Fan area at Lower C: An old dream has come true

It is hard not to be excited about the new fan area beneath C14, where FCK fans will now be able to gather after matches.

The excitement may have settled a little faster for coordinator Katinka Riess, who—together with a handful of volunteers—put in a great deal of hard work to get everything ready for the opening against OB on April 22, but the result has been worth the effort.

- We've had the desire for a long time to do more with Lower C, to extend the matchday experience and create a place where fans could gather after the game, so it is fantastic that the club wanted to support us in this, says the coordinator.

FCK has done the heavy lifting when it comes to the construction work. Among other things, the ticket facilities at C14 were removed to make room for tables and benches, which the fan club’s volunteers sanded down and painted.

- A lot of it is about the details in the new fan area, and those are what we have worked hardest on. The tables and benches should not just be gray, but naturally the same recognizable Copenhagen green that people know from the benches around the city.

Billede

An Old Idea

The idea of creating a place where fans can meet is certainly not new. For many years, the supporters’ club has explored possibilities for a fan house in the area around Parken. They looked at every conceivable location in the neighborhood—from bomb shelters to huge retail spaces at Trianglen—but there was never a room or building that could accommodate the dreams and possibilities that the fan club believes a proper fan house should offer.

- In reality, it is a luxury problem. We support a club located right in the middle of the city, but the buildings closest to Parken—where we would cause the least inconvenience to neighbors—are embassy buildings, which we could never afford to get anywhere near. And when we started looking at other possibilities, part of the solution was right in front of us.

The idea of using Parken itself as a meeting place emerged during the COVID pandemic, when the lockdown gave time for new and ambitious thinking.

- It has been a strong ambition to recreate some of the atmosphere that existed under the C Stand in the 1990s. Back then, it was also a gathering place, and if you were new to the stand, it was easy to strike up conversations with people in and around the fan club stall or at events in Carlsberg Corner, Katinka recalls.

The fan club stall under the C Stand opened in 2020, marking the first step in that direction. It was the beginning of the dream of creating something more.

- Many of the people you have gotten to know in the stands over the years stand in their usual spots and are spread out across the entire stand—or are now in other stands—and even though you go to the same football match, you rarely see each other anymore. It becomes very much in and out, she explains.

For quite some time, the supporters’ club had noticed there was a need for a place where people could round off the match with the person next to them and finish their beer.

- You could see that many beers were left behind under Lower C, and that many people also gathered outside Parken after the match, but often ended up going their separate ways instead of having one last beer or soft drink together, says Katinka Riess, who has since worked with, among others, the club’s SLO to bring the idea to life.

The idea was to have a place to end the day without necessarily leaving Parken—so why not bring a little bit of Copenhagen into Parken?

- The ideas came naturally—street signs, street lamps, and the classic Copenhagen benches—so that Lower C could have a look that was more than just a dull gray concrete block. As an F.C. Copenhagen supporter, you love Copenhagen to the bone, so naturally the city had to be invited inside. It was the obvious thing to do, she explains.

Billede

More to Come

This is still only a small part of the original vision that has now become reality, so the club has likely not heard the last from FCKFC and Katinka Riess.

That could mean, for example, extending Harald Nielsen Allé all the way through Lower C, giving each of the former ticket booth areas their own names, adding more visual elements to the walls inspired by Copenhagen, and not least creating the possibility of a small stage for music or player appearances—inspired by the old Carlsberg Corner, where, among others, the player of the match would stop by.

The hope is also that one day the area can be used outside matchdays for a wide range of events that the local community might also benefit from.
Fortunately, there is no shortage of ideas, and recently new suggestions have continued to come in from fans who have seen or heard about the new fan area.

- My sketchbook is definitely full, and our dream is to continue developing and building on what we have now. We have plenty of concrete ideas, so we hope they too can become reality in time. Hopefully, we are only just getting started, she concludes.