Borussia Mönchengladbach Delivers Scalable Connectivity in a Multi-Venue Sports Environment

Borussia Mönchengladbach has evolved far beyond a traditional football club into a complex, multi-faceted sports and entertainment organization. Today, its operations span a stadium, hotel, training facilities, business areas, fan stores, medical practices, and interactive visitor experiences—each increasingly reliant on always-on digital connectivity. As expectations for seamless fan engagement, cashless payments, and e-ticketing surged, the demands on the club’s infrastructure grew just as quickly.

“From office spaces, VIP areas, and boxes to kiosk terminals, the fully wireless H4 Hotel at Borussia-Park, three medical practices, executive lounges, the FohlenShop official store, and our interactive FohlenWelt museum – every facility depends on a highly available network,” said said Marius Köller, Head of IT Systems Administration, Borussia Mönchengladbach. “Only then can we provide a fully consistent, seamless feel-good experience for our fans and hotel guests.”

The club’s legacy network could no longer keep pace with this scale or complexity. Reliability became mission-critical, particularly on match days when tens of thousands of fans depend on digital services simultaneously.

“We are delighted to welcome more than 50,000 spectators to every home match. But if, for example, our payment terminals were to fail for just ten minutes on match day, we would very quickly face six-figure revenue losses. No professionally managed club can afford that,” said Frank Fleissgarten, CIO/CSO, Borussia Mönchengladbach.

To protect revenue, ensure consistent fan experiences, and support continued growth, Borussia Mönchengladbach needed a modern, scalable network that could unify operations and evolve with future demands.

To meet these challenges, Borussia Mönchengladbach implemented a high-performance, converged network architecture built on Extreme Networks solutions, unifying wired and wireless connectivity across all facilities. From the stadium and training pitches to hotel operations and retail environments, the club established a consistent, reliable foundation for every digital touchpoint.

By standardizing to Extreme’s switching, cloud-based management, and —most crucially—Extreme’s lineup of Wi-Fi 7 APs, the organization gained centralized visibility and control across its entire network. This approach streamlined operations, reduced complexity, and enabled IT teams to manage and scale the environment more efficiently.

Just as importantly, the new infrastructure was designed for flexibility—allowing new services, locations, and technologies to be integrated without disruption. This ensured the network could support both current operational needs and the club’s long-term digital ambitions.

With its new converged network in place, Borussia Mönchengladbach now operates a secure, high-performance digital backbone that seamlessly connects every part of the organization—creating a true showcase of the club’s diversification. From inclusive audiovisual services for visitors at the FohlenWelt experience to eight Wi-Fi-enabled training pitches, every environment benefits from consistent, reliable connectivity.

The impact extends across the entire fan and guest experience. Whether in VIP areas, retail spaces, or fully wireless hotel operations, the network enables a seamless, high-quality experience at every touchpoint. At the same time, the infrastructure is built to evolve—supporting future use cases such as expanded public Wi-Fi or new connected services without requiring major changes.

The club has also invested in next-generation capabilities, adopting Wi-Fi 7 across large portions of its network. This allows performance upgrades to be implemented without disrupting daily operations, while paving an easy path towards extending coverage to new areas—such as additional stadium zones or hotel facilities.

Operationally, the benefits are equally significant. With centralized management and a standardized architecture, Borussia Mönchengladbach has reduced administrative effort and eliminated many of the complexities associated with its legacy environment. Network expansion no longer requires intensive manual configuration, allowing new Wi-Fi zones and services to be deployed quickly, consistently, and at scale.

As a result, the club now has a flexible, future-ready foundation—one that supports current operations while enabling continuous innovation as digital demands evolve.