Borussia Dortmund Boosts Turnover By More Than $17M To $311M In '14-15

Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund boosted its turnover for the fiscal year '14-15 to €276M ($311M) up by more than €15M from a year earlier, "despite an early Champions League elimination last season," according to Karolos Grohmann of REUTERS. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) also grew to €55M ($62M) up from €49M a year earlier. Club CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke: "We managed to make a decent year out of last season's horror season. When you do not have debts anymore and have cash, about €50 million, in the bank, then you do not want to compete with a bank who has more cash. You have to improve your competitiveness." Dortmund, Germany's "only publicly traded" club, was on the brink of bankruptcy in '05, but has "since recovered to become the country's second-richest club" behind Bayern Munich. Net profit dropped to €5.5M versus €12M a year ago also "due to one-off payments for loan liabilities" of €4.3M (REUTERS, 8/21). SPONSORs' Nils Lehnebach reported "on the expenditure side, the biggest item was club's payroll" of €117.9M in '14-15, up by more than €10M from the previous year (€107.8M in '13-14) (SPONSORs, 8/21).