Volleyball: the migrant workers

Fog machines and fire shows have long been a popular means of entry-level ceremonies for professionals in volleyball as well. They provide beautiful pictures for television and for the audience, who are now allowed to come back to the arenas. It was the same on Wednesday evening, with a lot of hot air and milky clouds moving through the hall before Friedrichshafen’s volleyball players hit the net for the first serve of the season against SVG Lüneburg. And maybe that fits very well with the current situation at such a glorious club. To stay in the picture, it is as diffuse as it is heated, despite the 3: 1 opening success. When the fog cleared, one saw above all empty stands in Friedrichshafen’s new home game hall in Neu-Ulm. New Ulm?

The VfB professionals have been without a sporting home for a year, at the end of September 2020 – three weeks before the start of the season – their ZF Arena was closed by the city overnight due to structural defects. After all, they were allowed to move into a trade fair hall within the city at that time, there were no trade fairs in the midst of the corona pandemic. But business is now starting to grow again, there is no more space for the volleyball players. You are now moving on to Neu-Ulm, more than 100 kilometers to the north and an hour and a half away by car. The Ratiopharm arena there is also home to Ulm’s professional basketball players, it has a capacity of 6200 spectators. Exactly 500 came to the Friedrichshafen game.

For the appendix that means: drive 100 kilometers to the home game

VfB managing director Thilo Späth-Westerhold had expected 2000 fans. It’s not that they haven’t been promotional enough. Newspaper advertisements, radio spots, posters, free tickets for the local clubs and calls in the social networks, there were all of that. But how is that supposed to work to establish identification in a foreign city within months? But they will still need them, the contract with their new arena runs for the entire season.

Späth-Westerhold is happy to have got such a large hall at all, there is nothing in Friedrichshafen and the surrounding area. For training, the team commutes back and forth between the trade fair, where they can still practice and where the office is located, and school gyms.

The situation is also unreasonable for the fans from Lake Constance, at first they were not allowed into the hall because of the virus, now they have to drive for hours to the home game. Many complain: “Nobody goes there from Lake Constance,” wrote one on Instagram, “the club will probably collapse completely for the season after next,” another. Silvia Meschenmoser from the VfB fan club Bluebears has at least made the trip to Neu-Ulm: “Of course it’s not great that we have to go so far that the fair is not free,” she says in the stands: “We understand not that there is no possibility in Friedrichshafen. “

The dilemma gnaws at the self-image of VfB – and it could soon become existential

The closure of the ZF Arena was justified by excessive corrosion on the steel cables of the roof structure, two reports confirmed this. The question now is whether to renovate the listed hall or whether to dare to build a new one. Both would take years. Third alternative: You don’t do anything. At the same time, the fair does not see itself as a sponsor of sports, it has temporarily accommodated volleyball players in an emergency. “We have an economic contract that has the right of way,” says spokesman Frank Gauss of the SZ. The trade fair, city and club talk to each other, but they have not yet come up with a common denominator.

The dilemma not only gnaws at the proud self-image of VfB, which has so far been the sporting figurehead of an entire region – it could soon become existential. The twelve-time champion and 16-time cup winner, who triumphed in the Champions League triumph under coach Stelian Moculescu in 2007, has long since given up his sporting unique position to the Berlin Recycling Volleys. The budget has shrunk, audience interest has declined. “There are reasons why Berlin has overtaken us,” says Späth-Westerhold. The volleys are closely networked with their city and the other major clubs there, their catchment area is huge, their average attendance is the best volleyball in Europe, and hip Berlin also attracts the stars among the players. VfB plays in a sprawled, small-town, conservative landscape, structurally it comes up against an invisible ceiling and has long ceased to be the club whose home games people at the lake make a pilgrimage to as a matter of course. Especially not to Neu-Ulm.

Also because earlier identification figures are missing, such as libero Markus Steuerwald or player Simon Tischer. The only remaining professional from last season who was in the regular formation against Lüneburg was Marcus Böhme. “We also have to touch our own noses, we need more continuity in the team”, says Späth-Westerhold, the managing director. The new coach Mark Lebedew is supposed to bring VfB closer to Berlin in terms of sport, the Australian knows his way around successes, he won the championship three times with the volleys. He probably doesn’t even suspect what a difficult task he has taken on.

What does all of this do with Friedrichshafen and its supporters? It’s also about identity, which is now threatening to be lost. “We’re doing everything we can to ensure that doesn’t happen. We have to manage a balancing act, not lose our ties to Friedrichshafen, but win new fans here. The question is: what will happen in two or three years?”, Says Späth-Westerhold. Until then, the players will continue to do their job as migrant workers. On Saturday a week from now, fog, fire – and the Master Berlin will be waiting for them in Neu-Ulm.