The personnel costs have been halved. Of course, this is only positive because previously you had little performance with a lot of money.
But even if promotion were successful this time, you would have to do much better for several years than Bundesliga teams you were previously far ahead of (Freiburg, Mainz, Augsburg), so you have lost years, and in order to build on old times it would be a happy one without outside investment Hands a la Union Berlin necessary. You can see with Werder Bremen or 1. FC Köln how difficult it is to establish yourself in the Bundesliga.
At Schalke it looks even more dramatic. HSV always had a certain amount of positive equity, while Schalke had negative equity of ~100 million. It is difficult to imagine reducing this in the 2nd Bundesliga just through game operations and putting together a competitive squad.
The entire squad will be on the edge financially because every year the Bundesliga simply makes it much easier to reduce debt. But there is also a dilemma: do you take a risk and forego a surplus in the Bundesliga in order to make relegation more likely, or do you save money and accept relegation, which alone costs 20 million in TV money…
On the topic: Knäbel is supposed to have absolute human integrity, but one wonders why someone who accompanied the descent from CL candidates to the elevator club in a high position was promoted?