The Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund is hoping for full ranks in the stadium again after two years of losses for the coming season.

Society must learn to deal with the corona virus, and with increasing vaccination rates, politics should allow more normality again, says BVB managing director Hans-Joachim Watzke.

“We can't solve everything by locking the shop,” said Watzke on Monday.

Jonas Jansen

Business correspondent in Düsseldorf.

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However, the club boss also said that he considers vaccinations to be more useful than corona tests in order to allow more spectators to enter the stadiums.

Therefore, Watzke asks the fans of the club to get vaccinated. 

DFB-Pokal and Champions League help

Due to games without spectators and low transfer revenues, Borussia Dortmund posted a loss of 72.8 million euros in the past financial year, after a loss of 44 million in the previous season.

The corona pandemic only hit the 2019/2020 season at the end, while practically the entire past season was affected by the restrictions.

Above all, the lack of ticket revenue had a negative impact on sales, after 34.5 million euros in seasonal operation in the previous season, only just under 600,000 euros were raised in the 2020/2021 season.

Overall, sales without transfers fell from 370.2 to 334.2 million euros.

BVB was helped by winning the DFB Cup and making it into the quarter-finals of the Champions League, which provided better than feared advertising revenues and television money. 

"The loss is high, but we always had the feeling that we were in control of our numbers," said Watzke.

Compared to other clubs, Dortmund is still well equipped with equity.

The revenues in the transfer market also fell from 40.2 to 15.4 million euros. For the new season, BVB is again at a level that the club knows from earlier times: The club has signed Donyell Malen from PSV Eindhoven for 30 million euros, but at the same time sold 85 million euros for Jadon Sancho, who joins Manchester United moves to England. Further purchases are not planned, said Watzke.