Steffen Hamann has experienced a lot in basketball with Bamberg, Bologna, Alba Berlin and FC Bayern, but the 42-year-old’s active career ended too early for this big step in the digitalization of his sport. The former German national player is now standing in the FC Bayern hall this Monday and is testing the video glass floor, which will be a new experience for the Munich team on the first match day of the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) on Friday in the home game against the Mitteldeutscher Basketball Club athletes and the audience will offer. Not just in the hall, but also at home in front of the screens.
Hamann dribbles and throws baskets for around a quarter of an hour while the entire field is animated. Even the lines are digital, as are the sponsors’ logos. The former basketball professional finds the displays, the graphical experience and the possibilities of illuminating everything imaginable from statistics to videos and tracking players “a great thing”. Hamann speaks of a higher “fun factor” than on the usual parquet floor, he says: “It’s fun. You almost want to tie your shoes again.” And he finds the playing feel “almost better” because this floor “really gives you a lot back”. Hamann points to the “very good grip,” which supports quick changes of direction. He considers the elasticity of the ground to be just as beneficial for the jumps. “It’s really wonderful with the vibration,” says the former point guard.
Of course, this presentation is primarily about promoting the glass floor. This applies to Bayern Munich representative Hamann as well as to Bernd Döpke, the head of the BMW Munich branch, and especially to Christof Babinsky, the managing director of the family business ASB GlassFloor from Stein an der Traun in the Chiemsee region. A “world premiere” is even announced in the press releases for Friday. This is at least correct in that the video glass floor is being used for the first time in a first league game.
From the point of view of those involved, the timing could hardly be better after the German national team’s recent surprise coup. “Basketball has a huge amount of hype because of the World Cup we won, and we thought we would use that as a tailwind to get the new Bundesliga season off to a real start,” says Döpke. The Munich car manufacturer and sponsor of the FC Bayern basketball players is also about inaugurating the Rudi Sedlmayer Hall under the new nickname “BMW Park”.
The LED floor costs a seven-figure sum
The hall was built for the basketball tournament at the 1972 Summer Olympics. Now she is temporarily experiencing a real transformation inside. At the demonstration on Monday, when you look down from the stands at the digital playing field, it seems as if you are looking at a huge screen and as if the real athlete Hamann is merging with a virtual video game.
This is even more true when Babinsky shows footage of a previous use of the glass floor on his cell phone. The clip shows, among other things, training forms with animated running paths and digital circles that move with the real basketball players. You can imagine it like a game console, only with the difference that the players are not avatars. And yet they interact with the animated underground. If you like, you could almost speak of a symbiosis of both worlds. Marko Pesic, the managing director of his sport at FC Bayern, believes “that this is the future of basketball.”
Spectacular viewing experience – or expanded advertising space for sponsors? The new floor probably offers both.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
In the club they are already thinking beyond the test run on Friday. In around a year, for the 2024/25 season, the new SAP Garden in the Olympic Park is scheduled to open and serve as a modern and digital venue for the Munich basketball players’ big games in the Euroleague. Part of the consideration is to integrate the glass floor for a spectacular viewing experience.
Babinsky is also thinking about other indoor sports where the floor could be used. Financial feasibility still often stands in the way of such considerations, especially in small fringe sports. The costs for the land are expected to be in the lower seven-figure euro range. The installation took two working days, but should be quicker. “Of course our goal is to get started in basketball,” says Babinsky.
The first one-off test run in the BBL on Friday will also be attended by representatives from the Euroleague and the NBA, the North American professional basketball league. If they are convinced, a global push for digitalization in their sport seems at least conceivable.