Football Bundesliga
“Global Brand Alliance” – 100 million euros for VfB Stuttgart
Status: 2:42 p.m. | Reading time: 3 minutes
After avoiding relegation, VfB Stuttgart is happy about fresh money
Source: dpa/Tom Weller
The CEO is celebrating a “great, historic day for VfB Stuttgart”. In addition to Mercedes, the Bundesliga club can now also win Porsche as an investor. The Swabians are pursuing four goals with the fresh money.
Alexander Wehrle really got going. The CEO of VfB Stuttgart spoke of a “very strong signal” when he explained the Swabians’ EUR 100 million deal in more detail – and raised his voice several times. The Bundesliga club, which was hit by the Corona crisis, can look forward to a huge cash injection. The competing car manufacturers Mercedes and Porsche will work together at VfB in the future. After years of sporting sadness, it could be the dawn of better times again.
Porsche is to join VfB as an additional investor. The company from the Baden-Württemberg state capital will acquire shares in VfB AG “on the same scale” as Mercedes-Benz once did, Wehrle explained at a joint press conference in the Stuttgart stadium on Tuesday. Five percent are planned for this summer and then another tranche within the next twelve months. Mercedes paid 41.5 million euros in 2017 for 11.75 percent of the shares in the outsourced professional department of the Swabians.
In addition to his planned entry into the AG, Porsche will take on several sponsorship packages at VfB – especially in the youth academy. Mercedes will remain with the club as an anchor investor and sponsor, but will hand over the naming rights to the stadium to the Porsche subsidiary MHP on July 1. The arena, which is currently being renovated, should therefore be called the MHP Arena for at least the next ten years. Mercedes’ commitment as jersey and sleeve sponsor of VfB also ends. The club wants to market these rights for the new season. One is in good talks, says Wehrle.
One wants to deal with the funds “Swabian” and “humbly”.
According to Wehrle, the total volume of the new “global brand alliance”, as the people of Stuttgart call it, amounts to a good 100 million euros. The last formalities should be clarified by the end of July. But it is already “a big, historic day for VfB Stuttgart,” said President and Chairman of the Supervisory Board Claus Vogt.
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According to Wehrle, VfB is pursuing four goals with the fresh money. After the corona-related loss of sales of around 90 million euros in recent years, equity is to be strengthened. In addition, further investments are to be made in the infrastructure and in business areas such as digitization and internationalization. And of course in the sporting competitiveness of the team. The CEO announced that the funds would be handled “Swabian” and “humbly”. Nevertheless, in the future they want to “act from a position of strength again” on the transfer market.
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That means: VfB will continue to sell players. But the club no longer wants to be as dependent on it as it was last time. “There is now less pressure in the transfer activities,” explained Wehrle. Possibly also purified by the descents in 2016 and 2019 and the dramatic rescues in the past two seasons, the Stuttgart team is still a long way from declaring a major attack. However, a spirit of optimism can definitely be felt.
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