The Stuttgart franchise is one of the founding members of the European League of Football, which was launched in 2020, and was originally supposed to adopt the name of the Stuttgart Scorpions from the German Football League (GFL). [1]After this was rejected by a majority decision of the Scorpions' club members, the team competes in the ELF under the name Stuttgart Surge. [2] The translation of the new name as the Surge can also be found in the logo design of the franchise and was chosen in reference to the Sacramento Surge team. The team played from 1991 to 1992 in the World League of American Football (WLAF), a predecessor league of the NFL Europe and won the World Bowl in 1992. The name Surge was able to prevail internally, among other things, against the resumption of the name of the Stuttgart Stallions, which were active as an American football team in the 1980s and 1990s in Stuttgart. The franchise is operated by the American Football Club Stuttgart GmbH, whose managing director Timo Franke was previously active with the Stuttgart Scorpions.
As in the 2023 season, the Stuttgart Surge were considered the favorites for the 2024 season. With just one defeat and eleven wins, they won their conference and had a bye week in the wildcard round.
In their semi-final, they played at home against the eventual champions and defending champions Rhein Fire. The score was 23-23 after regulation time, but they were unable to score in overtime and conceded a touchdown, allowing Rhein Fire to win the game 29-23 and advance to the final.
On October 18, 2022, the Surge announced the signing of Jordan Neuman as its new Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator. Neuman was most recently Head Coach of the Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns and won the German Bowl 2022 with them. Also joining the Surge coaching staff from Schwäbisch Hall are Johannes Brenner as defensive coordinator and Cody Pastorino as his assistant.
For the first time in its history, Surge finished the regular season with a positive record of 10-2 and advanced to the playoffs.
In the wildcard round, the #3 seed faced the #6 seed, the Panthers Wrocław. The game was clearly won with 37:14.
In the semifinals, they beat the #2 seed, the Vienna Vikings, 40-33 in Vienna.
In the championship game, the #1 seed Rhein Fire awaited, against whom the team lost 34:53.
Before the start of the 2022 season, Suni Musa became the new general manager. The previous general manager, Timo Franke, took over sales and sponsorship. In addition, NFL player Jakob Johnson became co-owner of the Surge. Johnson had previously been an ambassador for the Surge. Stuttgart also joined Frankfurt in the new Central Division for the 2022 season, where they will face the two expansion teams from Austria.
The first home game of the season was lost to the Barcelona Dragons in front of a crowd of 2690. On July 2, after a season opener with four losses in four games, the Surge announced that Martin Hanselmann had resigned as offensive coordinator. His replacements in that regard are George Streeter for the running game and Fabian Birkholz for the passing game. Streeter, who has also served in a number of NFL roles, most recently coached the Stuttgart Scorpions' U19 team. Birkholz was previously a position coach and coordinator with various teams in the GFL.
On July 20, after three more consecutive losses, Stuttgart announced that Martin Hanselmann was also stepping down from his position as head coach. His interim successor was running game coordinator George Streeter, whose position was filled just as temporarily by former defensive backs coach Marvin Washington. However, the team failed to improve noticeably and finished the season without a win. After the season, Streeter became Director of Player Personnel and Development.
Former German national team coach Martin Hanselmann was hired as head coach and offensive coordinator.
The team won its first league game on June 19, 2021, against the Barcelona Dragons, 17-21. A week later, the team lost to the Frankfurt Galaxy in its first home game, in front of 750 spectators allowed due to the pandemic.
The average attendance at home games was 1429 spectators due to pandemic restrictions. On June 28, 2021, the Surge parted ways with U.S. quarterback Jacob Wright in response to accusations of racism against him. Even before the game against Berlin Thunder in Week 3, a new quarterback, Aaron Ellis, was presented on July 2, 2021. After losses in the last two games of the season, the Stuttgart Surge team, with a total of two wins out of ten games, finished fourth in the South Division and thus failed to qualify for the playoffs.
The Waldau-Stadion, known as the Gazi-Stadion auf der Waldau for sponsorship purposes, is a multi-use stadium in the Degerloch district in Stuttgart, Germany. The stadium is situated approximately 200m southwest of the Fernsehturm Stuttgart and holds 11,410 spectators
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