Borussia Dortmund
“Year of darkness left behind”: BVB reports record sales and profits
The mood is good: BVB boss Hans-Joachim Watzke was also able to report a sales record after the team’s Bundesliga opening win – what more could you ask for?
© Guido Kirchner / DPA
Borussia Dortmund is also financially back on top and club boss Watzke is happy that the difficult time of the corona pandemic is over. The proceeds from the sale of Erling Haaland and Manuel Akanji in particular have had a positive impact.
In the first season after the corona pandemic, Borussia Dortmund finally made a profit again. At the end of the 2022/2023 financial year (June 30), the listed group made a plus of 9.5 million euros. In the comparison period 2021/2022 there was a loss of almost 31.9 million euros. The corona pandemic cost the club a total of 150 million euros, said managing director Hans-Joachim Watzke on Monday at the balance sheet press conference of Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co. KGaA. “We’ve always said that when we’ve got that behind us, we’ll find our way back to our old strength. We delivered,” said Watzke in Dortmund about the preliminary figures.
The turnover with the included transfer proceeds for star striker Erling Haaland and defender Manuel Akanji (both to Manchester City) increased by 12 percent to 515.4 million euros. After the pre-season, this value was still just under 460 million euros due to lower viewer income during the pandemic. The transfer of young star Jude Bellingham to Real Madrid for more than 100 million euros after the end of the past season will only appear in the 2023/2024 balance sheet.
All home games are sold out again for the first time
After reporting the highest sales in the company’s history, Watzke looked back on the pandemic again. “The business model was taken away from us, that was just the way it was,” said the CEO and he recalled the stock market price of the BVB share, which was over 10 euros before Corona. On Monday the value was around 4.30 euros.
CFO Thomas Treß emphasized when presenting the numbers that for the first time all home games at Signal-Iduna-Park were sold out. During the pandemic, some of the games took place in front of empty ranks, later there were significant restrictions on the utilization of the largest German football stadium. Signal Iduna Park can accommodate over 81,000 spectators.
Growth in all divisions
Tress presented improved figures in all areas. In the case of match operations, revenue from tickets climbed from 22.6 to 43.5 million euros, advertising revenue from 126.1 to 142.3 million, with TV marketing BVB now took 157.5 after 145.0 in the previous season million euros. In merchandising, for example the sale of jerseys, sales climbed from 31.8 to 33.4 million euros. At EUR 41.6 million, business with conferences and catering in the stadium saw a significant increase compared to the same period (almost EUR 26 million).
Watzke does not want to evaluate the investments in a new league in Saudi Arabia for the time being. “We have to wait and see for now,” said the BVB managing director. He felt that the losing clubs in England and France were quite happy that they got rid of the players in the latter stages of their careers on relatively comfortable terms. The Saudis would have to decide for themselves whether that was the right path for Saudi Arabia’s football ambitions.
Watzke also referred to China, where there was a similar attempt years ago, which was then stopped by the state leadership. “When the respective head of state or ruler blows his whistle, as happened in China, the game is over again.”
Watzke considers the Borussia Dortmund players to be “relatively unresponsive” to an offer from Saudi Arabia because of the age structure in the squad.