Dortmund introduces phone-use rewards during Yellow Wall match at Signal Iduna Park

Borussia Dortmund announced on Friday a rewards scheme that tracked supporters' phone use during the club’s match against Eintracht Frankfurt at Signal Iduna Park last Saturday, a fixture Dortmund won 1-0 when Max Beier scored in front of 81,365 fans. The club said supporters who stayed off their phones could win signed jerseys and receive gift cards for the club’s merchandise store by activating a so-called “fan mode” on the club’s app.

By all appearances the Yellow Wall behaved as usual: the stadium announcer called the players’ first names and tens of thousands of supporters replied with their surnames, dozens of black-and-yellow flags were waved and faces in the standing terrace were fixed on the field below.

Dortmund’s programme let the club measure phone behaviour via the app’s “fan mode” by counting who unlocked their phones the fewest times during the game; the club awarded points for each minute a fan left their phone alone. Prizes on offer included signed shirts and merchandise-store gift cards for participants who accumulated points.

Other German clubs have taken stricter steps: Hertha Berlin and Dynamo Dresden have banned commercial, influencer-style videos in their stadiums, citing fears for the integrity of the TV rights they sell and for the experience of their fans. Dortmund’s move is framed in part as a response to influencers who have been filming and monetising elements of the match-day atmosphere, a practice the club says has become a nuisance to regular supporters.

The article places Dortmund’s policy in the wider context of sport and social media: when the US Tennis Association credentialed more than 100 content creators this year their presence grew disruptive to the point that a match was halted while a chair umpire asked creators to switch off a ring light, and Wimbledon has refused to credential influencers even though they can still attend on normal tickets or via sponsors.

“Over 81,000 people in the stadium, singing, cheering, and holding their breath together: this here and now is irreplaceable,” Dortmund chief executive Carsten Cramer said. “And that’s exactly what we’re putting front and center together.” “Anyone at a soccer game should experience the moment and the emotions – not just a cell phone screen,” added Marcel de Groot, the chief executive of Vodafone Germany, both a cellphone service provider and a Dortmund sponsor. “Let’s leave our smartphones in our pockets more often at the stadium and instead focus on what’s happening on the field and in the stands.”

The club’s initiative prompted broader questions reported in the piece about whether teams can or should influence how ticket-holders experience matches, and whether attending sport is passive consumption or active participation; the article also compares the issue to concertgoers holding up phones and to the different fan engagement cultures in American sports and global football. The Bundesliga’s rules on safeguarding fan majority ownership are cited as part of the league’s supporter-focused model, and Dortmund is described as a longstanding example of that fan culture, which has also attracted influencer attention.

Dortmund’s 1-0 victory on the night moved them level on points with Bayern Munich at the top of the Bundesliga standings, and the club’s phone policy adds to an ongoing debate across sports about how venues and organisers manage influencers and in-stadium phone use.