Willi Lemke, together with Uli Hoeneß, ensures that the Bundesliga awakens from her financial Sleeping Beauty sleep. The money attracts his ingenious ideas to do business. First his club, SV Werder, and then the entire German football benefits.
“Action is my life and I have thousands,” said Willi Lemke. The man who revolutionized the Bundesliga together with his long -time rival Uli Hoeneß was on everyone’s lips. A large German sports magazine called him a “financial genius” these days because everything “he touches, becomes money”. And indeed: the then manager of SV Werder missed the Bundesliga a completely new face through his brilliant ideas and ideas. He was the personified “Bremen money machine”, as the “Sport Bild” noted.
The times when volunteers ruled at the clubs were now finally over. Business should be done. As big as possible. Because the league – and above all Willi Lemke – wanted more. And she showed that too. Werder always put the latest Mercedes model at the door of his smart manager. Because Lemke had recognized: “You can’t drive in a passat for sponsors.” And so from now on it was in Bremen: “Where a Willi is, there is also a way.” So the “kicker” was noted.
Since the 1981/82 season, Lemke had realized his ideas in Bremen bit by bit. And from the beginning with a lot of power and energy – how the beginning was bumpy. Werder President Dr. At that time Franz Böhmert was directly enthusiastic about the ideas of the SPD party secretary Lemke to lead a Bundesliga club, but he had his concerns. How should he make a left -wing politician tasty for his mostly conservative sponsors?
The marketing tricks of Willi Lemke
After all, Böhmert had a plan. He rented a room, invited the most important 50 donors, let Willi Lemke tell for an hour and waited what happened. And indeed: exactly what Böhmert had hoped for. The sponsors came up to him and said to him: “Man, if you need a new manager, take the Lemke!” Böhmert smiled quietly and the next morning Willi Lemke committed as the successor to Rudi Assauer.
However, the situation in German football was miles away from those today – and Lemke and Hoeneß were the lonely Mohican in a financially weak Bundesliga steppe with their business ideas. And so Lemke even noticed directly with the simplest ideas. As in the 1984/85 season.
At that time, Bremen was only one point behind Bavaria six games before the end. And what did the smart Werder manager did? He promised publicly on every occasion that offered him to take a felly bremer beer for every point they took the Bavaria. Of course, in every interview, the business -wise manager delivered the brand of barley juice drink. After all, new negotiations with the beer sponsor were pending in the near future – a little free advertising could quickly pay off in a sounding coin.
37.204 at the family day with a marquee and special parking lot
It was also Lemke who introduced the half -time show in the Bundesliga in the 1987/88 season. Where, if necessary, youth games used to be enthusiastic about the audience during the break, the Werder manager established a new game: the “super shot”. Fans were allowed to try the sacred lawn below to hit the goal directly into the goal from the center line. A giant fun – because who did it actually conceded 1000 marks. The spectators loved the new attraction during the break. And from now on in (almost) all stages the clubs began to use the time between the two halves – and above all: to market.
Willi Lemke, the man who always got the best ideas in the shower (“It’s a shame that I have nothing to write there”), delivered the really big coup for the first time in the 1988/89 season. At that time, the agile manager came up with something completely new: the family day at Werder Bremen. Lemke sold the entire Bundesliga game against Waldhof Mannheim to a sponsor. A brilliant move, as Willi Lemke proudly and satisfied afterwards: “12,000 spectators usually come to the game against Waldhof. That makes around 70,000 marks net income. Now I have sold the whole game for 120,000 marks, so that we earn 50,000.”
But not only that was so special on this “Citroën Werder Family Day with a marquee and special parking lot” (according to advertising). Because instead of a third-filled Weser Stadium, exactly 37,204 spectators came to the game against Waldhof Mannheim on this day and not only saw a 2-1 win, but also an attractive supporting program around the up-and-coming young moderator Günther Jauch and mood singer Gottlieb Wendehal (“Polona socket blank”). In the beer tent of the car sponsor, this historical event was celebrated until late at night.
Nadelöhr: anteroom
The next Monday the “kicker” wrote: “The viewers are running away. Willi Lemke, the manager of Werder Bremen.
Basically, but not for all clubs, as it should quickly turn out. Because the new business model finally called for a manager from the hit of a Willi Lemke. And even he always had his problems to bring the games to the man: “You call seven times and only ever get the front room. But at some point the boss has his nose full and lets himself speak.”
However, this problem had already been done for Lemke thirty -five years ago. The sponsors who wanted to buy the “Pralle Werder offer” stood in line and had to wait for months before the smart Bremen manager sat down at a table with them. In the meantime, the donors could also land in the stadium, which brought the game ball – of course with a special sponsorship imprint – high from the ventilation on the lawn in the Weser Stadium. After all, Willi Lemke, the man who sold the Bundesliga with his ingenious (financial) ideas and revolutionized the man and revolutionized it, was never.