Over the past few days and weeks, several BVB fans have come to us with criticism of the situation that arises with fans coming into the stadium, which mainly affects the south-east entrance of SIGNAL IDUNA PARK. Dr. Christian Hockenjos, director of organisation and event manager at BVB, answers your most frequently asked questions.

For months, Borussia Dortmund have been intensively working on organising the home games while the special conditions apply to games during the pandemic and the associated changes to normal operations, which are not always easy to cope with. We are therefore grateful for the critical feedback from all the fans who came forward. The topic also received plenty of attention at a fan council meeting on Thursday evening, at which Dr. Hockenjos was a guest.   

In the past two home games, there have been long waits, especially at the south-east entrance of SIGNAL IDUNA PARK. What efforts are there to ease the problems with the situation coming into the stadium there?
The situation is dynamic and presents us with new challenges before every home game. The number of spectators has recently increased from 25,000 to 41,000 and then to 63,000. Against Cologne, we are talking about a capacity of 67,028. Also, the start times were not always the same. It is a new situation in general for the crowd at the stadium and for us. We are very critical of ourselves and question our own ideas on a regular basis. We are constantly coming up with new ideas – some we reject, others we implement. We believe we are well positioned to handle the largest number of fans in the stadium so far this season with some more changes that we have made. We cannot change the structural conditions, so we have to be creative elsewhere. Specifically, we are going to increase the number of turnstiles at the south-east entrance, and we are also adding more female security staff behind the turnstiles. However, for everything to run smoothly, the fans also have to do their part and take their seats early.

Will it be possible to enter the stadium through the north-west entrance with a ticket in the south stand again?
As long as the legislation states that GGG checks are required, this will not be possible. For example, the number of GGG checkpoints is too heavily limited by the special needs exit in the north-west entrance area. 

Why is the GGG check currently carried out directly as fans enter the stadium? Why are the wristbands that confirm the GGG proof no longer being distributed after a preliminary inspection? Wouldn't this help get fans in faster?
With 25,000 fans we had 120 GGG inspectors. With 80,000, we would need between 400 and 500. Firstly, it is very difficult to find such a large number of inspectors at this time. And you also have to position the 500 inspectors around the stadium sensibly. Our aim is to continue to carry out the checks at the turnstiles, as that way we cut out the time-consuming process of putting the wristband on. However, if we find that another solution is better, we will of course also look more closely at this issue. 

How important is it to comply with the time slots printed on the ticket?
The time slots no longer apply. They were very important and worked well for the most part – and I would like to compliment the fans for that. But now, with almost 70,000 fans in the stadium, it doesn't seem the right solution to us anymore. We learned that. For example, we can only apologise to all those who had a time slot after 14:45 for the Mainz game. Even those who arrived on time had no chance of getting to the stadium in time for kick-off. The tickets for Cologne were produced at a time when we were still thinking of using time slots. Now we simply ask everyone to come to the stadium as early as possible – regardless of the time slot printed on the ticket. Those who arrive between 13:00 and 14:00 can make use of the "happy hour" for food and drinks at the stadium kiosks.

Why are there no slots available from 13:00 to 14:00? On the other hand, some BVB fans still have time slots from 15:15 so will miss a lot of the pre-match entertainment?
As I said, we actually meant well with that. We believed that the time slot between 15:00 and 15:15 would be the most popular. Conversely, we did not want to give anyone the unfavourable time slot of between 13:00 and 14:00. Winter is coming and we didn't want to force any fans to come two and a half hours before kick-off. 

Why does the GGG proof have to be in digital form?
On the one hand, because of the possibility of counterfeiting, on the other hand, different documents make it even more difficult for inspectors to carry out the necessary checks in a short space of time.

Some fans have noticed that ID was not always checked against the GGG proof at the checkpoints on the way into the stadium? Is there an explanation for this?
The answer is simple: the Coronavirus Protection Regulation of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia only provides for random spot checks. Nevertheless, we are striving to carry out as full a check as possible. At all times, however, we also have to keep an eye on the situation as fans are entering the stadium and react accordingly. It makes it easier for us to carry out the checks if the spectators are prepared and have their GGG proof and ID to hand. So we can only ask everyone to be there early and prepared.

One last question, which is not so much about admission as about the south stand: when will the seats be removed again for Bundesliga matches and why has this not been done so far?
They will be removed for the game against VfB Stuttgart. We did think about doing it before then, but for the games against Ingolstadt and Mainz, we didn't have enough time to carry out the changes in the south stand.