German professional football has already lost more than one billion euros in sales during the corona pandemic. This number applies to the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 seasons, as the German Football League announced in its 2022 economic report.
“We are experiencing an unprecedented turning point. The period of almost self-evident growth seems to be over,” said the new DFL boss Donata Hopfen. “Without a doubt, this will have a massive impact on our development over the next few years.”
Since most matches without fans had to take place in the stadiums, the gaming revenue in the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga alone, which mainly comes from ticket income, fell by around 95 percent compared to the last pre-pandemic season: 2018/19 were around 650 million euros – in the past season only 35.5 million euros. The total revenue of the 36 professional clubs fell to 4.05 billion euros in 2020/21.