Club

Dr. Eric Huwer on ambition, finances and responsibility

HSV’s chief financial officer, Eric Huwer, accompanied the squad to their training camp in Sotogrande. On Wednesday, Huwer sat down and spoke to journalists in detail about...

...the stadium renovations: We’re now in the final stages. The work on the sound system and the lights is mostly completed and the roof is nearly finished, too. We’re also hoping that the new bathrooms will be ready at some point this quarter, along with the extension to the wheelchair seating and the air conditioning in the VIP areas. We’re on track in terms of time and budget. The construction costs are a big challenge at the moment, since prices are increasing across the board. At the moment, however, we’re assuming that, based on the projected cost of the modernisation being between 25 and 30 million Euros, we’re going to end up spending closer to 25 million than 30 million. When you think about the fact that we’d just managed to deal with financial issues around a year ago, and that now we’re talking about nearing completion, we can start to consider it a success. UEFA recently paid a visit to the Volksparkstadion to take a look around ahead of EURO 2024, and they gave us some very positive feedback. They were especially impressed by the fact that we, as the sole owners, have managed to improve so many facets of the stadium.

...Shakhtar Donetsk playing more games at the Volksparkstadion: We started talks with Shakhtar last May, as we felt that we had a certain duty to the Ukrainian population in Hamburg. We’d already hosted the “We are all Ukraine” charity game at the Volksparkstadion and, nowadays, around 1000,000 people with ties to Ukraine live in and around the city. Then, there’s the connection between Vitali Klitschko and Hamburg, too. Altogether, we felt that we had an obligation and, as a result, thought that it would be right to make a big commitment with our colleagues from Donetsk. We’ve really accommodated them, because the people of Hamburg have responded so positively to the games. It’s also been a good arrangement for HSV financially, but that wasn’t our main aim.

...the structure of HSV’S ticket prices: HSV weren’t involved in deciding the prices for the Shakhtar games, but it’s clear that they were priced purely based on demand. Despite category A tickets costing 172 Euros each, they sold out. We’re always very aware of the ticket prices at HSV and are constantly discussing them with fans and members of the club. We aim to strike a balance between our sporting and financial goals, as well as taking the club’s responsibility into account by making the tickets as accessible as possible for everyone. The challenges of this have been clear due to the discussions with our fan base in recent months, so we try and act as responsibly as we can and take criticism very seriously. We’re in communication with all of our stakeholders, listen carefully to what they have to say and won’t push prices to their limit given the varying economic situations of different groups of fans.

...the upcoming challenges: Things have got more difficult over the course of this financial year. We always look to balance the books, but we also want to ensure that we’re in a position to protect our core interest and invest in the squad. If we get promoted to the Bundesliga and want to be competitive, we’ll need to make sure we have a big transfer budget. That’s why we need to ensure that we’re developing sustainably across the board. The club’s leadership came together for a few days in December and assessed what we’re doing well and where we can still improve. We spoke at length and were very honest with one another. We drew up an internal plan for next year, which should allow us to achieve our ambitions. We’ve worked to have a good platform to build on and have had a good financial year. Our debt is lower than it’s been for decades, but we can still do better in a couple of areas. We want to establish an even closer relationship with our partners, as well as with the people here in Hamburg. We also have a clear sporting goal and want to make sure everyone is fully focused in order to increase the probability of achieving it. On the whole, it’s a case of being more competitive across the board and ensuring that we’re in a good place for the future.