BG Göttingen: Despite the current crisis, the most successful year since resurgence

The BG is currently competing in the upper house of German basketball for the seventh time in a row. That alone can be counted as a success for the club, which is not financially supported by roses. But this year the violets surpassed themselves in terms of sport, if you ignore the current series of defeats.

display

At the final tournament in Munich, the Göttingen team reached the quarter-finals for the first time since the 2010/11 season. The fact that the final tournament was under special auspices and had little to do with playoffs in the true sense of the word does not diminish this success. The violets definitely deserved to take part. Because at the time of the season break in March, the BG was on the playoff course.

“From a purely sporting point of view, it was a very successful year. We hardly lost a game until March and were well on the way to reaching the playoffs, ”says managing director Frank Meinertshagen. “In the end we came in seventh. That is by far the best placement since the promotion. “

The 2020/21 season also started promisingly. With three wins from three group matches, Göttingen made it into the semi-finals of the cup – the next sporting success that was not necessarily to be expected at the beginning of the year. Meinertshagen: “Since I’ve been there, reaching the semi-finals is by far the greatest success in the cup.”

In June an era came to an end. After eight years, Johan Roijakkers and his coaching staff left the BG Göttingen in the direction of Bamberg. But there was no time to reminisce. After only two weeks, the Veilchen presented a new head coach: Roel Moors.

Even if it is still unclear where Moors is going, managing director Meinertshagen is satisfied with the commitment: “The cooperation is going very well. So far, everything has been going very well, from training to coaching, through player engagements to working together in the office. “

The new trainer put together a new team. Eleven players were signed and 13 players left the club. Violet fans can tell a song about the fact that top performers often do not wear the violet jersey for more than one season. The new team has already shown its potential – keyword BBL-Pokal.

Currently, however, the team is on the spot. “With the money that we have, Roel Moors has managed to put together a very talented, but of course also a very inexperienced team. Basically we are very happy with the players we got, ”said Meinertshagen. The same applies to the new players as it does to the new coach: It’s too early to make a judgment.

“The majority of our income is sponsorship income. But that won’t work in the long run without an audience. The ticket income is usually a large part of our budget, and so far we have just had no ticket income, ”emphasizes the managing director. Working with a small budget is nothing new in Göttingen.

But the corona pandemic, like other professional sports clubs, presents the violets with unknown challenges. Ghost games do not generate any ticket revenue. The violets were and still are dependent on federal support.

It is currently not clear when fans will be allowed to go back to the stands. And so much is uncertain for the BG Göttingen at the end of a year of crisis. “I’m not yet sure how it will turn out financially this season,” says Meinertshagen. “I am in good spirits that we can make it through this season with two blue eyes, but that is not certain.”

The BG Göttingen starts the year 2021 with six bankruptcies in a row. The U-turn must be achieved quickly, otherwise the most successful sporting year since promotion could be followed by a year of relegation. The pandemic will keep the violets busy and challenged for a while, and not just financially.

Frank Meinertshagen has two wishes for the new year: “My greatest wish is that we will soon have spectators at the games again. I wish us as BG Göttingen that we will still exist next season. That still cannot be taken for granted, although I am cautiously optimistic that we will manage all of this. “