Losses in the millions: FC St. Pauli wants to found a cooperative
Second-division soccer club FC St. Pauli wants to improve its financial situation by founding a cooperative and building up more equity. This was announced by President Oke Göttlich on Thursday evening at the club's general meeting in Hamburg's Congress Centrum.
The club had "revived an idea from the membership and examined, discussed and pushed it forward in recent months", said Göttlich in front of the more than 700 voting members of the second division leaders. "It's about a financing model that suits FC St. Pauli and is based on participation." The conditions for founding a cooperative are to be created by the first half of 2024. "We have the courage to take this step, to set up our own financing," he said. He did not provide any further details.
In economic terms, FC St. Pauli is back on a growth trajectory after the coronavirus years, but suffered a loss of €4.9 million in the 2022/23 financial year. Turnover rose to a record 62 million euros. Last year, around 50 million euros were announced and a profit of around 300,000 euros was posted.
The new CFO Wilken Engelbracht cited several reasons for the loss. The merchandising division in particular contributed significantly to the loss with a deficit of 1.6 million euros. According to him, the outsourcing of logistics and merchandise management for merchandising as well as the loss of income in the fall and winter of 2022 due to the World Cup in Qatar and the club's unsatisfactory sporting situation at the time prevented a positive result.
Engelbracht, who has been in office since November 1, emphasized that FC St. Pauli does not have a revenue problem. However, income and expenditure must be brought back into balance.
FC St. Pauli, currently playing in Bundesliga 2, is exploring new financial strategies to enhance its equity and reduce losses, as announced by President Oke Göttlich. One of these strategies is the establishment of a cooperative within the soccer club.
Despite being in a growth phase post-pandemic, FC St. Pauli recorded a €4.9 million loss in the recent 2022/23 financial year, with the merchandising division contributing significantly to this deficit.
Source: www.dpa.com
