Surveys predict a promising future for women sports. Worldwide. But in Germany this is still in the shadow of men. This is also evident in women’s basketball, even though he celebrates one success after another.
It is in early April. Basketball national player Alexandra Wilke comes from her teaching seminar in Karlsruhe and after a long day you go to Keltern. The captain of the Rutronik Stars Keltern is late, it starts in a few hours Playoff-semi-final in the 1st women’s basketball Bundesliga (DBBL) against Osnabrück in the school sports hall of the small community.
“Especially in the German league, it is hardly possible to only play basketball”says Wilke. The training in parallel to basketball was a conscious decision for her so that after the sports career, the transition to working life runs without much interruption. With this choice she is not alone, because most of the performance teams in Germany can hardly save themselves for the future, let alone live from sport alone.
Women’s sport in fast lane
Combining work and competitive sports, small halls and little audience are therefore everyday for many of them. Even though the development worldwide has been promising in recent years. This is currently most visible at the current European Football European Championships in Switzerland. Germany’s opening game against Poland saw 8.22 million viewers, the prize money rose from 16 to 41 million euros. Athletic successes at the EM 2022 and the 2024 Olympic Games ensured a positive development in the Bundesliga.
And surveys by the Deloitte management consultancy also predict a promising future for women’s sports. If sales in 2022 were still global at 606 million euros, 2.06 billion euros will be forecast this year. That is more than triple. It is surprising that basketball should even replace football this year as the highest sales sport. However, the USA, where women’s basketball is booming.
Abroad more popular than DBBL
Just like in Germany. The historical first participation in the Olympic Games in Paris last year, the sensational Olympic victory in 3×3 with internationals like Leonie Fiebich or Satou Sabally, both of whom in the US professional league WNBA play. Then fifth in the European Championship this year: The German basketball players have not performed as well for a European championship for almost 30 years. The fans came to the games in Hamburg, where the group phase was held. Every day was sold out. A good sign for the World Cup that will take place in Berlin next year.
But unlike in football, only a few of the best German basketball players play in the home league. Fiebich, the Sabally sisters and Luisa Geiselsöder moved it to the USA, shooting star Frieda Bühner moved to Spain, captain Marie Gülich, chose Taiwan at the beginning of the year. Abroad attracts with more professional conditions, a higher level of game and better payment, partly thanks to a minimum salary. All areas in which the DBBL and other female leagues, for example in ice hockey, are left behind.
Football exudes everything
The fact that the sport of women is still in the shadow of men is also due to historical development, says Fabienne Bartsch. “This means that women were completely excluded from certain sports for decades or were only allowed to participate under certain conditions”according to the scientist of the German Sport University of Cologne, which researches inequality in sports.
Basketball national player Alexandra Wilke
“And this exclusion has solidified institutionally. Both in the financial and media structures of sport.” Another problem: Hardly anything arrives against football, even within the team sports played by women. So far, the basketball players can only dream of ratings as with the European Football Championship. “In this country it is generally very difficult for all sports to exist next to football”Wilke states. “And it is even harder for us women.”
Gerry under minimum wage
But there is also no minimum content in women’s football. Nevertheless, the footballers now earn an average of 4,500 euros per month-even if the salaries of some top players drive up this number. It is still the multiple of what the DBBL players get. The sports show asked all twelve clubs in the Basketball Bundesliga what they pay their players. Except for a first division team, everyone else answered. The result: More than two thirds of the players earn every month below the minimum wage.
A minimum content is initially not planned in the DBBL, but the league managers want to advance professionalization with new license conditions. These include larger indoor capacity. In addition, the clubs have to show constant income, found female young teams and send a defined number of German players to the pitch. On the part of the club there is criticism of some of the points, because on the one hand, indoor capacities cannot be foreseeable and on the other hand there is no money from a TV contract regulated by the DBBL. Some clubs also reach into their own pocket for better quality.
Benefit from men’s clubs
How successful these new, gradual license conditions will be to be implemented will be shown. Another way could be the one that the women of Alba Berlin have taken. These are connected to a men’s team, an exception in the DBBL – unlike in football, where it is now. And the Women’s Department of Alba is successful: Last year the club won the championship title in the second year of the Bundesliga.
Clubs like Alba benefit from the more professional structures and financial security, says Fabienne Bartsch. “However, there is a risk of such models”according to the scientist, “The fact that the women’s departments are not so focused, but only run.” Anyway, for Bartsch, it is clear that women’s sports do not have to hide too much. “We have to see him as what he is. A component of a large, growing market and as an independent cultural asset, which also has a right in our society, to be recognized as such.”