Supporters
Although mostly playing in lower divisions, the club enjoys solid fan support, with an average attendance of better than 6,000 per game currently (2010–11).
| Season | Average crowd | Division |
|---|---|---|
| 2011–12 | 6.193 | Regionalliga West (IV) |
| 2010–11 | 6.355 | NRW-Liga (V) |
| 2009–10 | 5.637 | Regionalliga West (IV) |
| 2008–09 | 7.064 | Regionalliga West (IV) |
| 2007–08 | 10.016 | Regionalliga Nord (III) |
| 2006–07 | 13.620 | 2. Bundesliga (II) |
| 2005–06 | 12.287 | Regionalliga Nord (III) |
| 2004–05 | 14.400 | 2. Bundesliga (II) |
Fortuna Düsseldorf, Rot-Weiß Oberhausen and Wuppertaler SV Borussia are local rivals when they are playing in the same league (as took place in the 2007–08 season). In the past, the local derbies versus Schwarz-Weiß Essen were big events, sometimes followed by more than 30,000 fans. The club's fiercest rivalry is with FC Schalke 04, from nearby Gelsenkirchen, with whom they contest the Ruhrderby.
The RWE followers have a strong fan friendship with SV Werder Bremen, while another with Borussia Dortmund ended.
Read more about this topic: Rot-Weiss Essen
Famous quotes containing the word supporters:
“No Government can be long secure without a formidable Opposition. It reduces their supporters to that tractable number which can be managed by the joint influences of fruition and hope. It offers vengeance to the discontented, and distinction to the ambitious; and employs the energies of aspiring spirits, who otherwise may prove traitors in a division or assassins in a debate.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)
“His [O.J. Simpson’s] supporters lined the freeway to cheer him on Friday and commentators talked about his tragedy. Did those people see the photographs of the crime scene and the great blackening pools of blood seeping into the sidewalk? Did battered women watch all this on television and realize more vividly than ever before that their lives were cheap and their pain inconsequential?”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“The opposition is indispensable. A good statesman, like any other sensible human being, always learns more from his opponents than from his fervent supporters. For his supporters will push him to disaster unless his opponents show him where the dangers are. So if he is wise he will often pray to be delivered from his friends, because they will ruin him. But though it hurts, he ought also to pray never to be left without opponents; for they keep him on the path of reason and good sense.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)