Too little to live with, but relevant (neue-deutschland.de)

“I’ve just come from a meeting, the others are still going on,” said Jennifer Kettemann on Wednesday. The managing director of Rhein-Neckar Löwen has many days with a tight schedule, but these days it got a bit more hectic. The handball Bundesliga starts its new season at the beginning of October, and after Kettemann and the Löwen decided last week to forego spectators at home games in October, they are now reconsidering. The euphoria may not have been so great that the corks popped out of the champagne bottles early on Tuesday evening. But those responsible in the German professional sports leagues besides football were pleased to take note of the decisions at the political level to allow spectators in stadiums and arenas across national borders for at least a test period of six weeks.

That gives the clubs in the ice hockey, basketball or handball Bundesliga leeway and – much more importantly – hope for a further relaxation of the visitor restrictions. For the first division handball team from Mannheim, the decision of the federal states means that if the hall capacity is 20 percent, a little more than 2,600 spectators can come to the home arena, which can accommodate 13,200 visitors. It is still unclear whether the lions will also use this opportunity. “We would like to give our fans, especially season ticket holders, the opportunity, but we have to check the economic framework,” explained Kettemann. After all, even without Corona measures, a home game of the German champions from 2016 and 2017 will only be profitable with more than 4000 visitors. The implementation of hygiene concepts devours further funds.

The decision from Berlin for the handball clubs does not end the worries. At the moment it’s not about making money, but creating the conditions for it. “This is urgently needed, even if the 20 percent is not enough in the long run,” said Frank Bohmann the TV broadcaster Sky. The head of the Handball Bundesliga is grateful for a starting shot back to normal, but knows that further easing will be necessary at the end of October after the end of the test phase in order to ensure the long-term survival of the clubs. If it had run completely without spectators for half a year, “there would definitely have been no handball, no basketball, no more ice hockey,” said Bohmann.

The basketball and ice hockey clubs will be interested in the implementation of the test phase, but will follow it from outside. They had postponed their start of the professional leagues to November because of the pandemic, in basketball only a stripped-down cup competition is planned from mid-October. “We’ll have to wait and see what happens after that. First of all, this scientifically supported test phase has to work, ”said Stefan Holz. For the managing director of the Basketball Bundesliga, the decisions on a political level are an important and great “leap of faith”.

In the past few months, the major professional leagues, alongside football, had tried to influence political decision-makers and came together for this. In contrast to the national soccer leagues, which because of the enormous income in TV marketing can run their business with little or no income from ticket sales, indoor sports can quickly run out of steam if no spectators can enter the arenas. The clubs are particularly dependent on the income from sponsorship cards.

Often the sports felt set back behind football, after all, there was little light left next to the national leagues. In the end, however, football functioned as a kind of stirrup holder for indoor sports. In the difficult phase caused by the corona crisis, the latter now got help from their oversized brother – who used his influence to enable the most uniform possible solution for the return of viewers.

And yet there will be regional differences, as was shown in the third soccer league. There, the clubs from Dresden and Rostock were allowed to occupy more than 20 percent of their stadium seats in the first round of the DFB Cup last weekend. The local health authorities were generous in approving the submitted hygiene concepts because the infection rate there is currently low.