Dispute over the BBL budget list: FC Bayern is upset

Basketball fan and at the same time supporter of Florian Silbereisen? That should be a rare combination in Germany. But Munich’s BMW Park, home of German basketball champions FC Bayern, will be full on New Year’s Eve when Silbereisen is scheduled to welcome big names on a stage above the parquet. And by purchasing a ticket for the “New Year’s Eve Schlagerboom 2026”, every visitor also supports FC Bayern, which is responsible for the event management of the event.

Such activities are also included in the work that the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) has now published but has not elaborated on. The budgets and personnel expenses that the 18 clubs are planning for the current season immediately caused problems.

A message in short: The people of Munich are much richer than everyone else. FC Bayern’s planned budget for the 2025/26 season is listed at 48.42 million euros – more than four times as much as that of the second richest club, Alba Berlin (11.42 million euros). FC Bayern’s budget alone corresponds to almost 30 percent of the total budget of the 18 clubs, which is estimated at 165 million euros. Science City Jena is planning with the lowest budget (4.26 million euros). According to the forecast, Bayern’s personnel costs will rise from 14.57 to 18.03 million euros compared to the previous year. Across the league, however, personnel costs only amount to around 36 percent of the total budget, which is why BBL managing director Stefan Holz thinks: “This shows that the clubs are also investing a lot in sustainable structures and measures, instead of investing in the teams, especially in the short term. To put it bluntly: stones instead of legs.”

At the same time, the publication of the figures is, to put it cautiously, causing irritation at FC Bayern, which the outgoing managing director Marko Pesic expressed in a social media post. Firstly, these figures were made public “despite clear reservations from individual clubs,” explains Pesic – and accuses the BBL of lacking professionalism. So it’s not a question of “budgets”, as it says in the headline of the announcement, i.e. a forecast of income and expenses, but of planned sales. “The result is not enlightenment, but shortening, polarization and division, with a predictable effect on the media and fans,” said Pesic. What is missing is “leadership through content”. He is proud of the numbers “because they were worked out over many years.” His “clear advice” to the leadership of the BBL: “Less narrative, more substance. Less pseudo-PR, more content. And above all: finally a strategy that does justice to the country’s sporting development.”

When asked, BBL managing director Holz replied: “I don’t understand why he chooses this path”. Pesic is one of the basketball masterminds in Europe. If he has ideas, he should give him a call! “But I don’t understand the content either: We have concepts such as the triple-double strategy by 2032 (including doubling team budgets and media reach within ten years, editor’s note), we are massively adjusting various adjustments.” Holz also points out that Bayern had already presented similar figures at their general meeting. “Almost 50 million – that’s great! You can go out with that,” says Holz regarding sales.

However, Bayern don’t think so, and that’s why Bayern’s commercial director, Adrian Sarmiento, has now spoken up: “Transparency is not created through tables, but through explanation and classification.” But nothing is classified here. Bayern will play around 90 games this season, other teams perhaps only 38, according to Sarmiento; That’s why you have to employ more physiotherapists and trainers than others. A high six-figure sum is spent on travel costs alone. They now want to “protect the club from voices and headlines, from division and criticism” that are brought about by the published figures. Because planned personnel costs have also been published, legal action will also be examined, says Sarmiento. Holz refers to a resolution by the clubs that was passed “with a clear majority”.

The numbers published by the BBL unintentionally show one thing: the league’s dependence on Bayern and thus also the large discrepancy between the national competition and the Euroleague. While the BBL competitors have to look for Bayern in the financial table with binoculars – Alba Berlin follows in second place with planned personnel costs of 4.69 million euros, over 13 million less – FC Bayern is in midfield in the European elite league. Sarmiento points out that some competitors there spend Bayern’s team budget on individual players. That’s why the discrepancy between performances in the Bundesliga and Euroleague is currently extreme. There is a defeat in the BBL and a series of defeats in the Euroleague.

The BBL is well aware that it benefits far too little from the world and European championship titles of the national team. She also recently took the cup tournament away from Düsseldorf after it had been promised for three years – reportedly for six-figure compensation. There is a much more lucrative place for the final tournament: Munich. “We talk to each other on the phone all the time,” says Holz about FC Bayern, and they also have “a lot of great, common topics” that we can talk about. A hit party from which the BBL also earns money is apparently not planned yet.