Football Bundesliga without spectators also burdens FC Bayern
While amateur sport complained about dwindling members, professional football lacked spectators. Although selected sports such as professional football were allowed to start again after a short time, there were no fans. At first it seemed funny and special that you suddenly heard “Radio Müller” (i.e. Thomas Müller) broadcasting loudly on the soccer fields in Germany. But: That finally dragged on for months and accordingly the clubs lacked income.
For the clubs it was a financial balancing act, even for financially strong clubs like FC Bayern, says CFO Jan-Christian Dreesen: “We had obligations to our fans who bought annual tickets. What do we actually do with them? Do we pay them that Money back or not? We had commitments to sponsors, can we do our marketing?” All of these were questions at the time, says the CFO of the record champions. Only gradually were spectators admitted again.
Criticism of professional football: “Why are professionals allowed to play?”
This shows that the Corona period did not leave professional sports untouched either. At first he was a little caught in the crossfire because of his early start in the middle of the lockdown, as Dreesen reports: “Why are professional athletes allowed to play football again and young people, or children, or amateur sports are not allowed to play football and the game is permanently closed? ” I found that to be a critical social situation.” However, Dreesen believes that it was possible to explain “that for our players it is also sport, they also play football, but also work”.
Clubs learn to value fans again
It was similar at the handball Bundesliga club HC Erlangen. The Middle Franconia also played for months in front of empty ranks and learned to value the fans again, says the chairman of the supervisory board Carsten Bissel in the BR24 sports interview: “You also know that you have to be happy and also happy and proud when you are in front of audience can play.”
Monthly regulars’ table and search for young people
At the ski club in Schwandorf in the Upper Palatinate, they used the Corona period and sought advice from the BLSV, says the first chairman of the club, Christian Betzlbacher, in the BR24 sports interview.
“You can do everything: Strengths, weaknesses, really analyze them completely and tackle certain problem areas. So you just had to be creative yourself as a club.” The result was a monthly regulars’ table and various sports groups for children to recruit the next generation.
Radio Müller is sending more quietly again
Bissel recognized in his team: After the pandemic, players and those responsible would “know how nice it is to celebrate handball festivals like this and how terrible it was when you had to play in front of a few officials in an empty hall, where every single one understood a player’s word!”
Or as you can now notice in football again: Radio Müller is now broadcasting quieter down on the pitch.
