Anyone who talks to Maodo Lo these days is dealing with a good-humoured sportsman. When the national basketball player talks about his work, he starts dancing and snaps his fingers at the tournament. But after the win against the Bosnians he also said: “Hopefully it will be noticed from the outside.” The 29-year-old is a reflective person who not only throws balls into baskets but is also interested in other things in life. And he asks the right question.
Anyone who is one of the 18,000 spectators in the sold-out arena will experience an enthusiasm that is rarely found in a basketball tournament of this size. There’s a party in Cologne, the mood is great, everything good? The answer is found on the other side of the Rhine. When you pass the Deutzer Bridge, three measly Eurobasket flags give a final testimony that the best basketball players on the continent are competing a few kilometers away.
Ingo Weiss, President of the German Basketball Association (DBB), explains that with the association’s cash-strapped coffers, marketing is expensive, but he is satisfied with what is posted and hoisted. There’s room for improvement. Especially when it comes to TV broadcasts. The rights are held by Telekom, which has dedicated itself to basketball, among other things, with the pay-TV channel Magentasport. The Bundesliga and the Euroleague are on the programme, and rights to the European Championship have been acquired in the future. The German games are streamed for free, a nice service that supports the sport. However, basketball remains in its bubble, and only public broadcasters guarantee greater public awareness.
At the 2013 European Championships in Slovenia, the throw-off times were even adjusted so that the German games could run at prime time
According to the rights holder, no agreement could be reached in negotiations about sublicenses, a common process in the business with broadcasting rights. This makes the DBB President angry, he would like to see the hype transported more prominently, Weiss criticizes this with pithy words. So it stays with snippets in sports or news broadcasts, ARD and ZDF last broadcast live in 2015. The odds were as moderate as the performance, the main round was missed. There is no denying that basketball hardly rises above the status of a fringe sport, but perhaps one could have anticipated that this roster with successful NBA professionals like Dennis Schröder and Franz Wagner, that this tournament, in which so many greats from the North American Professional league participate like never before, but generated a broader interest.
Remember the EM 2013 in Slovenia, when even the throw-off times were adjusted so that the German games could be shown on ARD and ZDF in prime time. Not much has stayed with us from this tournament, except that the captain at the time, a certain Heiko Schaffartzik, prevented his coach from speaking during a break. After the preliminary round it was over, coach Frank Menz had to leave immediately.
Of course, Telekom will not feel any urge to sell the fillets, i.e. the knockout games of the Germans, now. The sport remains in the niche, despite all the top ratings that have been communicated. You should sit down at a table again.