’t do that well again.”
If it reaches the 30,000 mark in attendance, the cash injection could go a long way in helping DIF curb its mounting debt. The club entered the 2011 season carrying nearly 30 million kronor ($4.7 million) in red ink and income from this one game could cut that debt by nearly 25 percent.