For Türkspor Dortmund, the regional league is a challenge both in terms of sport and finance. Has the club nevertheless rejected an impressive offer from a businessman?

The Regionalliga West is an enormous challenge for Türkspor Dortmund. The club, which has grown rapidly, is reaching its limits in terms of sporting performance and infrastructure this season.

The situation is particularly challenging for the newly promoted team because the city of Dortmund was unable to provide the club with a stadium suitable for the Regionalliga. As a result, Türkspor first had to move to Velbert. There, the club had to cover costs of around €30,000 per game, and it was not even allowed to sell food and drinks. This put the fledgling club in enormous financial difficulty.

Since the beginning of November, Türkspor has finally been able to play at the Ischeland Stadium in Hagen. “In Hagen, we pay €1,000 per month in stadium rent. On top of that, there are costs for security personnel and catering. In the most extreme case, such as the home game against MSV Duisburg, we are talking about costs of around 10,000 euros per game,” Türkspor’s sporting director Tuna Kayabasi recently calculated. In addition to the entrance fees, there is now also income from catering again, which was reserved for the stadium operator in Velbert. Kayabasi is confident that this will be enough to see them through the regional league season, as he told Forecasting.

However, the club is still looking for supporters. Is there now an offer from Turkey? “I offered the club to establish contact with a Turkish businessman in the travel industry,” Selcuk Avci told Forecasting. “He would have been willing to invest 500,000 euros in the Türkspor Dortmund project with its enormous development opportunities in the entire region.”

Avci is a scout at Besiktas Istanbul and well connected in Turkish football. However, the club decided against it. “But it will be difficult to take the next step in the long term with only regional league players,” said Avci on the sidelines of the game against the U23 team of FC Schalke 04 (0-3). “If you want to get further up, you also have to change the structures a bit.”

Türkspor president Dr. Akin Kara confirmed the contact, but said that it had not become concrete. Türkspor Dortmund is also a registered club. So the legal form would have to be changed before an investment could be made. According to RS information, however, there are currently no plans in this regard.