Sunday, September 26, 2021
BVB surveyed 28,000 fans
Corona pandemic makes football less popular
The stadiums of the Bundesliga are not sold out as often as was hoped after the return of the fans. The pandemic appears to have shifted followers’ priorities. An extensive study among BVB fans shows clear results.
The corona pandemic has damaged the importance of football. This is the result of a scientific study commissioned by the Bundesliga soccer club Borussia Dortmund in collaboration with Dortmund University. According to a survey of 28,000 BVB fans, just over 80 percent of those surveyed rated the importance of football in their lives before the pandemic as “high”. In relation to the importance of BVB in their lives, it was as much as 90 percent. However, under the impact of the pandemic, these two values were only 50 and 60 percent in the spring.
In particular, the increasing commercialization of professional football was rated “critical” by 80 percent of those surveyed. Even such a popular club as BVB, which usually has a large fan base, is feeling this growing skepticism, but it can also draw positive conclusions from the crisis. “In the course of the survey, it is noticeable again and again that Borussia Dortmund got through the pandemic a little better in the assessment of the fans compared to football in general,” Professor Uwe Wilkesmann is quoted in a statement from the club on Sunday.
Only 0.5 percent of the study participants stated that they no longer wanted to attend any games in the stadium after the end of the pandemic. Around 90 percent announced their return to Germany’s largest stadium, almost ten percent were undecided. “On the one hand, we are very pleased that so many fans indicate that they want to come back to the stadium after the pandemic. On the other hand, we of course also take note of the fans’ criticisms of certain developments in football and incorporate them into ours include internal considerations, “said BVB managing director Hans-Joachim Watzke.
The Borussia hygiene concept received good marks for the games with several thousand spectators in September and October of the past season. 95 percent of those surveyed said they felt safe while visiting the stadium. In addition, the social commitment of the Revierclub during the global Corona crisis and the transparent presentation of their own problems were rated as “mostly good” by just over 60 percent of the participants in the survey.
After the stadiums were partially opened to spectators due to falling corona incidence values, some clubs had problems selling the ticket contingent on offer. That had fueled the discussion about the dwindling popularity of football.