The corona pandemic is increasingly affecting professional sport: In the Munich Bayern soccer team, a number of players who tested positive sign up for quarantine, in the basketball team the Würzburg against Bayreuth have to do without four players and coach Sasa Filipovski, and Tuesday is due to quarantine the next game of the EWE Baskets Oldenburg canceled. Right in the middle is the BG Göttingen, and in view of the highly contagious Omicron variant, those responsible for the violets are also thinking about how to proceed.
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“At the moment, events are happening,” says BG managing director Frank Meinertshagen about the events of the past few days. “We now have to see how the infection process develops.” It cannot be ruled out that the game of violets at Medi Bayreuth on Wednesday would have to be canceled at short notice, after all, Medi last faced Würzburg in the Franconian Derby – crazy times in the BBL.
Meinertshagen actually rules out another break
“I can’t imagine we’ll be taking a break anytime soon. But you have to see how many games are postponed or canceled before we’re through with the wave, ”says Meinertshagen about the Omikron variant. “That is indeed difficult to assess.” Assuming that half the league is affected by quarantine orders, the situation would have to be reassessed.
It may be possible to learn from other countries and other leagues in which the Omikron variant is already predominant. The fact that, as in the USA, corona infections or quarantine cases are simply compensated with purchases from players who receive short-term contracts is unthinkable in this country not only because of the regulations, but also for financial considerations and reasons of fairness. “We just have to try to continue playing as well as we can,” clarifies Meinertshagen.
The previously inevitable 14-day quarantine for teams in which Omikron has been detected could become a problem. The new Corona variant is considered highly infectious, which is why entire teams are paralyzed if the test is positive. For comparison: With the delta version, only the infected player has to go into quarantine, and there is also the option of “free testing” himself after five days. “Game operations would be greatly impaired if several teams had to be rigorously quarantined for 14 days if the test was positive for the Omikron variant,” explains Meinertshagen.
“Financially, we are now facing the most difficult time, and I am not sure that all BBL clubs will survive the Corona situation well in the medium term, should it continue like this,” said the Veilchen boss plainly. Example BG: Those in charge are very happy that 500 spectators can watch the derby against Braunschweig or the next home game against Frankfurt – among other things because it is nice for the fans, the sponsors are offered something in return and there is at least some atmosphere in the hall . But in view of the effort and the resulting costs, it doesn’t really pay off: “If we were to end the season with 500 spectators instead of completely without spectators, that would be a mid-six-figure price more expensive for us,” says Meinertshagen.
Corona-related fewer spectators “only go well for a while”
Another calculation example: a full house like against Bayern and a regulation-related lower number of spectators like against Crailsheim make a difference of around 50,000 euros for the BG in terms of revenue. “It works well for a while, but it doesn’t work well,” emphasizes the BG boss, who has not been a member of the BBL presidium for a few days – although he ran again as a competitor, a representative of a smaller club however, it was preferred to him, which of course he accepts. “I would have liked to stay inside. You are no longer that close and you can no longer have a say in the development, ”says Meinertshagen.
The federal government’s corona aid for top-class sport is important, “but in the long term, i.e. for years, it does not help because it naturally does not cover all of our losses,” says the Veilchen managing director. Top clubs like Alba Berlin would have a larger buffer, but also greater losses. Meinerthagen’s conclusion: “I don’t think there are clubs that will go straight out of the woods, but at some point we have to go back to normal operations.”
