Brought the ball of sport ‘back home’
From 2023 to 2027, the city of Frankfurt will again host the benefit gala of the German Sports Aid. It is planned to involve mass sport and the population in the event.
There is one thing the Sports Ball in Frankfurt should definitely not be: “a UFO that lands in the city and then flies away for a year”. Sports department head Mike Josef (SPD) also wants to design a supporting program that will also benefit popular sports and the general public. “We have already received the suggestion of a night of baths,” reported Josef on Thursday. From next year until 2027 the city will host the Ball des Sports of the German Sports Aid in the Festhalle. “We brought the ball back home,” said a happy Josef. The city spends 450,000 euros a year on this. Lotto Hessen pays 400,000 euros. In 1970 the first ball of the sport took place in the Centennial Hall. Frankfurt was the last host in 2006.
This year the event will take place in Wiesbaden for the last time after 14 years. The alliance of Greens, SPD, Left and Volt recently no longer wanted to spend the 248,000 euros in municipal support for the ball. A regrettable decision, as Thomas Berlemann, CEO of Sporthilfe, found. “But there are also opportunities in change,” he said. “We will specifically develop the ball as a platform with our partners.”
Berlemann revealed that eleven cities had applied for the Sporthilfe tender. “It has met with great interest nationwide.” This also shows the importance of Europe’s largest charity event in sport not only for the German Sports Aid and the sponsored athletes, but also for politics and business.
Josef emphasized that the ball will also have great added value for hoteliers and gastronomy. Wiesbaden had an added value of 4.1 million euros in 2016. According to Josef, the expenses “are money well invested”. Jens-Uwe Münker, head of the sports department at the Hessian Ministry of the Interior and Sports, emphasized Frankfurt’s “ideal infrastructure”. Berlemann explained that the topic of sustainability also spoke for Frankfurt. The guests should be served exclusively with products from the region. However, there is no exact date yet.
“The Sports Ball is the link between popular and competitive sports,” said Roland Frischkorn, Chairman of the Frankfurt Sports Committee. After the corona-related decline in club members, the number has now risen again to 260,000 in Frankfurt. Just 20 years ago, mass and competitive sport were not mentioned in the same breath. He is glad that this has changed and wants to be actively involved with the sports group, just like the sports youth, in designing the supporting program for the ball.
“People always ask themselves at major events: what’s in it for me?” Josef said. He is concerned with creating acceptance for events such as the NFL games or now the ball of the sport among the population. Berlemann goes one step further. “The cooperation with the city and state can be a role model to bring other major events to Germany,” he said.