Will basketball stay in the niche forever? Or do the successes at the European Championships in their own country with great games like in the quarter-finals against Greece ensure a real boost for the sport in Germany? In the BR24 sports talk “One against one”, BR reporter Lukas Schönmüller remains skeptical, while colleague Jan Wiecken spreads optimism.
“I think so,” said Wiecken when asked whether he thought a lasting basketball boom was possible in Germany and referred to the current ratings that a private broadcaster has achieved by broadcasting the Greek game on free TV. “With the 14- to 49-year-olds (the most relevant age group for advertisers, ed.), they had the young viewers. That’s what’s interesting and gives hope for the future.”
Advertising-relevant target group bites
In fact, last Tuesday more people in this age group watched basketball than the soccer Champions League, which of course was only broadcast live on pay-TV. For some time now, there has been a trend that younger viewers are turning their backs on football and are interested in other sports, including basketball.
In the discussion, Schönmüller countered that there had been a lot of hype in recent years and decades that then petered out, be it in basketball, handball, in ice hockey after reaching the 2018 Olympic finals or more recently in women’s soccer. And he asks: “But does anyone still watch ice hockey? No. The league was almost broke and is now called like a supermarket.”
Counter-example ice hockey: “The league is now called like a supermarket”
His pessimistic prognosis: “In 90 hours nobody will be talking about basketball anymore. It will be over on Sunday evening. Basketball will always remain a marginal sport in Germany.” BR basketball reporter Wiecken has more hope: “The basketball Bundesliga will not take the sport out of its niche. It stands and falls with international success. If they stay and we continue to win medals with this team, I can imagine that one even greater hype is created and that it is also sustainable.”
After winning the European Championship in 1993 or later after World Cup bronze in 2002 and European Championship silver in 2005 with a certain Dirk Nowitzki, the lasting boom failed to materialize. When it came to spectator interest, “King Football” was unmatched, at best Formula 1 was able to keep up in the successful era of Michael Schumacher.
More Germans in the NBA increase the chances of a boom
“The problem in 1993 was that the DBB was completely taken by surprise, the Bundesliga was stuck in musty school gymnasiums,” said Wiecken in retrospect. This is different today. Unlike at the beginning of the 2000s, there is not just one Nowitzki in the best basketball league in the world, the NBA, but several players who are now playing big in the European Championship tournament – alongside Dennis Schröder, Daniel Theis and Franz Wagner .
More and more players manage to get there. So there could be a “backfire”, as Schönmüller calls it, a lasting effect. Should Maximilian Kleber, Moritz Wagner or Isaac Hartenstein, who were injured or otherwise prevented, join the team of national coach Gordon Herbert, the sport of basketball would have better opportunities than 20 years ago.
BBL hopes for full halls
The clubs of the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL), which starts its new season at the end of September, are hoping for increased interest and full halls. And internationally there will be the next chance to attract attention again in 2023: at the World Cup in the Philippines, in Japan and Indonesia.
