Women’s volleyball: pyramid without a top

The duel between the volleyball players from Straubing and Vilsbiburg can now be described as a classic. On Saturday, however, for the first time it will not take place in the first Bundesliga, but in a league below. After Straubing’s bankruptcy and exit from the current first division game a year and a half ago, the next big bang from Vilsbiburg came quite unexpectedly at the end of last season: After 23 years in the upper house, the club voluntarily moved into the single-track “2nd division”. Bundesliga Women Pro”, which has a complicated name, a complicated purpose and recently started its second season. Since then there has been no Bavarian women’s first division team.

However, that doesn’t make Bart-Jan van der Mark immediately sad before the duel with third-placed Vilsbiburg. The former Straubing coach, who now acts as sporting director there under a completely revamped management, speaks of a “very conscious decision in our reorganization after bankruptcy” when choosing the league. The group of shareholders have formulated clear ideas: identification with the region, integration of local talent and attractive volleyball are part of it. However, there is no explicit mention of a resurgence with the crowbar.

After fifth place in the first season in the new league, Straubing won all of the first seven games of the new season and scored 20 out of 21 possible points. However, the topic of the first league is currently not one. The situation will not be evaluated until the end of the coming season at the earliest. Other factors will then be more decisive than sporting concerns. “If you want to take the step into the first league, the organization has to be a step further than the team – and we’re not there yet,” says van der Mark. Not to mention the fact that financing must be secured.

What is a healthy attitude for Straubing in isolation also reveals the persistence of the major structural problem in volleyball: the big leap to the first league. “I don’t think it’s gotten any smaller,” says van der Mark, referring to the 2nd League Pro. The intermediate league, which has been drafted as a perspective league, is a very interesting product in terms of sport with more duels at eye level. “We prefer to play in our full hall in the 2nd League Pro than in front of a half-empty first league,” he admits openly. However, the purpose of the new league was not actually for first division teams to voluntarily relegate from the first division, which only had nine teams. The fact that exactly this is happening may also be due to a second gap that is opening up in the upper house. The first five teams are financially out of reach, all the others are playing in no man’s land.

The no man’s land of the qualitatively divided first league had become less attractive than locally rooted sport

Because of exactly this gap, Vilsbiburg voluntarily withdrew in the spring; Without a massive increase in the budget, there was no perspective. The no man’s land of the qualitatively divided first league had become less attractive than locally rooted sport at a high level a league below, where the strongly rejuvenated team won all of its first four games of the season. This results in a strange snapshot for Bavarian women’s volleyball: In Lower Bavaria, three teams, Straubing, Vilsbiburg and Dingolfing, are currently playing against each other in a very small space in the 2nd Bundesliga Pro, for whom the prospect of the league is not an option in the short term.

One league below – in the regular Second League South – things will be even more exciting. Bavarian teams make up almost half of the relay there. Five teams from the greater Munich and Altdorf area form the broad base of a pyramid that has lost the top. The question arises as to “whether we really can’t solve this better,” says Christy Swagerty, trainer in Altdorf. As things stand, the influence of the 2nd League Pro on the first league is much greater than on the leagues below. She sees the problem not only in the structure, but also says: “In one of the richest federal states there is not enough money to finance a first league location from such a large pool of strong players?” Perhaps the top game on Saturdays also counts put this question on the agenda.