When a small club from the city of Hamburg struggles their way up to the Bundesliga, the huge financial disparities in the league make it hard to become competitive enough to stay up. Management at the politically left football club are trying a new and innovative tactic to raise capital to invest in the team and lower expenses. As reported in The Athletic and other sources they are selling their stadium to their fans.
St Pauli is a unique club in their intensity of their commitment to left wing and social responsibility values. This has somewhat handcuffed them in terms on easy ways to raise revenue. They will not take commercial revenue from gambling companies or other companies that they do not believe promote their values (compare this to say Dortmund who recently took on an arms manufacturer as a major sponsor much to the chagrin of many of their fans).
Unlike the Premier League where promotion from the Championship delivers a team something in the ballpark of 180 million euros, the Bundesliga offers no such instant revenue. This means that St. Pauli’s wage bill is about 4% of Bayern’ and barely 10% of Leipzig’s.
So if the side is to escape eternal minnow status they have to get creative. And this they have done. The team is transferring ownership of its stadium, Millerntor-Stadion, to a co-operative and is now selling shares in that co-operative.
While the exact number of shares being sold is not clear it is known that they will be selling a controlling interest i.
