Bundesliga club VfB Stuttgart "has to compensate the partial withdrawal of exclusive partner energy provider EnBW," according to Thomas Näher of the STUTTGARTER ZEITUNG. Club Marketing Dir Jochen Röttgermann "has brushed up the club's sponsorship pool through a large-scale offensive." However, at the end of the day a financial gap of around €2M ($2.6M) "remains." The reason is EnBW's "partial withdrawal of its sponsorship." The company paid €3.5M ($4.6M) annually to the club, but as its new official sponsor of the youth academy and shirt sponsor of the VfB's youth teams it will only pay €1M ($1.3M) a year. The result is a financial gap of €2.5M ($3.3M). The club "has aquired new sponsorship deals and extended existing ones, but they only contribute an insignificant amount to close the gap." In addition, technical service provider Imtech, sponsor of the club's business center, announced that "it will terminate its deal with the team" in '14, which is understood to be worth €750,000 ($985,000) (STUTTGARTER ZEITUNG, 7/13).
