Current Info for all fans
Dear Rapid fans!
We hope that you are doing well under the circumstances, and we wish you good health and continued strength at this challenging time!
As you will surely have noticed, the Austrian government announced last week that no events are allowed to take place until at least the end of June. Of course, this regulation also covers events organised by SK Rapid, which sadly means that we have to postpone a large number of well-loved and keenly anticipated activities for the time being.
These include our Greenie-Day (due to take place on the 14th April 2020), the SK Rapid ‘Stammtisch’ meeting (23rd April 2020), the Rapid-Run (8th May 2020), the 4th International SK Rapid Special Needs Tournament (30th/31st May 2020), the 13th SK Rapid Wiener Zucker U9 Tournament (6th/7th June 2020), our planned members' meeting (15th June 2020) and the 1st of our SK Rapid Football Youth Camps (July 2020). More information about potential alternative dates will follow when possible!
SK Rapid was founded to play football. Unfortunately, this has not been possible for about a month now, and as of today we cannot say with any certainty when our fixtures will be back under way, whether the current season will in fact continue, or when spectators will be allowed to attend games again. Of course, we all hope to be able to celebrate the spectacle of football together again in Hütteldorf very soon, but nevertheless, in all of our best interests, health is now our primary focus.
Nevertheless, understandably, we are regularly receiving enquiries about how SK Rapid will deal with match tickets and season tickets that have already been purchased. These include annual subscriptions, the ‘Meisterrunde’ Championship Round subscription for home and away matches, as well as pre-purchased individual match tickets for the Championship Round games either in Hütteldorf or away from home.
Unfortunately, due to the current situation and the unknown course of action for the remainder of the season, we cannot yet give a concrete answer to each of these inquiries. Therefore, we ask you to be patient, and we would like to thank the many people who have contacted us in the last few days to process their payments anyway. We are very grateful to all those who have helped support SK Rapid in these exceptional circumstances by choosing not to be refunded at the current time! You can rest assured that we are working flat out to guide SK Rapid through these challenging times in the best possible way, and have therefore implemented numerous measures, such as the introduction of ‘Kurzarbeit’ for employees and a conversion to our "emergency operations mode" in order to reduce running costs to a minimum. In addition, we have agreed with players and coaches on a salary waiver of more than a third in total, something which we as management have of course also agreed to. Nevertheless, a longer-term interruption to, or even a complete shut-down of the club’s footballing operations will be enormously challenging for the club that we all love.
A video conference of the Austrian Bundesliga clubs is planned for April 16th, in which the options for the continuation of the championship will be discussed. Only when a decision has been made in accordance with the specifications of the national and international associations and above all the authorities, regarding whether and how we will play out the current championship, will we try to find a solution together with you regarding further due procedures with SK Rapid, especially relating to what happens with already purchased individual match and season tickets. Until then, your already purchased tickets will of course still be valid and should therefore be retained at all costs. As soon as there is new information or a decision of the Austrian Football League, we will inform you about it via our usual channels.
For the vast majority of us, Rapid is much more than a football club. Rapid is an essential part of our lives, perhaps even an attitude to life. We are all united by the longing to see our great love, the unique atmosphere and our many friends again soon. Therefore it is also important to help to contain the virus together, so that we can all stay healthy and hopefully see our beloved Rapid again soon. We would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the many great initiatives from Rapid fans for people who are especially badly affected in these exceptional times, and also for the numerous offers of support from many fans! The situation is also a difficult one for our club and we guarantee you that we will do our best to protect the interests of Rapid and that we will pursue one unified goal with all our endeavours: To ensure the successful continuation of SK Rapid. We are convinced that with the support and the unity of the Rapid community, we will succeed.
We would like to thank all Rapid fans for their patience, understanding and loyalty in this challenging time! We wish you all the best and look forward to seeing you again as soon as possible. Stay healthy!
With Green and White greetings,
Christoph Peschek & Zoran Barisic (Managing Director Business / CEO & Managing Director Sport)