So that’s it again for now: When the final whistle rang out over the Bavarian football fields on November 21, the season was over for the time being weeks before the winter break. Suspended indefinitely. So far, nobody really knows whether the 2021/22 season can be brought to a regular end and which regulations will apply if this – as in the previous season – should not be the case. Like so much, it depends on the course of the pandemic. Other sports were also overwhelmed by the fourth wave of corona – especially the indoor disciplines, which, unlike footballers, actually have competitions over the winter, are taking the new measures.
Sports operations in Bavaria have largely come to a standstill in the lower divisions. The footballers would have gone into the winter break anyway, the places – here at TSV Gilching-Argelsried – are covered in snow.
(Photo: Arlet Ulfers)
What does this mean for the clubs? What challenges are you facing this winter? And what about the members? Are you staying or going?
Well, says Benedikt Pohlus, managing director and board member of TSV 1880 Starnberg – you have to see the current developments double-edged. “On the one hand, we are further than last winter,” he says. Because training, for example table tennis or volleyball, is currently continuing under 2G-plus conditions. But point games are no longer taking place, the season is over again – at least for the time being.
Herrsching’s Bundesliga volleyball players are now playing “ghost games” without spectators.
Image: Oryk Haist / imago
The table tennis point games were all canceled.
Image: TSV Starnberg
Last year the halls and sports fields were long abandoned at this time of the year. But the new measures against the spread of the corona virus still hit the departments – for example the gymnasts. “The gymnasts had their last regular competition in autumn 2019,” says Pohlus. And the compulsory breaks leave their mark: TSV 1880 Starnberg has lost almost 600 members since the beginning of the pandemic, instead of the previous 3,000 athletes, there are now only 2,400 on the club’s membership list. “I hope that we have the big bloodletting behind us,” said Pohlus. Because the dwindling assets bring financial difficulties with them. Because the range of sports on offer remains the same, only fewer people take part. “Fewer members mean less income, of course,” Pohlus calculates. Especially in indoor sports, which had to sit out for a particularly long time, the decline was strong. Outdoor sports such as tennis or athletics, on the other hand, are less affected.
Since the outbreak of the corona pandemic, members have decreased in the largest clubs in the district: Florian Bayer, Managing Director of TSV Gilching-Argelsried, …
Image: private
… and Benedikt Pohlus, member of the executive committee of TSV Starnberg.
Image: Franz Xaver Fuchs
At TSV Herrsching, they have come to terms with the new Corona rules as best they can. In front of the sports courses, for example, there is now a trainer at the entrance to check the evidence. But even that is not always easy until you have checked all participants in parent-child gymnastics, for example – a time waster. “Our trainers have a hard time”, says managing director Martin Wirries. So far, they have not noticed a decline in membership like in Starnberg in Herrsching. But here, too, they are struggling with the fact that, due to the pandemic, fewer people feel like doing sports in a club. In Herrsching, not more athletes end their club membership than usual. But unlike in normal times, none of them follow. “We are missing two complete years for the youngest,” says Wirries. “It’s getting very, very thin, especially in team sports.” And if there are no new F-youths forming among the footballers, there will probably be no D- or C-youths in a few years. The financial losses at TSV Herrsching have so far been limited. Only the Bundesliga volleyball players have to forego income that is already firmly planned in the budget because of the ghost games.
TSV Gilching-Argelried is also fighting the consequences of the pandemic. 360 of the 3280 members resigned at the end of the year. It is mainly the over 60-year-olds who have resigned, reports Florian Bayer, managing director of the largest sports club in the Starnberg district. The terminations would have to do with the stricter rules or with the fear of infections. But resignations do not have to be justified, he says. Nevertheless, Bayer does not want to speak of a decline in membership. Since the beginning of the crisis in spring 2020 and the lockdowns, the club has lost more than 500 members, and the missing annual fees are tearing a hole in the club’s coffers. The annual contributions are between 35 and 80 euros plus a branch allowance, depending on age. But some sponsors have also dropped out. “So far we have got away with a black eye,” emphasizes Bayer, because there were also 460 admissions – mostly children and young people. He is pleased that many parents have not deregistered their offspring either, so that they can move back to training in a new situation if necessary. However, Bayer says that a number of coaches had to be terminated because of the restricted sports activities.
The Gilching gymnastics department with 500 active members, which also includes gymnastics athletes and adult gymnastics, is currently on the back burner. Because of Corona, two online gymnastics courses are now being offered, and there are also two face-to-face courses in the hall, each with around ten participants, who have to adhere to the rules and submit a negative corona test, explains gymnastics department head Gabi Sachs.
For the future, Martin Wirries hopes “that you can return to regular game play as soon as possible.” Otherwise, he sees the risk that the teams could crumble. If you can hardly see your teammates, the team spirit will also shrink, he fears. Pohlus is also betting on spring: “I hope that it can start again as soon as possible,” he says. “We want to offer as much sport as possible, but of course health protection must be guaranteed.” Pohlus, on the other hand, hardly believes that the number of members will then return to the pre-pandemic level. “It’s easy to quit,” he says. “But getting 600 back is a mammoth task.”