Germany - DVL 1. Bundesliga 2012/13

Quote from Matthias

Riiiiiiight, I knew that I saw that face before, thanks

So it's possible that she will play in Schwerin, maybe she was only there for tryout trainings though, but Teun Buijs said some time ago he'd look for another MB with international experience. Hatinova played in Vilsbiburg many years ago when she was around 18 years old...

Only saw that pic now, ´cause we had a tournament yesterday and i didn´t have much time to go online. Lucia Hatinova played in 2002/2003 in Vilsbiburg. Born on 28th february 1984, Lucia played for Doprastav Bratislava from 1996 to 1998. At the ages of 14 she was appointed to the junior NT and played with them in the slovakian league until 2001. After that, she played for Senica finishing 2nd, before she signed with Vilsbiburg. At this particular time she had played 179 games for Junior NT.

Quote from Matthias

Usually there are some short reports about matches in some regional news/sports show (e.g. MDR, NDR, BR), but I can't remember anytime in the past 10 years when a complete match from German league was broadcasted on TV. With the trend going towards online streaming it won't become any more likely in the future to see matches on normal TV

When i watched the last german cupfinal live on "laola", i really asked myself: "Why isn't this broadcasted live on ARD or ZDF? This is such a huge event (with over 10'000 spectators!). You couldn't have a better opportunity to make volleyball more popular."

Quote from Matthias

I guess all volleyball fans in Germany don't understand it...ARD and ZDF only think about football, winter sports and sometimes motor sports, everything else doesn't count for them at all. 10 years ago when Germany hosted women WCH, they did not even broadcast the final match!!! And overall only Germany's matches were on regional channels and some of them not even live and/or complete, I remember the broadcasting of opening match GER-CZE was stopped after 3 sets because WDR had scheduled only 1,5 hours for the match and switched to something else then even though the match wasn't over. And nothing has improved since then, the responsible people from the TV channels keep saying that volleyball is a margin sports ("Randsportart") and there is no broadcasting time scheduled for that

Probably the most important thing, as always, is: Money! Soccer clubs pay a lot of money to TV stations in order of being broadcasted. Same goes for motor sports, where there is also a lot of money involved. As long as you pay enough money, your sport will be broadcasted. That´s why volleyball will probably always be a "Randsportart".

Then, most of these responsible people, probably have no idea about volleyball and think, it is just like what they have played in gym classes. I often hear that myself, when i tell someone i´m goin´ to watch a volleyball match, they are like: Volleyball? We played that in school, it´s boring. They have no idea that it is a fast, dynamic, action-paced sport. So, except for that relatively small group of real volleyball fans in germany, there is not much interest for volleyball, unfortunately.

I guess, another reason why there ain´t no broadcasting is because volleyball in germany is, with the exception
of the cup final and some matches in the Max-Schmeling-Halle in Berlin,
still played in small arenas or school gyms. Big tv stations do not have
much opportunities to cover the action in small arenas or gyms. I know that from my own experience. The difficulties we had if there was a match to be broadcasted via livestream.... i´m tellin´ you, you have no idea about what´s goin´on there. Took hours sometimes to have everything ready! I really don´t wanna know what effort there is to be done when matches are being broadcasted by TV stations like ARD and ZDF. You also have to keep in mind, that most of the older arenas/gyms do not even provide what is necessary to broadcast matches in there, because most of these arenas/gyms were not built to be suitable for tv!
New arenas in Schwerin, Vilsbiburg, Hamburg and probably Wiesbaden will hopefully help to change that!

The contract with spobox now is definitely a step in the right direction. I don´t know, if the clubs payed spobox or laola1.tv to broadcast their matches. If not, the cost of the effort being made to broadcast a match were definitely not covered.
Now, with that new contract, clubs do pay a certain amount of money to have there matches broadcasted. And since there are all clubs involved, the costs of the above mentioned efforts are more likey covered as if there was only a few matches broadcasted.

I guess it´s a step in the right direction and with new arenas being built, volleyball is probably more likely to be broadcasted on tv stations like ARD and ZDF.

Quote from Raven

I often hear that myself, when i tell someone i´m goin´ to watch a volleyball match, they are like: Volleyball? We played that in school, it´s boring. They have no idea that it is a fast, dynamic, action-paced sport.

I know what you mean, Raven. I made the same experience. They don't believe it.

[quote
The average school class volleyball match goes like this: ace - ace - ace - serve error - serve error - reception error - serve error - ace - reception error - ace - (...continue until 25...) [/quote]

This part is internationally true

Lucy Wicks stays in Aachen for the coming season

Noticed, that Bundesliga topic is the most view here, more views than Turkish Aroma with Kim

Why? Let's see who will answer for the question..Anton..

ANTON KOMM BITTE UM DIE TAFEL !

İt is obvious that this thread is most-updated one thanks to Matthias and Raven

Quote from Matthias

So, about 4 weeks before the season, most teams are complete now. Schwerin lacks at least one strong OH after Meagan Ganzer left again and they don't have a backup Opp yet either, Suhl also wants to sign one more OH or Opp player, Köpenick needs another MB, but other than that I don't expect any more transfers. Aachen has only 11 players but their website says the team is complete.

Looking at the rosters, I expect another interesting season. Schwerin lost a very important player with Mira Topic and does not have a suitable replacement yet, but the rest of the team still is very good. Dresden kept all their strong players from last year and added a power hitter (Utla) that they lacked last season. Vilsbiburg's strength last season was a rock solid reception formation with Meyer, Schoot and Dürr that allowed the setter to vary the offense, but their new OHs are not so strong receivers as far as I know, so I'm not sure what to expect from the team. Münster only changed the setter and added two good players at OH and MB, so I think their level will be similar to last season, probably even better. Hamburg, like every year, has a lot of changes in the roster. There are many good individual players, but the question is how they will work out as team. They're definitely the tallest team in the league though, almost all players in their first six are around 1.90. Suhl is the only team that looks significantly weaker than last year, they lost their three best players and replaced them with rather unknown names. I'd not be surprised if they miss playoffs this year, but who knows, they might as well be a positive surprise. Wiesbaden basically kept the team from last year, they only changed the Opp and 2nd setter and added two young German players for bench at MB and OH. Of all teams they are the one who has been training together the most time in summer as far as I know, that might be an advantage in the beginning of the season. Stuttgart has a lot of new players, I think Kitipova can be one of the best setters of the league and they have very good MBs and L, if the OH/Opp players can contribute they might be a surprise too. Köpenick is unpredictable, a lot of new unknown players, they might completely fail or they might again be a positive surprise, time will tell. Aachen has a team that some years ago could have been among the best 6 of the league, but I guess they will be rather at the bottom of the league again this year. Potsdam has a totally renewed team with several good players, there it will also be the question how they work out as a team.

In my opinion, Dresden did a very good job concerning transfers. Now they have a very strong and deep roster.

Schwerin's roster has become weaker than last season. Without transferring a good OH (for Topic) and a third MB, they can't compete with Dresden on the long run (--> season + play-offs).

When looking at the team rosters, i noticed that, there seems to be almost no changes concerning the head coaches of the teams. All these names sound familiar to me from the last season. So much loyalty, that's quite remarkable.

Quote from Matthias

Topic for me was the key player for Schwerin in the last two years. I expect Anne Buijs to be the go-to hitter next season, but she does not have Topic's experience and is weaker in reception.

To be honest, Topic didn't impress me that much in attack last season. I expect Anne to play on a higher (physical) level than last year, considering almost the whole last season she played with injuries.

Quote from Matthias

The special thing about Topic was that she ALWAYS played her best in the really important matches, even though as you say her overall performance was a little weaker than in 10/11 season, but she also had several small injuries throughout the season. And this is the experience factor that made her so valuable for Schwerin in my opinion...

I can agree with that.