Surely we have more commercially available players for Eastern Europe - which brings us back to my initial point... If you don`t want to discuss foreign TV rights in this thread - just say so and I will not comment on them.
And this is one I think he'll eventually lose. I think the 1st and 2nd Bundesligas will expand within the next 5 years.
Or we could just award the title to Bayern the first week of the season every year. That should make him happy.
That might well be the case. But I can understand Uli`s stance (although I think that the reasons he mentions in the press are not his main reasons. In my opinion Bayern is afraid of getting less money from the TV contract in case an expansion takes place and there will be less time to make money out of travelling the Middle East or Asia during winter break)
All we need (but no less) is that Murdoch manages to fix the German pay TV market within 4 years... Anyway, of course I wouldn't want the Bundesliga to "dominate" either.
The Bundesliga not only has the highest sponsoring revenues of all European leagues, a well known and often discussed fact, it's the only big league which has increasing sponsoring revenues this season, while everywhere else, England, Italy and Spain in particular, sponsoring revenues have decreased compared to 2007/2008. http://www.spiegel.de/sport/fussball/0,1518,600995,00.html Sponsoring revenues leagues: (interesting that the Dutch Eredivisie, the only other league with increasing revenues btw., is on par with La Liga!) Top clubs: Decreasing revenues, all leagues:
Good statistics (repped). It think, one reason for the high sponsoring deals is the fact, that BL matches can be seen at good times in free-tv. So the negative aspects of getting less tv money than other leagues can be compensated a bit (although the tv money gap is indeed very big).
Yes, that is true, of course. We have discussed the high sponsoring revenues in the Bundesliga often, and the reasons you listed are accurate. However, the point is that despite this global financial / economic crisis we are in, sponsoring revenues in the Bundesliga (and Eredivisie) are increasing, while everywhere else, the so called 'top three' leagues in particular, they are decreasing. Especially in England and Spain the losses are considerable, quite a few clubs still don't have a shirt sponsor this season. While the sums we are talking about here may not be dramatic in the grand scheme of things, I think that this development is an indicator for things to come. It basically confirms what I wrote earlier: all leagues will be affected negatively by the economic crisis (Bundesliga included), but due to its structural advances, the healthy financial situation of most clubs etc., the Bundesliga will actually benefit from the crisis in the long run and close the financial gap, because the other leagues will be hit harder. Who says that the next EPL TV deal will be as gigantic as the current one, for example? And who says that ours will remain so insignificant in comparison? Time will tell, but sponsoring usually is a good indicator, because it totally depends on the attractiveness of the product - the league and its clubs.
Well, most of these deals were brokered before the crisis, should be interesting what the new deals will be like. I saw a graphic recently of clubs who need to negotiate a new deal after this season but I can't find it anymore.
Just go back a page, I posted it earlier. While it's true that most contracts were signed before the crisis, there is no indication that they won't be renewed, or at least replaced adequately. But even if there will be losses, it will likely be more drastic in other leagues. Or to put it differently: While other leagues already have to deal with the consequences of the financial crisis, we still have increasing revenues. A few recent examples from the top of my head: Even Manchester United has to look for a new sponsor now, since AIG won't (can't) extend the contract. On the other hand, HSV just renewed their contract with Emirates, during the crisis that is, increasing their revenues in the coming years. And while it's not shirt sponsoring related, Werder just switched to Nike, who will pay them twice what Kappa had paid them so far, again despite the crisis.
Well, Nike will pay Werder twice what Kappa did, but it is still 1M per season less than they were paying BVB. And another Nike club, Wolfsburg, has announced that Adidas will be their new outfitter for next season. Kappa was announced as BVB's new equipment sponsor yesterday and will receive nearly double what Werder was receiving from Kappa, but about 2M per season less than BVB received from Nike.
Financially we never laid on roses, we rely on a good transfer policy and the environment around the club. That was always the case and will be ... ... except a real Werder fan founds a company like SAP...
Krombacher is the new sponsor of the Bundesliga ('Partner der Bundesliga') http://www.bundesliga.de/de/liga/news/2008/index.php?f=0000118151.php No financial details yet.
It is bad beer, even worse than Hasseröder, but as long as it stays as the deal is described noiw and they don't sell the naming rights and I can get Gilde at my stadium I am fine with that. Sounds lika not that bad of a deal. What happens to the money? Will the clubs see some of it?
Well, the Bundesliga only consists of the clubs, so probably. But, more important: "Dr. Robert Niemann, Chief Executiv Officer der DFL Sports Enterprises" Urge to smash something... is rising...
Tonight's match between HSV and Bayern to kick off the Rückrunde will be broadcasted live in 170 countries. http://www.dfl.de/en/liga/news/2008/index.php?f=118171.php&fla=4 DFL's own TV production company 'Sportcast' provides live pictures and commentary in English and Spanish, but in addition to the German TV stations like ARD and Premiere, there will be a number of foreign TV stations like Canal+ (France) who will report directly from the stadium also, relying on their own reporters.
The Serie A gets a tremendous boost from TV rights - 900 mio euros per year by selling the rights to Infront - an agency led by a Swissman named Philippe Blatter... http://www.infrontsports.com/presscenter/newsdetail/article/1/infront-and-37.html
So much for the Bundesliga increasing relative competitiveness. In any case, the Bundesliga transfer activity this winter is already weakening the league, no one can say the financial crisis isn't being felt.
I totally agree. I still hope that the Italian anti trust office doesn`t permit that scenario. This contract would never be allowed in Germany for various reasons. On the other hand, I think it was the Italian Parliament which told the Serie A to do centralized marketing. In other words my hopes are close to zero.
Judging the league by the winter transfers is misleading, because you rarely see big transfers being made in the winter break. Let us wait with that until the summer. The Serie A TV deal looks great indeed, but it actually was necessary, because the Serie A was falling behind in the last few years as far as revenues are concerned. This is good news for the smaller Italian clubs in particular, because they will likely benefit from central marketing the most. If the big clubs that represent the league in Europe will earn more than they do with individual marketing remains to be seen, I'm rather sceptical about that. It will probably be more or less the same. Central marketing will make the Serie A a more even, more competitive and interesting league, so it is a good step for them regardless.