“The idea arises that professional sport is a symbol to make the population understand the seriousness of the situation and that professional sport has to pay for what it is not to blame for itself,” said the managing director of the basketball Bundesliga, Stefan Holz, who dpa. “From an infectious disease point of view, there is nothing against 2G plus with a test, FFP2 mask or booster vaccination with a test to let a few hundred people into the hall.”
On Tuesday, the federal and state governments decided on stricter corona measures. Due to the rapid spread of the omicron variant of the corona virus, events in the stadiums and sports halls will again take place without an audience after Christmas.
Lack of future prospects
Holz struggles with the lack of future prospects. “What comes after the next corona variant? And then it goes on forever? That’s not a perspective,” he said. According to Holz, the financial situation for the basketball clubs is “totally difficult, simply critical”. Not every club will survive, Holz warned.
The situation is more critical than last year. Because this season the clubs had planned with spectators. According to Holz, the economic corona aid in professional sports will not be sufficient. After two years of the pandemic, there were no arguments to keep sponsors, in addition to the lack of income.
Löwen Managing Director: “Existence Threatening”
The basketball Bundesliga club Löwen Braunschweig reacted with concern to the upcoming ghost games. “This has extreme effects and is threatening the existence of everyone except football,” said managing director Nils Mittmann of the “Braunschweiger Zeitung”.
According to Mittmann, conditions have so far been created with a 30 percent hall occupancy rate, the 2G plus regulation, mask requirements and distance between spectators under which professional sport is not a driver of infection.
Financial corona aid for sport is good and important, said Mittmann. “If we don’t have fans, we can’t fulfill the contracts with the sponsors and have to reckon with claims, which puts our industry in an extremely difficult situation.”
dpa
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Stand: 22.12.2021, 12:55
