While all football clubs face a struggle between commerce and culture, FC St. Pauli is in a special position. It has one of the smallest budgets and a fan base well-known for its non-conformist attitude. The promotion to the Bundesliga in season 10/11 is the opportunity for the club to set an example of how a box can communicate its values to a broader target group.

The prospective residents of the box are keen to follow the home games of their favourite club in a real fan box. However, we totally dislike the sterile glass and steel boxes...

We built the "Counterpole": The box consists of three container boxes that sit on a steel scaffold between the north stand and the back straight. The interior of the containers is a hommage to the club and the district. On the outside of the upper container, we installed a terrace with 26 seats offering fans the best view over the pitch. And all guests can concentrate on nothing but the game, as there is a beer barrel under every seat and the currywurst is delivered by train. For recapturing crucial scenes, there is a TV set at every seat.

"Gegenpol" received enormous media coverage including the most popular TV football show "Sportschau" and Germany`s biggest newspaper BILD.

TV: ARD Sportschau (7 Million Viewers), Sky Sport (Pay TV channel with 2.5 million subscribers), ZDF Sportstudio (3 Million), ZDF Drehscheibe (approx. 750.000), Sport 1 (approx. 800.000) and regional broadcast.

Newspapers: BILD national (2.900.355), BILD Hamburg (220.162), Südddeutsche Zeitung (407.816), Hamburger Abendblatt(219.241), Frankfurter Rundschau (124.605), Bravo Sport (141.397), Sportbild (454.551), FourFour Two (90.077), Horizont (18.077), Werben & Verkaufen (33.365). Total number of copies sold: 4.609.646.

"Gegenpol" was also invited to the German Architecture Day 2011.