Schalke 04 has to make savings and needs money to be able to realistically tackle its return to the Bundesliga in the future. What about the club’s legal form?
FC Schalke 04 have an important home game against FC St. Pauli on Friday evening (18:30, RS live ticker). With 55,000 fans behind them, the Royal Blues will be looking to collect points against the league leaders to avoid the threat of relegation to the 3rd division.
The sole aim this season is to avoid relegation. But of course those responsible at the Knappen are already looking beyond the season. In an interview with the club magazine Schalker Kreisel, CEO Matthias Tillmann commented on the club’s future.
And announced further price increases and savings. “It will require some further tougher measures on our way, which will be unusual for some and will not be applauded everywhere in the club, but they are unavoidable,” he announced.
Following the increase in catering prices, further price rises are to be expected, including for membership fees. “These will affect our fans and members, and we are aware of that,” he said. Open communication is important here. However, there is no alternative to these measures in order to maintain the budgets for the sporting sector so that the club can continue to compete for promotion to the Bundesliga in the future.
One topic that has been discussed at Schalke from time to time for years in order to generate additional money is a possible spin-off of the professional division from the registered club into a different legal form in order to open up to investors
If this were acute today, I would actually be talking about a sell-off
Matthias Tillamnn
Tillmann also has a clear opinion here. Apart from the fact that the club’s members would have to decide on this, a spin-off is out of the question for him at the moment. “From my point of view, the timing is very important when it comes to the issue of a spin-off. If this were acute today, I would actually be talking about selling the club, because then you wouldn’t be able to achieve the price that FC Schalke 04 is worth,” explained Tillmann. Such a measure must always be taken from a position of strength, which is not currently the case.
Nevertheless, the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board are in discussions. “So the question does not arise for me in the short term. At the same time, it is of course our job to look at options. We are doing this with the necessary diligence,” said Tillmann.