The DBB team’s bronze medal win was watched by millions of people. But does that continue in everyday life in the league?
Foto: imago/camera4+
When the basketball players Johannes Thiemann and Maodo Lô play their first game of the season for Alba Berlin in the Bundesliga this Wednesday, they will have trained with their teammates for just a week. The European Championship in front of their own audience, including a wave of euphoria, semi-final disappointment and a bronze happy ending, was only ten days ago. But the basketball calendar hardly knows any breaks. So the two European Championship third parties have to go back to the German champions. “Of course I would have liked to have had a week more break, but I’m in the mood to play with the boys again,” said Thiemann. After all, a title defense is pending for the third time in a row.
The two European Championship starters don’t have to warm up, because with the exception of Oscar da Silva, who switched to FC Barcelona, all double winners of the past season stayed in Berlin. “We were lucky that the squad hardly changed. We were able to sign Yanni Wetzell for Oscar, who hopefully can replace him,” said sporting director Himar Ojeda, who has had an unusually quiet summer.
In addition to the aforementioned New Zealander, he only brought one other player to the Spree: the only 20-year-old Gabriele Procida. The fact that the NBA club Detroit Pistons has already secured the rights to the Italian shows that this new acquisition, like so many of the players discovered by Ojeda, is a great talent. Now the Americans are just waiting for him to develop a bit at a strong club in Europe – a role that Alba has recently played to perfection several times: after all, after Moritz and Franz Wagner, Simone Fontecchio has already this summer third former Albatross to make it into the top league in the world in just four years.
“In the last few weeks, I’ve often read that it has a lot to do with Alba’s concepts, even when it came to the European Championship successes of the German team. That makes me very proud, especially for our many trainers who work with children and young people on a daily basis. Your commitment is often underestimated,” said club president Axel Schweitzer a few days before the start of the BBL. »We started these programs almost 20 years ago and I am very pleased that we have stuck with them. Now the next generations see that everything is possible and that Alba gives them the space to do it.« In fact, Franz Wagner was already playing at the age of seven in Alba’s youth and the proven school cooperation program. His path later led him to the NBA and a few days ago to EM bronze. “We want to promote young talent, develop players and always win at the same time. We unite these two poles«, said Schweitzer, who had not overlooked the fact that current or former Berliners also played key roles in the European Championship teams from Israel, Italy and Lithuania.
The question remains whether sporting success will finally lead to more spectators again. Demand for Alba’s home games has tended to decline in recent years, despite the return to the national and European top. “But we saw with the EM that there is enthusiasm for basketball. The TV ratings were similar to those for Formula 1, although there was no major advertising lead for it, «said club boss Schweitzer on a EM boom. The home game against the Hamburg Towers on Wednesday could give a first clue, a rather mediocre team, but with EM starter Johannes Wohlfarth-Bottermann in their ranks. In recent years, this duel has never even remotely sold out. Nobody believes that this will work on a Wednesday evening. But it can be a little more than it used to be. According to Alba, it has already sold more season tickets than last season.
Managing Director Marco Baldi is also hoping for “positive effects of the EM”, but more in the area of sponsorship income and a possible return to free TV. »Our partners now see what is possible. If the target group that everyone is fighting for watches such a large proportion of EM games, that underscores our assumption: if there is presence, it will be watched. The EM was a very important impetus.« The BBL has improved in quality in recent years, says Baldi: »The foundation is stronger and more attractive. I don’t believe in a boom, but it could go up a significant notch.«
