Paramore's "Misery Business" is high on the playlist of the Straubing volleyball women, a loud punk rock piece with indie pop influences - lyrically not undisputed, but thanks to its straight-forward guitar riffs it's a great way to get involved in an important event push match.

But that's the end of the "miserable business", the Bundesliga players from NawaRo Straubing no longer have to heat up - the team was taken out of play with immediate effect.

Achim Dreis

sports editor.

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For the Volleyball Bundesliga (VBL), which organizes the games for men and women, the withdrawal is a bitter loss.

After all, in recent years TV Rottenburg and TV Bühl, Volleys Eltmann, Alpenvolleys and most recently United Volleys Frankfurt have left the men's elite class, which is currently still bobbing along with nine teams.

Nevertheless, VBL Managing Director Daniel Sattler, who speaks of a "challenging product" when he talks about professional volleyball, explains that there is no discernible pattern and that the causes can be explained individually in each case.

In Straubing, which had already been forced out of the Bundesliga in 2016 due to the insolvency of the then operating company, the economic substance proved to be too weak.

There was also a lack of a suitable set-up in the organizational area with regard to commercial and administrative responsibility.

The managing partner Ingrid Senft carried too much burden on her shoulders, observers believe, and she is personally responsible for the economic debacle.

No regular promotion and relegation in the Volleyball Bundesliga

In terms of sport, a graveyard calm is now returning: After NawaRo Spielbetriebs GmbH filed for insolvency last week, the Straubing club management decided this week after consultation with players and coaches - in coordination with representatives of the volleyball Bundesliga - in the current no longer compete in the season.

In the adjusted Bundesliga table, Lower Bavaria, which previously ranked eleventh out of twelve teams, has been deleted.

The remaining eight games of the season are canceled - even if the link to the ticket shop for the upcoming home game against VC Wiesbaden on February 11 (8 p.m.) in the "turmair volleyball arena" is still displayed on the club's homepage.

If you click on it, you will be confronted with the message: Sale ended.

Instead, the sell-off begins.

The ban on changing players from Straubing has been lifted, as reported by VBL Managing Director Sattler.

The team has always pulled along reliably, even in difficult situations, explains NawaRo Managing Director Senft.

It is therefore "a matter of course for us to support the players in their sporting future".

As one of the league's heavyweights, Dresdner SC promptly announced the commitment of 20-year-old diagonal attacker Marie Hänle on Tuesday evening.

Coach Lukas Przybylak has also left the club.

The upcoming opponent VC Wiesbaden (VCW) can now save themselves the long journey from the Rhine to the Danube.

VCW trainer Benedikt Frank is not only affected by the development in Straubing because his team's rhythm of play is interrupted by the forced break.

After all, he himself took over the team from the city of 50,000 in 2017 in the second division and, despite modest means, led it to the Bundesliga and established it there before moving to Hesse in 2021.

"The news of the bankruptcy hurts me - I put my heart into it."

The end of “renewable raw materials”

How things will continue in Straubing is still unclear.

The VBL has just launched a single-track “2.

Liga Pro” for 2023/24, in which clubs willing to get promoted are to be made fit for the professional league – both sportingly and economically.

So far, the element that creates sporting excitement in other team sports has been eliminated in volleyball: the regulated promotion and relegation.

For years - apart from VC Neuwied, which has no sporting chances in the upper class - no clubs from the previously divided lower house have wanted to advance to the Bundesliga because they shy away from the financial risk.

The withdrawal from Straubing does not exactly represent a glimmer of hope. The fact that the Bundesliga team acted as ambassadors for a region from eastern Bavaria no longer serves as a consolation after the collapse.

"NawaRo" stands for "renewable raw materials", with which the city of Straubing would like to give itself a unique selling point that should point to the future.

In the last Bundesliga game in the club's history, the Straubingers lost 3-0 to Allianz Stuttgart's top team last Saturday.

After 71 one-sided minutes of play, the players said goodbye to their loyal fans in a spirit of atmosphere - 812 spectators came.