Comments on: A whole club goes bankrupt (UPDATE)

By: What will happen to Köln?

What will happen to Köln? — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 21:41:36 +0000

[...] talked already about their financial problems several times. Now the first two players have officially left the team. And the team faces deadline to find the [...]

By: Monday’s cigarettes

Monday’s cigarettes — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 07:00:26 +0000

[...] German team Köln 99ers is really attracting some serious problems at the moment. Besides their already known financial problems, a mother of one of the cheerleaders died of an heart attack in the arena before this [...]

By: SLAM ONLINE | » Euro Exchange: 6

SLAM ONLINE | » Euro Exchange: 6 — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 22:42:34 +0000

[...] don’t need to be a member of the Balkan Mafia to participate.A very bad week for German teams. One team goes bankrupt and another one loses by 48pts in the Euroleague. But the Euroleague can also be so beautiful with [...]

By: Christophe

Christophe — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 10:01:57 +0000

All the players stay for the moment with Cologne. Several rumors are going around that there are new investors and the team can play this season to the end

By: J

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 04:51:44 +0000

Raivio is one of my all time fav. college p layers…this comes as a shock to me. Any ideas where he might go???

By: fasoulaki

fasoulaki — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 09:12:09 +0000

A local newspaper has written today that the club has no debts. It is just missing liquid funds.

http://www.rundschau-online.de/html/artikel/1200224781234.shtml

By: Christophe

Christophe — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 21:27:43 +0000

Some news have been revealed during the Press conference this afternoon. In fact, the financing model of the team was the following.
One person, Mr. Zimmer, is backing up the team in case of missing moneys with his own fortune. This was a written agreement between the team and the person.
Now, on the 15th January, Zimmer informed the team management that he will stop this agreement with immediate effect. The management tried to find the necessary funds with its existing sponsors to cover the missing guarantees, but it was not possible. So came the insolvency today.

What I find strange is the fact that, if this person was only back up when there were financial problems, there must have already been a big gap in the budget of the team. It looks like the whole team was built on a imaginary budget.

BTW, Cologne qualified tonight with a win for the next round in the ULEB Cup. If they will ever play another game is not sure for the moment.

By: soonerterp

soonerterp — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:22:27 +0000

This sucks and I’m sorry to read that.

I’ve been following the Koeln team a bit this season out of interest in a Gonzaga U. alumnus they had picked up (Derek Raivio), who, well, played nothing for Koeln like he played for Gonzaga and vaguely remember reading he was out with an injury in recent weeks?

My question is, if all the players are going to be released, is there like a dispersal draft or can other teams (including in the lower divisions) pick up these players?

By: Hendrik

Hendrik — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:26:38 +0000

You can delete “probable” with the ratiopharm situtaion. The withdrawal is already official [1]. Ulm will have to look for another main sponsor for the upcoming season.

[1] http://www.basketball-ulm.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=360&Itemid=1

By: Kerem

Kerem — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:08:32 +0000

It’s actually a tradition, rather an infamous one, when a sponsor takes a step back when it sees the team not doing so well, it’s kind of the same old story.. Thats why the clubs should be focusing on youth teams and scouting, kids don’t ask for much to play, they just wanna show their stuff..