The stock-market Borussia: on October 31, 2000 Borussia Dortmund became the first German football club to go public. With the help of Deutsche Bank, the share was issued at 11 euros - a price it would never reach again by December 31, 2019. The club placed 13.5 million shares on the market, raising a net 150 million euros. With that money Borussia Dortmund would flood the transfer market from 2000 onward.\n\nBy summer 2002 the investment in new stars had already passed 100 million euros.
The step matched the times. Germany was in the grip of stock-market fever.\n\nThe Neuer Markt segment had been introduced in 1997, Deutsche Telekom's flotation had turned speculation into a national pastime, and the media drove the euphoria with ever bigger superlatives. BVB and Gerd Niebaum wanted a slice of that boom and assigned a consortium led by Deutsche Bank to prepare the flotation.
Expectations surrounding the first football stock were enormous.\n\nClub members tried to subscribe in droves before the pricing phase even began. Analysts could hardly contain their praise: Dortmund were a top club, therefore a top brand. While Niebaum and his colleagues promised double-digit returns, experienced investment bankers warned that the value of the BVB share would depend not only on the company but on the performance of the players too.
Other listed football clubs in Europe had already shown violent fluctuations and poor investment quality. The warnings proved correct. The share closed its very first day well down, ending at 9.52 euros.
Niebaum, manager Michael Meier and their team still let themselves be celebrated by business journalists. By November 2002 the share price had fallen to 2.50 euros. For shareholders the supposedly clever move was a mega-flop.
No dividend was ever paid, no real gains ever came, and the low point was 0.85 euros in 2009. By the end of 2019 the share had only recovered to around 9 euros. Bayern boss Uli Hoeness would later complain that many journalists had no idea about the stock market and had portrayed Bayern as fools for refusing to go public.