Dhe rhinos are in need: The first team of the Rhine River Rhinos, who play in the German wheelchair basketball league, are missing 80,000 euros for the current season. The Mayor of Wiesbaden and head of the sports department, Gert-Uwe Mende, recently promised the club from the state capital 25,000 euros from sports funding and publicly appealed for support for the Rhinos. The funds serve to bridge the gap, but do not cover the additional costs. Mende said in an interview with the FAZ: “First of all, we were interested in helping quickly and giving the rhinos the opportunity to acquire sponsors themselves.”
The Wiesbadeners are successful in their league. On the 15th day of the game, they inflicted the first defeat of the season on the longstanding German exceptional team RSV Lahn-Dill from Wetzlar: the outsider won 86:72 against the table leaders and German champions. It was the Rhinos’ first success in this duel in their club’s history. “Incredible performance today! I’m just happy that we made club history today,” said team manager Marvin Malsy.
Managing director Mirko Korder considered the surprise success to be “a very important victory for the play-off qualification. That means we’re right to have play-off ambitions,” he said. The prestigious success in the Hessen derby was followed by a 67:40 home win over the RBC Cologne 99ers. The Wiesbadeners are fourth in the table after 16 match days.
Unsuccessful search for a main sponsor
Despite the success story, the search for a main sponsor for the wheelchair basketball club has been unsuccessful for three years. Managing Director Mirko Korder explains: “Of a total of 120,000 euros for the current season, 80,000 are still missing. We’re trying to do that now.”
In addition to financial support, the mayor and head of sports department, Mende, can support the rhinos primarily in a non-material way. Mende, who attends the Rhinos games, emphasizes the special importance of the wheelchair basketball team in the Bundesliga: “They are a shining example of inclusive sport and an excellent advertisement for Wiesbaden sport.”
The Rhinos have three teams: In addition to the Bundesliga team, they compete with a regional league team and a “beginners” team. According to Korder, only Bundesliga matches are affected by the financial difficulties, but the financial means of the first team are also used by the others: For example, these funds could be used to buy wheelchairs that are used by beginners who want to get a taste of the sport . Such a wheelchair costs 7,000 euros. In addition, many inclusive projects of the Rhinos could only be implemented with the appropriate “manpower”. Hundreds of students can only visit each year if the Rhinos’ professional athletes “can implement the projects during the day and train in the evenings,” says Korder.
He had a high voltage accident himself when he was 14 and has been in a wheelchair ever since. “What really gave me perspective and hope was meeting people who have practiced the sport themselves. Where I could see what is possible with a wheelchair and how mobile you can be.” People with disabilities who do sports radiate satisfaction and hope and prospects can be conveyed through sports.
And it’s exactly what you think you need most. “When doctors and physiotherapists encourage you and tell you that you have all the options despite your disability, it’s difficult to accept. But when someone who has a disability themselves and has walked this path talks about it, it’s of course easier to accept,” says Korder. And that is exactly the goal of one of the Rhinos’ inclusive projects: With “Neustart ins Leben” (New Start in Life), professional wheelchair basketball players meet people who are now in a wheelchair because of an accident and show them a perspective. This and many other Rhino projects are largely dependent on the preservation of professional sports operations.
“You don’t get offers like this very often”
The club has been in financial difficulties for a long time. When four players who had been available to the Rhinos very cost-effectively due to part-time jobs left the club before the start of the season and were then replaced by fully professional athletes, this only aggravated their economic problems. The Rhinos are already playing with a reduced roster – with 10 instead of the usual 12 players. The association also refrains from advertising, which it has to pay for.
The club urgently needs more sponsors to keep the Bundesliga game going. Since the public call for help, the Rhinos have been in talks with a few companies, reports Korder, but the inquiries have so far been very loose and not directly usable for the current season. “We hope that people will see that we are taking social responsibility and are a beacon for inclusion,” the managing director is asking for support. “You don’t get offers like this very often.”
