BUNDESLIGA BUNDESLIGA

THE 25 STORIES THAT SHAPED THE YEAR
www.sportspromedia.com
February 2012
FEBRUARY 2012 | Issue 40
BASKETBALL:
The finance behind
the NBA’s venues
Page 54
RUGBY LEAGUE:
Gallop and Wood give
the global perspective
Page 62
CYCLING:
Pat McQuaid’s
peaks and troughs
Page 86
BUNDESLIGA
www.sportspromedia.com
Jörg Daubitzer
has the world
in his hands
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COVER STORY | SOCCER
Die Bundesliga kommt
As European soccer steers itself into an era of increased financial prudence, Germany’s Bundesliga, with
its strong domestic market and sensible ownership structures, looks set to capitalise. Having laid a real
global foundation for the league, Jörg Daubitzer, managing director of the Bundesliga’s commercial arm,
is putting the building blocks of growth in place.
By James Emmett. Photographs by Graham Fudger.
The worldwide pre-eminence of
English Premier League soccer is such
that when a US sports website ran a
recent story, ostensibly trumpeting the rise in
attendance at US Major League Soccer games,
the accompanying rankings of average league
attendances across the world of soccer it used
to illustrate the piece had England’s top tier
perched dominantly at the top. Never mind
the fact that the figures clearly showed that
the German Bundesliga, in second place with
an average attendance of just over 42,000,
drew in some 7,000 more fans per game than
the Premier League last year. It may have
been a simple sub-editing error – in terms
of match-by-match averages, the Bundesliga
is definitively the highest attended soccer
league on the planet – but it was one that is
symptomatic of the global position that the
English Premier League brand has established
– and, perhaps, the one that the Bundesliga
hasn’t. International player profile is surely a
significant factor in this perception. David
Beckham, Wayne Rooney, Lionel Messi and
Cristiano Ronaldo are tip-of-the-tongue
names from Tahiti to Timbuktu; consistent
Bundesliga stars like Philipp Lahm or Bastian
Schweinsteiger, household names in Germany,
are sometimes more like glottal stops abroad.
While the success of the Premier League and
Spain’s La Liga – or at least Barcelona and
Real Madrid – has been built predominantly
on the marketability of their players, the
Bundesliga can count on one hand the
number of truly global names that have graced
its stage over the years. A glance at the 2011
Fifa Fifpro World XI nominations, voted for
by players themselves, is illustrative. In a year
in which Schalke 04 knocked out defending
champions Inter – in some style – to reach the
semi-finals of the Champions League, and in
which one of the most open and competitive
domestic seasons saw Borussia Dortmund
crowned champions for the first time in nine
years, only four players from the Bundesliga
made the 55-man shortlist. The Premier
League had 18 and La Liga 22.
The comparative lack of global stars in
the Bundesliga can be attributed partly to a
league-wide conservatism in player acquisition
strategy in recent years, and profoundly
sensible wage structures across the German
league’s top 18 clubs. But as European soccer
“From an attractiveness
perspective, I think the league
is on a similar level to the
Premier League.”
prepares to enter a new era of prudence, with
Uefa’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) guidelines
set to come into play in the coming seasons,
the Bundesliga – with its solid ownership
structures – is very well positioned indeed.
The league is reaping the rewards of
the investment made in infrastructure,
particularly stadium capacities and facilities,
for the Fifa World Cup in the country in
2006. The German domestic sponsorship
market is, relatively speaking, buoyant
and the 36 teams that make up the two
divisions of the Bundesliga do not have the
insurmountable mountains of debt looming
over them that many of their foreign
counterparts do. Indeed, Bayern Munich,
the Bundesliga’s most successful team, is
possibly also the world’s most profitable.
The Bavarian giants have turned a profit for
an improbable 19 consecutive years.
In fact, with a nationwide emphasis on
youth development bearing fruit and the
recent leapfrogging of Italy in the Uefa
coefficient rankings meaning that Germany
will, from next season, have four teams
in the Champions League, senior figures
at the Bundesliga could be forgiven for
believing they are about to enter a new
decade of dominance.
Indeed, the corridors of power at the
Bundesliga are echoing with a fresh
enthusiasm – an enthusiasm that was evident
at October’s Sportel conference in Monaco.
2011/12 is the last season of the current threeyear period of the Bundesliga’s international
television rights cycle. Consequently the
league, through its commercial subsidiary
DFL Sports Enterprises, had a strong
presence at the annual sports television market
as its team went busily about finalising the
latest batch of renewals. Jörg Daubitzer, DFL
Sports Enterprises’ industrious managing
director, was in bullish mood. “From an
attractiveness perspective, I think the league
is on a similar level to the Premier League,”
he says. “We are not so far behind or away.
But people have to understand that a league
is more than having only two teams like in
Spain. Of course they are brilliant teams, very
successful teams, very glamorous teams, but
it’s only two teams, it’s not a league anymore.
Or if you see how Serie A is acting, with an
average number of spectators which is similar
to Bundesliga 2, and there is no atmosphere
at the stadiums and no goals are scored. We
are trying to convince people, especially the
opinion leaders and the decision makers, how
attractive our product on the entertainment
side is at the end of the day.”
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DFL Sports Enterprises managing director Jörg Daubitzer, pictured at Sportel Monaco on Wednesday 12th October, is building the Bundesliga brand worldwide
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COVER STORY | SOCCER
The Bundesliga has benefited from nationwide infrastructural investment for the 2006 Fifa World Cup.
Clockwise from top left: Leverkusen, Munich, Wolfsburg, Hoffenheim, Frankfurt am Main, Hannover,
Gelsenkirchen and Moenchengladbach also hosted games in the 2011 Fifa Women’s World Cup.
A glance at the financials, a key measuring
stick, if not the be all and end all for
Daubitzer, suggests that he has already
managed to convince a fair number of people.
DFL Sports Enterprises only took over the
international broadcast rights sales for the
2009/10 season. Previously the Bundesliga
was tied into a long-term cooperation with
German sports media agency the Kirch
Group, which was responsible for the
handling of all the league’s media rights. It
wasn’t until 2004, after the collapse of Kirch,
that the international and domestic rights
were sold separately. Then, as a result of a
deal with Sportfive, the Bundesliga garnered
between €11 million and €12 million per year
for two years’ worth of international rights.
A 2006 switch to a three-year cycle and a
new model saw German bookmaker-cumbroadcaster-cum-agency Bwin bring in an
average of €18 million per season. “Then we
come to the first big jump we made,” explains
Daubitzer with obvious pride, “because
since the 2009/10 season when DFL Sports
Enterprises has been responsible for the sale
of the international rights on our own, the
average income per year is €47 million. In the
current season of this cycle, we have jumped
to over €50 million.”
As well as taking the sales in-house, a
significant contributing factor to the continued
growth was the decision to take the signal
production in-house too. “In 2006,” Daubitzer
explains “there was the foundation of let’s
say our sister company which was Sportcast,
which is responsible for all signal productions
of Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2. So they
are producing 612 matches plus relegation
matches and Super Cup and German Cup as
well as different sports too. It was the first
time we had been able to be responsible for
the production of the international content,
so the multilateral matches, since 2006-07 the
highlights show, the preview shows and all
the other extra things that are now produced
through Sportcast. So it was a process that
went step by step.”
When the ink has dried on all the new
contracts and the new three-year cycle begins,
Daubitzer believes he will be looking at a
solid double-digit uplift. For the 44 yearold, who began his career at FC Nuremberg
before joining the German FA (DFB) in
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1993, this would represent a job well done.
As managing director of DFL Sports
Enterprises, he is ultimately responsible for
all Bundesliga sponsorship and licensing
agreements, and the separate facets of the
business are deliberately intermingled. “We
try to bring together aspects of all three
business units to create the ideal package
for every partner,” says Daubitzer. “Sky
Deutschland is a broadcast partner but
also a sponsor and it means as well for a
sponsorship deal with a German company
called Grundig, they get the substitution
board and graphic sponsor domestically and
internationally, but they are also represented
on our own platforms such as Bundesliga.de.”
International television rights sales, however,
account for the lion’s share of his remit. But
even if he achieves an average of €80 million
per year in the next cycle, that figure would
represent what Singapore broadcaster Starhub
alone paid the English Premier League for
rights from 2007 to 2010. Indeed, when
Borussia Dortmund (yellow) and Bayern Munich (red) are among five Bundesliga champions in ten years
Jörg Daubitzer and DFL Sports Enterprises
DFL Sports Enterprises is the commercial
arm of the Bundesliga. Daubitzer, a
long-time DFB executive, took up the
reins immediately upon its creation in
September 2008 and was put in sole
charge in 2010 when chief executive Dr
Robert Niemann resigned.
“Since 2001, Bundesliga and Bundesliga
2 have been separated from the German
FA,” says Daubitzer of the genesis of his
company. “This was done via a league
association. This association is a full
member of the German FA. There’s a strong
connection between the German FA and the
league association because, with a difference
to other leagues, we don’t see these as two
parallel, separately working organisations.
So there is a strong link because the national
team, clubs and youth development are
all working close together so it can only
be done properly if both organisations are
working close together.
“The league association is more or less
only in organisational form. It has a 100
per cent subsidiary called DFL Gmbh,
Deutsche Fussball Liga, and this DFL is
100 per cent responsible for all operational
aspects, starting from scheduling, player
activities like transfers, Bundesliga
marketing activities and communications,
as well as revenue distribution and of
course the well-known licensing system of
Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 clubs. These
are the things that DFL has to do.
“It was also the job for them to be
responsible for all the commercial rights. In
2008, DFL decided to found DFL Sports
Enterprises which is now the 100 per cent
of subsidiary of DFL and responsible for
all the commercial rights and that’s what
I’m responsible for – for this company.
We are responsible for the worldwide sale
of media rights; we are responsible for all
the league sponsorship deals, as well as for
league licensing deals for example for Topps
trading cards and stickers and the deal with
Electronic Arts; and the third commercial
activity we have is to market our own
league-owned platforms, for example
Bundesliga.de and Bundesliga.com as well
as the league magazine.”
The domestic television rights, because
they make up the greater part of the
league’s income, are handled by both DFL,
under the leadership of Daubitzer’s longtime colleague Christian Seifert, and DFL
Sports Enterprises together.
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COVER STORY | SOCCER
The Bundesliga’s international TV rights strategy –
quality not quantity
Title rights –
too valuable to sell
Through DFL Sports Enterprises, the
Bundesliga has vastly expanded its
international reach in recent seasons. “We
count Fifa member states as the official
currency,” explains Daubitzer, “and out of
all the 208 Fifa member states, Bundesliga
is represented in all of them; we have
contracts in every country. Live broadcasts
are currently up to 199, so we are really
close to the end.” But when it comes to
renegotiating contracts, Daubitzer’s goal
is no longer about capturing territory or
capital. Instead, his mission is to deepen
relationships, look for added value in
every deal in every territory and to seek
to establish the Bundesliga, through all
manner of comprehensive partnerships, as
the dominant foreign soccer league in any
given market. Instead of chasing dollars,
yen or euros, Daubitzer looks for other,
more creative signs of commitment to the
Bundesliga cause. “I think the portfolio is
already quite interesting,” he reflects. “We’ve
been working together in China with CCTV
for many, many years now. The Bundesliga
has a long tradition in China at CCTV and
we believe that Chinese people are the most
interested in Bundesliga if you compare
it to all the other leagues and this relates
strongly to the cooperation with CCTV. On
the other side, there’s a really interesting
cooperation in the Middle East with the
Dubai Sports Channel. We try to have
partners that pay us attractive licence fees of
course, but beside that we like them to give
us the opportunity to grow with the brand
continuously and especially in areas where
we think the Bundesliga could grow. Dubai
Sports Channel is a free-to-air broadcaster;
they’re broadcasting in 22 territories in the
Middle East and North Africa – all the
Arabic speaking countries. And they try
to combine such cooperations with special
promotions and activities. For example, each
year in the winter break one German team is
invited by Dubai Sports Channel to come to
a training camp in Dubai and have friendly
matches there and do promotional activities
around that and do special editorial things
with the broadcaster. So we try to do those
cooperations more. It’s not only a broadcast
deal, it’s a partnership.
“The cooperation with SuperSport in subSaharan Africa is also another good example
of this kind of thinking. They of course
get the usual Bundesliga programmes
– five multilateral matches in SD, three
multilateral matches in HD, two highlight
shows per matchday and one preview show,
and access to all the other matches on a
unilateral basis as well. But we also have the
obligation to produce for them a 30-minute
special programme only on African players
– training pictures, interviews, background
information – because they want to push
the Bundesliga and their programme. So
it’s very interesting for them, and to have
a strong and believable cooperation, it is
also part of the cooperation that they bring
African journalists from Ghana, Nigeria,
Kenya, Zambia, Uganda – wherever – to
the Bundesliga so that they can see how
the Bundesliga is working, not only on TV
but in real life, so that they could smell and
hear and taste this product in the stadium,
get the background information about the
organisation of the Bundesliga and how this
big product is working.”
The Barclays Premier League, La
Liga BBVA, Serie A TIM – three of
the four dominant European soccer
leagues have multi-million dollar
title sponsorship deals, all with
international companies native to their
sponsored league. Daubitzer already
manages a league sponsorship portfolio
that includes the likes of Grundig,
Lufthansa, Sky Deutschland, Adidas,
and Krombacher in deals ranging from
€2.5 million per year to an estimated
€7 million per year, but with the
strength of the domestic sponsorship
market, and with the league making
rapid progress in terms of international
exposure, it seems a natural step for the
Bundesliga to be exploring its options
in the market. Is the ‘BMW Bundesliga’
a realistic prospect? Not so, according
to Daubitzer. “I think it would be very,
very difficult,” he says. “If you look
to Wolfsburg with Volkswagen; if you
look to Bayern Munich with Audi; if
you look to Stuttgart with Mercedes – it
would be difficult for those clubs and
their sponsors if we brought BMW in.
We believe that the value of such a title
sponsorship would be so extraordinary
that we wouldn’t sell it. We believe
that the brand name plays such an
important role, not just currently but
in the future. It’s a strategic decision.
I don’t know what would happen if
somebody crazy came to us; if Sheikh
Mansour sold Manchester City and
then gave us the money for the title
sponsorship then I think the clubs
would think about it.”
cast an envious glance across the market
to Richard Scudamore and David Kogan,
the Premier League chief executive and his
broadcast rights adviser, conspicuous figures
at Sportel though not, notably, ones who
market themselves hard. “Yeah,” he concedes,
“but it’s part of the job. It’s not new that they
jump from one record to another. You live
with that. The Premier League, from my
perspective, has completely different targets.
If you look what they are doing over the
years, especially on the investor side, how
they handle their partners, it’s only strongly
driven by economic, economic and economic
success. That’s fine. If it’s their philosophy
it’s fine. They handle it pretty well. They
the Premier League concluded its latest cycle
of sales last year, the figure from Singapore,
though this time from Singtel, was up to
around €334 million, with total international
sales believed to be worth a staggering €1.63
billion – an average of €543 million per year.
With those kind of figures to compete
with, it must be hard for Daubitzer not to
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COVER STORY | SOCCER
Bundesliga team ownership – solid structures, sturdy future
While Spain’s La Liga is often lauded
for the ownership structures that see
the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid
majority-owned by socios – paying
members – the model is by no means
replicated across the league. In fact,
it is Germany’s Bundesliga that most
rigorously adheres to a member-owned
model. The ’50 + 1’ rule dictates that
clubs must be at least 51 per cent owned
by members, rather than private, largestake shareholders. Consequently, it is
impossible for outside owners to take
control of a club and privatise it. The rule
also helps to maintain a balance between
the teams, with competitive distortion as
a result of billionaire bankrolling highly
unlikely. The only exception to the rule
is if a club has been founded by a private
company, such as Vfl Wolfsburg, founded
by Volkswagen, and Bayer Leverkusen,
founded by pharmaceuticals giant
Bayer. In terms of competitive balance,
the model seems to work. The last ten
editions of the Bundesliga have been won
by five different teams.
Established stars like Raul now grace the league
have and have had a lot of success, not only
economic but also sporting, which at the end
of the day is what everybody’s looking for.
But our philosophy is and has to be a little bit
different. In our situation we strongly believe
that our cooperations and partnerships,
especially with our international broadcasters,
are really very relevant. And we would not
jump from a long-time, reliable partner to one
for one dollar more.
“The biggest target for us is to have
continuous and stable growth. Of course
we would not say no, but I don’t believe that
a growth explosion would help us in the
long term. So we need to have a significant
growth rate, but on a stable basis. I would
love if this would go ahead hand in hand with
the development of the league, especially
on the sports side, that the attractiveness of
the league and the international acceptance
would grow in parallel.”
Needless to say, the Premier League has
benefitted enormously from its symbiotic
relationship with BSkyB over the years –
both through direct financial investment
and through the bombast and razzmatazz
that the broadcaster brings to soccer
marketing. Despite having a long-term
relationship with Sky Deutschland, the
emphasis on free-to-air programming in
Germany has meant the Bundesliga has not
been able to replicate that model.
Nevertheless, even if he does not want, and
cannot hope, to achieve the same financial
results as his English counterparts just yet,
the Premier League remains an important
yardstick for Daubitzer. A key benefit of
selling your rights in-house is that you have
more time to take them to market. The
international rights for the 2012-2015 cycle
were taken to market at the beginning of
2010 but Daubitzer makes clear there is still
important work to be done. “There are some
markets where I believe we could be better,”
he says. “Indonesia, for example, could be
“The biggest target for us
is to have continuous and
stable growth.”
better. It’s a really difficult market but it’s
a huge one, both from the population size
and the football interest size. It’s very, very
difficult to get into this market because they
are so focused and have spent so much money
on the Premier League that nothing is left.”
And while the Bundesliga, with the
occasional exception of Bayern Munich, isn’t
a league that would even consider breaking
international transfer records, the fact that
clubs in freer-spending leagues are prepared
to offer increasing millions for young
German players is vindication of the league’s
emphasis on youth development.
“From the current national team only three
players, let’s say three and a half, are playing in
leagues outside of Germany,” says Daubitzer.
“You have Sami Khedira and Mezut Ozil
playing for Real and Per Mertesacker has
moved to Arsenal – and Miroslav Klose
has moved to Lazio but he is at an age
now where he’s not really representative.
The development of young players in the
Bundesliga is going very, very well. It’s
the success of ten years of growth, and I
hope it might lead to success at Euro 2012,
which might also have a big impact on the
acceptance of the Bundesliga. Arsène Wenger
from Arsenal was very interested in [Borussia
Dortmund’s] Mario Götze. €40 million has
been on the table for him – for an 18-yearold player. That’s not so bad. Of course we
do not have the absolute top stars like Lionel
Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, but I think the
league is in a really good position because
there’s a mixture between attractive players
like Franck Ribery, like Arjen Robben, like
Raul and young, talented players who have the
opportunity to learn from them, to play on
the same level, and that from my perspective
is the problem of the Premier League and
the English national team because all the
key positions are taken by foreign players, so
the English players do not have a reasonable
chance to develop as they should by playing
each week in important positions in the team.
“So that’s why I say we need to bring
this economic growth together with the
progression of the sporting side of the
league, and then there are not many leagues
who have an opportunity to be better than
us in a few years.”
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