An Icelandic team, an Austrian December, and a half-empty stadium

Nobody plans a December trip to Linz for the weather. I was there visiting a company I work for, for their Christmas party, and the party came with a twist: LASK were playing Víkingur Reykjavík in the Conference League that week, and we watched from the company's suite at the Raiffeisen Arena.

High luxury, in theory. In practice, the suite teaches you something about football. The catering, the warmth, the comfort, all of that is inside. The seats are still out in the open. So you have a choice, and you make it about ten times a night: stay in where it's warm and watch through a window while eating well, or go out and sit in the cold and actually watch the match. If you want to see football, you go outside and you suffer. That's the whole deal, and no amount of hospitality changes it.

I went outside.

The part that makes this a groundhopper's story rather than a travel brochure: it wasn't a good match. LASK were bad that season and the results were horrific. The game itself was not especially interesting. The stadium was half empty. People tell you the crowd here is loud in that dry, Austrian way, nothing like the choreographed ultra style further south, and maybe that's true on a full night. I didn't witness it. I got the December version: thin crowd, cold seats, a struggling home side.

I stayed out there anyway. For some of us, watching football is more than the sum of its parts.

The Raiffeisen Arena deserves better nights than the one I gave it. LASK's rebuilt home on the Gugl hill opened in 2023 — steep, compact, around 20,000 capacity, the stands right on top of the pitch in a way that big modern grounds have designed out. It sits above the city, and you climb up to it, which somehow feels correct for football in December.

The match did give the night a story. Víkingur — a club whose entire league plays its season in the Icelandic summer, now grinding through a European campaign in midwinter — won a first-half penalty and buried it. A team from Reykjavík, leading away in Austria, in the Conference League. The home end did not enjoy it. Marin Ljubičić equalised for LASK within minutes, and the rest of the night was LASK pushing, Víkingur hanging on, and eventually seeing it out with ten men after a second yellow. 1-1.

I bought a LASK home shirt, obviously. You always do.

Nobody flies to Austria for LASK vs Víkingur. But if you're already there, for work, for a Christmas party, for a stopover — you go. Not because it will be a great match. It probably won't be. You go because European football in a small, steep ground against opposition you'll never otherwise see is worth being cold for, and because the alternative is finding out afterwards that it happened without you.

The only hard part is knowing the match exists. That's why I built Sportsintown, you put in a city and your dates, and it tells you what's on.

Practical, if you go:

• LASK home matches: tickets are rarely a problem. Normal seats are around €20-something.
• If someone offers you a suite: the food is inside, the football is outside. Choose accordingly.
• The arena is on the Gugl, uphill southwest of the centre — about 25 minutes' walk from the Hauptbahnhof, or a short tram ride.
• Linz had two Bundesliga clubs at that time, LASK and Blau-Weiß. Check who's home, but bear in mind that Blau-Weiß got relegated the season after I was there, so LASK is the more likely option.
• Linz is an easy add-on: 1h15 by train from Vienna, about an hour from Salzburg. Match plus city in a single overnight works well.