Fernando Carro [Vorsitzender Geschäftsführung]

Carro möchte Leverkusen in die Top 20 Europas führen. In Deutschland muss es Top 4 sein.

Überall steht immer wir haben schon 50 Mio ausgegeben und das ist ein Zeichen das wir nach vorne marschieren. Dabei vergisst man aber dass man 25 Mio eingenommen hat, Differenz = 25 Mio €. Das heisst wir können und müssen eigentlich nochmal nachlegen, wenn man uns oben sehen möchte und den Angriff auf die Konkurrenten wagen möchte.

BISHER war das das tatsächlich noch relativ unspektakulär mit einem Transfer-Minus i.H.v. 30Mio. Zumindest hätten wir sowas schonmal im Sommer 2016.

Sommer 2018: Transfer-Plus i.H.v. 13,5 Mio
Sommer 2017: Transfer-Plus i.H.v. 34 Mio
Sommer 2016: Transfer-Minus i.H.v. 34 Mio
Sommer 2015: Transfer-Plus i.H.v. 5 Mio
Sommer 2014: Transfer-Minus i.H.v. 19 Mio
(Quelle: tm.de)

Interessant ist dabei, dass unsere Transferbilanz nahezu komplett ausgeglichen ist wenn man die letzten fünf Saisons betrachtet. Einnahmen aus CL/EL und durch den Konzern scheinen also wenig Einfluss auf die Ablösen zu haben, bzw. anderweitig (u.a. Vertragsverlängerungen, Gehälter, Handgelder) benötigt zu werden.

Geht man davon aus, dass uns kommenden Sommer wohlmöglich HAVERTZ vorsichtig kalkuliert um die 80-90Mio in die Kassen spült und davon vielleicht „nur“ die Hälfte in Neuzugänge gesteckt werden (weil man diesen Sommer bereits ranklotzt) ist die aktuelle Transferperiode auch bereits wieder ausgeglichen selbst wenn jetzt noch ein OM der Kategorie 25Mio käme.

Did someone read his interview in Bild? We mentioned something about expansion of BayArena. Does anyone know little more about expansion?

Its still behind a paywall so I havent read it but to be honest i dont see how they would like to expand the stadium. Its pretty much boxed in.
Looking at it from the McDonalds you have the River Dhünn to the left, in the back its the trainingsgrounds which would have to move back and to the right you have the autobahn which is going to be under construction itself and there has been the rumour that the expansion of the autobahn would endanger the BayArena in general. In 2013 they were willing to even tear down a part of the stadium because of the autobahn issue...
So in width i dont see how an expansion would really work. Even adding space in height dosent really seem to work in my opinion. At least not as long as construction around the stadium is done. Havent been in a while but the bridge to the left is still under construction and to the right we will have to wait and see what happens to the autobahn. But as long as that is still an issue you would even have proper access to a construction sight at the arena.

Thank you for your opinion. You are objective person. I just hope that they will figure out way to expand to 40.000 seats, because this is maximum which we can handle. I dont want to have stadium with more then 40.000 seats. City Leverkusen itself want to create Leverkusen Central Park. That is chance for final expansion of Bayarena. We dont need more capacity then 40.000 but, right now, i doubt that expansion will happen before 2030.

Absolutely no reason to have a bigger stadium, as we are not able to fill out the 30k atm in most of the games.

You are welcome, I couldnt find anything just now but it would be interesting to know what numbers in size were discussed when they were thinking about moving the stadium to Flittard or Kurtekotten. I think 40.000 might be to big, in 2016 Leverkusen had 160.000 Inhabitants. Of which about 10k were smaller than 6, so no real customers and 35.000 65 or older, I dont think they would be regular Spectators. 80.000 females of which (lets be old fashioned) probably 80% are not interested and lets say about a Quarter of the Male population isnt interested. So about 100.000 are not interested in Football at all just based on the numbers about Gender. Not included people that are too young, too old, supporters of Cologne, Düsseldorf or a non-regional Team like Munich. Leverkusen is just really old in their demographic. I think that is an issue as well.
I reckon we wouldnt be able to get 40.000 in. Look at Mainz, they dont have the regional competition, have about 200.000 Inhabitants and a stadium of 34.000.

I think we could do little better, something along 32.000 People.

@leverkusener04
I think thats only temporary. With Champions League and appealing Soccer the perspective will change. Leverkusen Fans in my opinion behaved a little spoiled during games against eg. Larnaca on Thursdays. Its rainy, cold, just Larnaca..they dont come. Surprisingly attractive Football in Leverkusen also drew some more "neutral" Cologne Fans into the Stadium back in the day. The Seasonal Ticket was so cheap that they were able to afford both and enjoyed the better games in Leverkusen. But Herrlich, Korkut, last days of Roger..that wasnt fun to watch. The Ultras had issues with Schade..
I think with Bosz and his Style, the Squad..we are able to perform better.

The problem with smaller Stadiums is, that if of 32.000 seats 4000 are empty it looks ridiciulous.

I think that plan was to have 35.000 seats for new stadium. You made good report about demography in Leverkusen, but i remember when i was in Leverkusen there were lots of fans from region to travel via train into Leverkusen. Maybe 40.000 seats is big as you says, but i rather to make one more expansion and complete seating issue for our stadium. You are right about stadium seats and population in city, but i have optimism that we can become regular station of Champions League and we can offer good attacking football which is precondition for bigger fan base. Maybe we can change our south stand which is currently uses as VIP place. This could increase our capacity by 3 thousand i think? In any case, you are right about neutral Cologne fans. Also, my opinion is that we have for first time since Jupp, a Coach. This could be valuable factor in our future, because Bayer 04 want Bosz and Bosz want Bayer04.

I was wondering, what is your opinion on current sponsor deal with BAYER who gives us 25 million per year? I think that sum is too low, because football changed in financial aspect. I know that Rudi have good connection with Bayer board.

I think there is no possible chance of Bayer putting more money into the our sponsorship than they do right now.
Bayer is cutting jobs around the world and is facing a lot of lawsuits in the US and maybe even the EU because of Monsanto.
Cutting jobs and increasing the sponsorship... That wouldn't work.
Employees and media would be really upset and mad.
So I don't see a chance of Bayer increasing their sponsorship.

Building a new stadium doesn't make any sense to me.
The only reason would be...
Bayer 04 would be forced to do so because of the "autobahn".

Expending the stadium doesn't make any sense to me cause Bayer is having problems filling the stadium against "unattractive" teams.

As far as I know.
The Lindner Group is not going to expend the contract.
So it will be interesting what is going to happen to the hotel.
Even if they have problems finding a new partner for this part of the stadium...
This side won't be the biggest problem and I don't expect any changes.

I am expecting changes of the opposite side of the stadium..
Even adding balconies didn't make this side more attractive.
There are so many empty rooms even during interesting and important matches...
I am expecting a change there.

In dem Artikel ging es nie um einen Stadionausbau bzw Neubau, sondern um die letzte Erweiterung von 22,5tsd auf 30tsd.