Last March, the German Ice Hockey League (DEL) canceled its season due to the corona pandemic. Handball followed shortly afterwards, and a final tournament was played in basketball. A year later, the federal government’s aid packages ensure the survival of the clubs.
On March 10, 2020, the skate cracks of the Grizzlys Wolfsburg sat in the bus and waited for the departure to the first play-off game in Nuremberg. Then the call came: Command back! The German Ice Hockey League (DEL) had their season prematurely canceled after a conference call, the corona virus stopped the first game in German professional sport. “We didn’t fight for the pioneering role, but we accepted it and showed the right instinct,” says DEL managing director Gernot Tripcke a year later: “Otherwise it would have flown into our ears a few days later.”
Football and basketball just interrupted
The DEL was easier than other sports because it had completed its main round. “The loss of sales hurt, but ghost games made even less economic sense back then,” explains Tripcke. The next day the Bundesliga played the catch-up game Mönchengladbach against Cologne without spectators, then paused for a good two months.
The professional leagues in basketball, ice hockey or handball can now rely on support until December 31st. more
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The handball Bundesliga (HBL) suspended the game two days later, initially for one and a half months and only decided to end the season on April 21, the THW Kiel was proclaimed “Corona champions”. The Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) named Alba Berlin champion in June in a final tournament in Munich, which some clubs voluntarily renounced, without spectators.
Corona state aid ensured survival
Ghost games are now part of everyday life in ice hockey – after a long struggle and two seasonal shifts. “It rattled at the beginning, but then everyone closed the front and worked together towards one goal,” says Tripcke. Because at many clubs without spectators more than half of the income was lost, the players waived up to 60 percent of the salary.
The league’s total turnover was halved from 130 million euros from the last pre-Corona season, with the exception of RB Munich, all clubs received up to 800,000 euros from government aid. In the second Corona aid package, they could apply for up to one million euros again this year. “With that we manage to survive,” says Tripcke.
“At the moment things are going very well,” said DEL managing director Gernot Tripcke. The clubs would probably survive financially. more
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Lots of uncertainties for the coming season
But: “It will take a few years before sales fully recover.” It is still completely unclear what audience income the clubs can expect in the next season. The enormous concessions made by the players are finite, “you can’t do that permanently,” believes the DEL managing director. Renegotiating existing contracts “a second time is a difficult task”. More than half of the players do not have a contract for the next season due to the uncertainty.
BBL: “Every game played is a small victory”
The BBL recently took stock after the first half of the season. And was satisfied. On the whole, it is going well, apart from a few postponements due to corona cases and quarantine measures. “This year the motto is: Every game played is a small victory,” said managing director Stefan Holz: “So far we have come through the pandemic quite well.” Since a good 25 million is missing due to the broken ticket income alone, the league boss has always emphasized that federal funds will also be necessary in 2021. These are “absolutely necessary”.
Hanning hopes that the audience will return soon
“Basically, the clubs are doing well. We got government aid because they said: ‘You don’t want to lose the lighthouses for sport’. We can play our sport,” said Bob Hanning in the Sports show Olympic podcast. The DHB vice-president and manager of the handball Bundesliga team Füchse Berlin also hopes that the audience will return soon: “We have presented hygiene concepts to the federal states and I hope that we will now be able to use them. Because everyone thinks they are good, but none dares to implement it. “
AUDIO: Sports Show Olympic Podcast with Bob Hanning (79 min)
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Handball defies the rush of appointments – if necessary a final tournament
HBL managing director Frank Bohmann describes the termination of the handball season as the right decision even today – and is fighting with the clubs to determine the playing time this time to finish sporty. A mammoth task with a total of 38 match days and regular postponements. “But I believe that with some unreasonable demands we can create 38 game days or at least come close,” said Bohmann.
Alternatives to the classic format with rounds out and back have therefore long existed. “If necessary, we could end the season with a final tournament, but there is already a plan B in the drawer,” said Bohmann.
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