SC Fans 4/5 (Around 2,000)
It was in the mid-'80s that St. Pauli's transition from a traditional club into a "Kult" club began. The club was also able to turn the location of its ground in the dock area part of town St. Pauli near Hamburg's famous Reeperbahn - centre of the city's nightlife and its red-light district - to its advantage. An alternative fan scene emerged built around left-leaning politics and the "event" and party atmosphere of the club's matches. Supporters adopted the skull and crossbones as their own unofficial emblem. Importantly, St. Pauli became the first team in Germany to officially ban rightwing, nationalist activities and displays in its stadium in an era when fascist inspired football hooliganism threatened the game across Europe. In 1981, the team was averaging crowds of only 1,600 spectators: by the late '90s they were frequently selling out their entire 20,000 capacity venue.
In the early '90s, the media in Germany started to work on the Kult-image of the club, i.e. by focusing on the punk part of the fan-base in tv broadcasts of the matches. By this time, the media also started to establish nicknames like "Freibeuter der Liga" (Pirates of the League) as well as das Freudenhaus der Liga ("league house of merryment", a double entendrefor league brothel"') phrases not used by the club's followers.
