Looking into the Abyss - The Financial Struggle of Sport Teams amid Covid-19

[tyKiwanuka]

Not only companies are already struggling during these hard times, but also lots of sports teams. Unfortunately we have some prominent athletes getting infected with that virus, which could have longterm effects on their performance, but also clubs are having some hard times financially due to literally being out of revenue streams, while still having to pay the salaries. And for clubs in Basketball, Handball, Volleyball and even some Football teams, this could get really ugly. They are very dependant to get money from ticket sales and some additional sponsoring deals.

This thread is for keeping track of such teams. Why ? Because once the competitions resume, this should get very interesting in terms of betting.

Don't use this thread for discussions surrounding sports and Covid-19 (there are gazillion of other threads for that), but for hard, provable facts.


I'll start with some news from German Basketball League (BBL). There are now three teams, that have laid off lots of their players already.

Brose Bamberg

Jordan Crawford (Top Scorer, 17.0ppg) and Darion Atkins (5.8ppg) were sent home and won't come back.

Some more players have left to go back to USA, but will be available at a later point again.

Telekom Baskets Bonn

Branden Frazier (14.0ppg), Stephen Zimmerman (6.6ppg), Geno Lawrence (5.3ppg & 23mpg) and Donald Sloan (14.0ppg) were released and will not come back. If the season somehow resumes, Bonn will be doomed without these.

Rasta Vechta

Huge trouble for them, they will have to file for bankruptcy, if they won't get financial support.

Jordan Davis (11.2ppg), Kamari Murphy (5.5ppg) and Steve Vasturia (13.4ppg) were released already and will not return.


If you have any information about other teams, maybe your domestic ones, that struggle and have to lay off players to save money, please post here with source.

[Darker45]

Professional footballers in Norway have been temporarily laid off as clubs struggle to cope with the economic impact of the spread of coronavirus...

This is the only news so far that I've encountered about professional players getting laid off due to the economic effect of COVID-19. Specific players' names are not included, though. The good thing is that the government is kind enough to intervene and shoulder their wages.

However, unlike the players mentioned in the OP who won't come back to their teams, these football players are not dismissed and are not allowed to leave their respective clubs and find temporary work elsewhere. 

Source:
https://www.thestar.com.my/sport/football/2020/03/18/players-in-norway-temporarily-laid-off-as-coronavirus-bites

[tyKiwanuka]

Some more news from German Basketball League.

Giessen 46ers

The contracts of Kendall Lamar Gray (3.3ppg), Luke Petrasek (10.9ppg), Stephen Brown (13.0ppg), Jordan Barnett (9.7ppg), Teyvon Myers (14.3ppg) and Matt Tiby (11.5ppg) have all been canceled. Only US guy left is Brandon Thomas. Their roster is thinned out like crazy and five of their six top scorers are gone:


Source: https://www.easycredit-bbl.de/de/easycredit-bbl/historie/teams/t/2019-2020/421-gie/


Today the 17 teams have agreed to further suspend all games until April 30th, but they still intend to finish the season, but maybe on a shortened schedule. A team like Giessen will have huge trouble winning any game without all these players. Could get interesting from a betting perspective.

[tyKiwanuka]

The teams from german BBL have agreed to not cancel the season, which is a good thing. But the new concept they worked out, is a bit weird too

From the 17 teams, 7 teams chose to just finish their season. Most of their players contracts will run out in May and they don't have the money to extend them. This new concept will not generate enough money for them, to make it profitable. These teams will stay in the league, there is no relegation this year. The 10 other teams, who voted to continue the season, will now more or less start a new season, by holding a tournament with groups of five and starting some playoffs afterwards. This tournament will take place at a fixed venue.

Among these ten teams, there is also two teams mentioned in this thread: Bamberg and Vechta. This was quite surprising to me, because they both laid off some players already.

Brose Bamberg

Jordan Crawford (Top Scorer, 17.0ppg) and Darion Atkins (5.8ppg) were sent home and won't come back.

Some more players have left to go back to USA, but will be available at a later point again.

The players that left for USA couple of weeks ago, will come back to Germany and Bamberg is looking to sign Crawford&Atkins again for this "new season".

Rasta Vechta

Huge trouble for them, they will have to file for bankruptcy, if they won't get financial support.

Jordan Davis (11.2ppg), Kamari Murphy (5.5ppg) and Steve Vasturia (13.4ppg) were released already and will not return.

Quite surprisingly Vechta chose to take part in the tournament, despite struggling like crazy financially. Ishmail Wainright (10.3ppg) was laid off too in the meantime, so this team is very weakened.


BBL intends to finish the season by June 30th and for that to happen, this tournament has to start May 18th the latest. I think there should be good betting opportunities.

[LTU_btc]

Some big European leagues already ended season, but there is still many who are planning to continue, like German, Spanish or Euroleague. But I'm not really sure hoe they are going to continue season. Most American players returned to USA and theywon't get back to finnish season. First off all, simply there is no flights right now. So, if season will continue, I think we will see extremely low level of basketball.
Football will survive this crisis somehow, they get huge money from TV. But other sports like basketball, volleyball or hanball will be hitted hard. They heavy depends on ticket sales and sponsors money. Many sponsors won't afford to pay as much money as they paid before crisis. And playing without spectators is another source of income lost. I read that budgets of basketball teams can decrease by 50% next season. Some teams won't survive this. And in general, team sports other than football isn't profitable, especially basketball. Clubs spend a lot money, but they don't get much income. So, this crisis makes their situation even worse.

[tyKiwanuka]

Most American players returned to USA and theywon't get back to finnish season. First off all, simply there is no flights right now. So, if season will continue, I think we will see extremely low level of basketball.

There are still daily flights to and from USA in Frankfurt:


Source: https://www.frankfurt-airport.com/de/am-flughafen/fluege.html

I could also see the different teams chartering a plane in a joint venture and bring back their players - plus some cargo maybe to lower the costs But then again, these players need to go into quarantine first, can't train etc. So this is all but easy.

But other sports like basketball, volleyball or hanball will be hitted hard. They heavy depends on ticket sales and sponsors money. Many sponsors won't afford to pay as much money as they paid before crisis. And playing without spectators is another source of income lost. I read that budgets of basketball teams can decrease by 50% next season. Some teams won't survive this. And in general, team sports other than football isn't profitable, especially basketball. Clubs spend a lot money, but they don't get much income. So, this crisis makes their situation even worse.

Yes, I expect quite some clubs going down the drain in the end, but I didn't hear of any so far. Iirc there was some football club from Slovakia that declared bankruptcy, but other than that, everyone is still hanging on. In betting terms, I was hoping for teams to struggle and lay off personnel - and then the leagues resuming, which would have been quite interesting. But everything was cancellled rather than resumed, so no luck with that one (apart from german BBL).

As you said, the next season could become very interesting for the reasons you mentioned. We could see the dynamics in certain leagues change and bookmakers are often a bit slow to adapt, because they work a lot with data from the past.

How is Zalgiris doing ?

[LTU_btc]

There are still daily flights to and from USA in Frankfurt:

I could also see the different teams chartering a plane in a joint venture and bring back their players - plus some cargo maybe to lower the costs But then again, these players need to go into quarantine first, can't train etc. So this is all but easy.

I may be wrong, but these planes are flying empty in order not to lose their places in airports:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/nymag.com/intelligencer/amp/2020/04/heres-why-so-many-planes-are-still-flying-nearly-empty.html
Now most countries have closed borders, so travelling is impossible. And when it will be opened, it will be difficult to collect players from different parts of USA with limited flights. And then as you say, they would have to spend 14 days in quarantine after that.
Quite many players like Mike James from CSKA said that they are against resuming season. So, some teams probably will have to play without full squad.

Iirc there was some football club from Slovakia that declared bankruptcy, but other than that, everyone is still hanging on.

Club from Slovakia announced about liquidation because players didn't agreed to cut of wages. But if I understand correct, this club will continue to play, probably with youth squad. It's something similar what Rangers Glasgow did few years ago.

How is Zalgiris doing ?

Probably not good. This season they had record €12 million budget, but now every day they are loosing money and will have to pay at least 80% of contracts to players if season will not continue.
They are playing most games in sold-out 15k people arena and money from tickets is almost 40% of their budget. So, playing without fans would hurt them badly.