FC St. Pauli has given the go-ahead for a cooperative model. It is the first of its kind in German professional football.
08.11.2024, 22:13
dpa
FC St. Pauli is embarking on a financing path that is unique in German professional football. The promoted Bundesliga club launched its cooperative model with a ceremony attended by Hamburg's first mayor Peter Tschentscher (SPD).
"Sankt Pauli wants and lives co-determination," said club president Oke Göttlich in the ballroom in the south stand of the Millerntor Stadium and later added: "Let's make history." Tschentscher described the model as an "ingenious, obvious idea". It "fits FC St. Pauli like a glove".
Target: 30 million euros
The subscription of shares officially begins on Sunday at 10.00 am. The cooperative "Football Cooperative Sankt Pauli" (FCSP eG) founded by the club will hold a majority stake in the stadium company, making the shareholders co-owners of the Millerntor Stadium. Interested parties must pay 850 euros per share, of which 100 euros are fees. The club's ambitious goal is to raise 30 million euros.
This type of financing is considered crisis-proof and democratic. "We are not dependent on the idea, but it makes us more capable of acting," said Göttlich one day before Saturday's Bundesliga match against record champions Bayern Munich. "We want to launch an idea."
Debt relief and further development
The comrades - i.e. the shareholders - only have one vote each, regardless of the number of shares they hold. This is a significant difference to the usual business forms in professional football, such as the AG, the GmbH or the Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien (KGaA).
Interest in shares has also been expressed by the professional team. Alongside coach Alexander Blessin, captain Jackson Irvine announced in the "Süddeutsche Zeitung": "Sure! I'll start with a share certificate, which guarantees me voting rights. That's the most important thing. We'll see about the rest."
By selling the shares, FC St. Pauli wants to repay loans for the stadium and the coronavirus loans, among other things. In addition, money is to be used to modernize the stadium, for the youth training center and the expansion of the training facility on Kollaustrasse and to strengthen the female footballers. By reducing its debt, FC St. Pauli would become more financially flexible again, would no longer have to repay loans and could negotiate better terms with banks.
