The Bundesliga climbers Heidenheim and Darmstadt are viewed with suspicion in terms of attractiveness and marketing. Will the league be “dwarfed” or will sustainability and “real values” return?
When the direct promotion of 1. FC Heidenheim was perfect in May, the top of the German Football League (DFL) congratulated them politely. “We welcome the 57th Bundesliga member since the premiere in the 1963/64 season”, had the boss of the supervisory board, Hans-Joachim Watzke, align. Whether the club from the Swabian Alb is really welcome everywhere among the elite seems questionable. From their point of view, the marketing of professional football will bedwarfing” not easier in the Bundesliga. Especially since the second promoted team is called Darmstadt 98. FC Schalke 04 and Hertha BSC, on the other hand, had to be relegated – two heavyweights and draft horses.
2nd league: More of everything
In the Bundesliga there are now smaller clubs. Ten current clubs have never been German champions (East and West). In the 2nd Bundesliga, on the other hand, only five current teams are without a championship title. In the provincial capitals it is 7:5 for the lower house. And in league two this season there are more founding members of the Bundesliga than one class above – namely seven.
Critics say that the Bundesliga is already suffering in terms of attractiveness and thus also in terms of money making due to the lack of media coverage of clubs such as TSG Hoffenheim, FC Augsburg and VfL Wolfsburg.
All this makes the second division much more exciting. It offers much more potential for surprises than the upper house, where it seems almost impossible that the champion is not called FC Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund or RB Leipzig.
Fans prefer to watch 2nd division
This is also reflected in the number of viewers. Last season, six second division clubs had a higher average attendance than seven Bundesliga clubs. The relegation of Hertha BSC and Schalke 04 should continue the development.
Schalke (61,133) and Hertha (53,670) were in third and fourth place in the Bundesliga in terms of average attendances last season. The stadiums of the newly promoted teams from Heidenheim and Darmstadt can only accommodate 32,650 visitors.
The entertaining opening match between Hamburger SV and Schalke 04 (5:3) was watched by an average of 3.5 million people on SAT1, which meant a strong market share of 16.3 percent in the target group of 14 to 59 year olds.
The duel for the Supercup between quota guarantor Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig recently turned on fewer people at the beginning. Only when Harry Kane came on did the rate go up. Even internationally, the 2nd league can keep up. This season, with her viewership average, she can League 1 overtake in France. In the 2022/23 season, there was less than 2,000 spectators per game behind.
Schmidt: “Deserves sportingly”
Heidenheim’s coach Frank Schmidt can’t get much out of the word “dwarfing”. “No glamor factor, bad for internationalization – we got promoted and deserved it sportingly”said the coach: “If you have a problem with that, you have to sort it out yourself.”
Also club boss Holger Sanwald “always have to smile”. Like Schmidt, he has been in Heidenheim for a long time, has accompanied and promoted the rise as a striker, department head and finally chairman from the state league onwards. “The league system lives from the fact that it breathes and there is always room for something new”he said.
Sannwald: “Without bling-bling”
The FCH is just the slightly different club, he claimed, and offer “In the glittering world of the Bundesliga, real values, real stability and really sustainable decisions – without any bling-bling”. Sanwald shouted to all the Schalkes, Herthas or Hamburgs: “Let them try to play football as successfully as we do.”
“The football fans can grumble again that ‘Klein-Darmstadt’ is coming. I have absolutely no sympathy for that. We deserve it. We’re doing honest work here.”also said “lilies“-President Rüdiger Fritsch.
Rettig: “Sporty efficiency counts”
However, the league needs exactly this “bling-bling” when looking at its most important source of income – the sale of media rights. The marketing strategists would prefer to advertise with Hamburger SV, FC Schalke, Berliner Hertha or Fortuna Düsseldorf in the tender next spring.
But they’re just playing in the second division. And that’s rightly so, says former DFL managing director Andreas Rettig. He said: “For me, athletic performance is still the hardest and most important currency in professional football and not the exploitation of marketing potential. You saw last season how HSV used it against Heidenheim at the kick-off.”