On Wednesday, SC Freiburg will inform about the economic situation at a general meeting and elect a new president after about two years. Beforehand, CFO Oliver Leki provides insights into the development of the sports club in kicker.
The conditions could not be more difficult – and yet Oliver Leki announces a consistently positive development of SC Freiburg in economic terms. “Very satisfied” in sporting, economic and organisational terms, emphasises the Bundesliga club’s CFO, believing: “We’ve made the club better in all areas.” At the general meeting next Wednesday, Leki will therefore announce good figures in the books: “In the past financial year 2020/21, we also came through very stable despite Corona and the financial burden of the stadium construction and will show a clear profit.”
It is not only in the league, where coach Christian Streich’s team is currently ranked 4th, that Freiburg is proving its strength, as in the areas of ticketing and sponsorship, the Corona-related drop in sales had “hit the club hard”. The SC contributed 26.45 million euros in equity alone to the new stadium construction, and another 40.5 million euros by means of external loans. An enormous burden, which was mainly offset by transfer revenues. “This was only possible with a consistent transfer policy and the sales of Robin Koch, Luca Waldschmidt and Alexander Schwolow and just such a cost policy,” explains Leki.
10,000 seats and 200 sponsors more
The Europa Park Stadium, which will see its first competitive match with the home game against RB Leipzig next Saturday, is expected to increase economic stability in the coming years. Compared to the venerable Dreisam Stadium, 10,000 more spectators will fit into the new building in the north of the city. With 1,800 business seats and 20 boxes, the Breisgauer are doubling capacity in this area. 200 new sponsors have been acquired in the past 18 months alone, and the stadium is almost sold out.
“It is important that SC Freiburg has a president. “
OLIVER LEKI
In the next few weeks, the first team will now move completely to Achim-Stocker-Strasse, named after the former first chairman. This will be followed first by the U23, which trains at the Europa-Park-Stadion and plays at the Dreisamstadion – and at the end of the year by the entire administration. What is pending is the decision on whether the SC women, including the girls’ departments, can then move to the Dreisam. “I think it would be very important for the women’s and girls’ departments to be able to give them this permanent home,” Leki emphasises with a view to the city of Freiburg, which has to agree to this variant.
On the other hand, it is considered almost certain that the former Freiburg school headmaster Eberhard Fugmann will be elected as the club’s new president on Wednesday evening. The position had been vacant for around two years after Fritz Keller was elected DFB president and resigned from his post at SC. “It is important that SC Freiburg has a president,” says Leki. By means of an amendment to the statutes, he says, they want to sharpen the task profile once again. “Among other things, he should expand and promote the dialogue with our members and the club’s activities in the area of social commitment,” Leki describes. Operational decision-making power is not one of the tasks. This is one of the reasons why the association has managed well without a president in recent times.