Another key question is whether the league will be able to grow without upsetting its hardcore supporters. At Bayern, sadly, the answer seems to be no. "If the club are trying to get rid of us, they're on the right track," Wolfgang Martin told Münchner Merkur. Martin is the spokesman of Club Nr. 12, the association of the Reds' most loyal fans. The Club Nr. 12 members are unhappy that electronic gates will restrict the access to the two noisiest blocks in the Südkurve terrace to ticket-holders. Since many of the most committed supporters cannot get tickets for these sections, they used to get "smuggled" in. Bayern initially turned a blind eye. Now, they are pointing at safety concerns but Martin feels that this is just an excuse for the clamp down on the ultras.
After the repeated setting off of flares in away games, the club also cancelled 400 away season tickets in the Champions League and the DFB Cup. Worst of all, from the fans' view, 300 newly available tickets for the Südkurve have not been reserved for the loudest and most committed fans but will be made available in the online shop. There is talk of a singing boycott ahead of the first home game against Borussia Mönchengladbach on Friday night. "A boycott? It's no longer possible to make proper noise anymore anyway," Club Nr. 12 member Stefan Viehauser told Süddeutsche Zeitung. The Südkurve believes that Bayern are happy to follow the lead of Barcelona, who have not had a dedicated block of ultras for years
