Important decisions were taken, both football and business wise. The team travelled to Bad Ragaz to continue their preparations for the season – but it was a pre-season littered with obstacles as BVB’s World Cup players only returned one by one. BVB renewed their main sponsorship deal with Evonik, while preparing partnerships with new strategic partners.

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Despite all their injury woes, BVB had an almost perfect start to the season. They beat Bayern Munich 2-0 to win the German Supercup for a record sixth time after 1989, 1995, 1996, 2008 und 2013, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scoring the goals in front of a delirious 80,667 crowd at Signal Iduna Park. In the DFB Cup, Aubameyang (2), Mkhitaryan and Ramos secured a 4-1 win at Stuttgarters Kickers. In the Bundesliga,however, BVB were off to a losing start as they went down 2-0 at home to Leverkusen, conceding the first goal after only nine seconds, the quickest in Bundesliga history. They went on to win 3-2 at Augsburg, but almost squandered a 3-0 lead (Reus, Sokratis, Ramos) with the defence showing first signs of frailty.

The Family Fun Day showed that BVB are as popular as ever, attracting some 90,000 people, with the FanWelt almost being stripped bare by shoppers on its grand opening day. On the same day, a total of 9,999 fans (maximum allowed capacity) watched BVB’s Under-23 side 5-1 thrashing of Regensburg – a record crowd for Borussia’s reserve side.

The press conference announcing the renewal and consolidation of the partnership between Borussia Dortmund and Evonik Industries AG was titled “Exports hits from the Ruhr area: specialty chemicals and top-quality football”. The shirt sponsorship deal, in place since 2006, was extended until June 2025, with Evonik also becoming a strategic partner of BVB. “We are forging an alliance of strength between two partners in Germany's Ruhr region that both stand to benefit from. Heart and mind go naturally hand in hand in such a partnership,” said Dr. Klaus Engel, chairman of the Evonik’s Executive Board.

Hans-Joachim Watzke, whose contract was renewed until 31 December 2019, announced that the cash inflow from the capital increase would not be used for player transfers but for new areas of business. He had more good news to share: In the financial year 2013/2014 (1 June 2013 to 30 June 2014) Borussia Dortmund’s revenues recorded a double-digit million profit for the third fiscal year in a row to even surpass its own sales targets, with revenues amounting to 260.7 million euros in the company and profit after taxes to 12 million euros.

BVB’s high-quality video “Borussia Dortmund unites. Standing together against racism” got an award, while Sport Bild, Europe’s biggest sports magazine, recognised BVB for their outstanding achievements and ideas in sport to award them a prize for their efforts at the 2014 German cup final in Berlin, calling it “the probably biggest marketing campaign in the history of the cup”. Bild’s verdict: “Borussia succeeded in making Berlin look like Dortmund. Busses, posters, even excursion ships on the river Spree were in black and yellow. Berlin turned into Dortmund.”