How to Buy Tickets for Union Berlin

Learning how to buy tickets for Union Berlin means accepting one stubborn fact about the club: the Stadion An der Alten Försterei fills from its own membership list long before anything reaches a public sale. Union Berlin does not hide this. Ticketing news goes out to members first, away blocks are flagged as members-only, and the ground itself — 22,012 places, of which 18,395 are standing and only 3,617 are seats — is smaller than the queue that wants it.

So the route in is not a lucky refresh at ten in the morning. It is a membership, a calendar reminder and a little patience. This is how the sale really works, where those tickets come from, and what a matchday in Köpenick costs once you are finally inside.

Where Union Berlin tickets come from

Union sells through the club's own ticket shop, and the shop is gated by status rather than by speed. Home matches open first to members, and a large share of the Alte Försterei never goes further than that. Away fixtures are stricter still: the club announces the sale as an offer to members, with a cap on how many each member can take. When Union travelled to Augsburg, the away block held around 2,900 tickets, the sale ran only for members, and the limit was two per person.

That pattern is the whole guide. If you are planning a trip around a Union home game, the realistic move is to join the club well before the fixture list becomes interesting, because the sale windows are short and the waiting list behind them is long.

Membership: the actual entry ticket

A Union membership is not expensive by the standards of European football. Adults pay €10 a month, or €120 a year. Retirees, students, pupils and holders of a disability pass pay €5 a month, or €60 a year, and children up to seventeen pay €3.50 a month. Family memberships exist as well, priced around a single adult contribution. In exchange you get the one thing a visitor cannot buy at the gate: a place in the queue.

For a groundhopper heading to Berlin for a single weekend, that maths is worth doing honestly. A membership plus a standing ticket is still cheaper than most hospitality or resale routes people chase when they leave it late. Note also that the club is a genuine members' club — the same structure that made the ground what it is. When Union rebuilt the main stand, more than 2,300 volunteers put in 140,000 working hours of the work themselves.

Alte Forsterei tickets: what you are buying

Almost everything at the Alte Försterei is standing, which is precisely why people travel for it. The Waldseite terrace behind the goal is the loudest end, and standing places are the cheapest and most atmospheric way in. Seats are limited to a few thousand and are concentrated in the main stand, so if you need to sit, plan earlier still.

Getting to Köpenick is part of the day — and if your maps app spells the district Kopenick, you are in the right place. The ground sits in the south-east of Berlin, a short walk from the S-Bahn, in a residential district of trees and low houses rather than a stadium quarter. Supporters walk in from the station together, which is half the reason the place feels the way it does.

Away days and the general sale question

Visiting supporters at Union get a standing block and a seated block, usually in a corner, and the club prices them in clear bands. Tickets are issued as print-at-home PDFs sent by email, so there is nothing to collect. The club also runs a free ride-share board for members travelling to away games, which is worth knowing if you are going the other way and want company on the road.

• Join the club before the fixture you want becomes interesting, not after.
• Watch the ticketing news section rather than the shop; the news announces the window first.
• Expect print-at-home tickets for away games and a photo ID check at the turnstile.
• Respect the per-member limit; duplicates are cancelled rather than quietly honoured.
• If you are travelling by car, try the club's ride-share board before booking parking.

What a matchday in Köpenick feels like

The ritual around the ground is as much the point as the football. Supporters gather around the forester's house that gives the stadium its name, drink outside, and walk in slowly. Because the ground is almost entirely standing, the noise does not need help from a speaker system. If you are used to all-seater modern stadiums, the first ten minutes are genuinely disorienting in the best way.

One warning about the expansion plans: the club has been working through a first construction phase that would lift seating towards 37,500, which will change the ground over time. Union Berlin tickets are still, for now, the hardest simple ticket in the German capital — and the Alte Försterei is still a place where a membership card is the honest price of admission.