Ruhr Devils

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Ruhr Devils
Founded 1997
resolution 1998
Hall Arena Oberhausen
Trainer Hubert Beck
Dan Palmer
league Basketball Bundesliga

The Ruhr Devils were a basketball team from Oberhausen . In the 1997/98 season they took part in the Bundesliga basketball  game.

history

The Ruhr Devils emerged from the TuS Herten Bundesliga team, which competed in the Bundesliga from 1995 to 1997. The team was relocated to Oberhausen in the run-up to the 97/98 season and settled in the local arena (11,000 spectator seats). A five-year contract was agreed with the arena operator. As a result, the Ruhr Devils had the venue with the largest capacity of all Bundesliga clubs at the time. As TuS Herten, you had previously played your home games in the smallest hall in the league (1049 seats). According to Devils President Karl Diehl, it was seen as an “association for the entire region”. The team budget of the Ruhr Devils in the 1997/98 season was increased from one million in Herten times to 2.3 million D-Marks.

The players' squad for the 1997/98 season included players such as the Americans Billy McCaffrey and Kirk Luchman (who initially replaced his injured compatriot Matt Wenstrom ), while Alexander Frisch and the 93 European champion Stephan Baeck were signed as well-known German players in the summer of 1997 . As before, the team was trained by Hubert Beck under the Herten flag . The manager was Dirk Hoffmann.

At the end of December 1997, club president Diehl retired for professional reasons, but his company Inducontor , which was the team's main financier , agreed to support it until the end of the season. In January 1998 the Ruhr Devils parted ways with coach Beck after ten defeats in a row, and the American Dan Palmer was brought in as their successor . According to the assessment of the sports information service (SID), the club pinched the shoe “at all ends” in January 1998, and the SID classified Beck's dismissal as an “act of desperation”.

In mid-February 1997, the Ruhr Devils filed for bankruptcy and shortly afterwards their Bundesliga license was revoked. According to SID, “lack of professionalism in marketing” and “sporting failures of the mediocre but well-paid team” were the undoing of the club. The average attendance was around 2500, the hoped-for income from donors remained lower than expected. The Ruhr Devils were determined to have been relegated to the Bundesliga, which meant the end of the club and the second division eligibility for the 1998/99 season was not exercised. The Hertener Löwen club was founded in January 1998 and succeeded the Ruhr Devils in the youth and amateur sector.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ All seasons at a glance . In: Basketball Bundesliga GmbH (Ed.): 50 Years of the Basketball Bundesliga . Cologne, ISBN 978-3-7307-0242-0 , pp. 205-209 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Ruhr Devils in Teufels Küche. Retrieved June 4, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b Ruhr Devils mobilize the fans. In: archiv.rhein-zeitung.de. Retrieved June 4, 2020 .
  4. ^ Pro Exposure Online Transaction Wire. Retrieved June 4, 2020 .
  5. ↑ New Germany editorial team: Alba in Giessen strong again (new Germany). Retrieved June 4, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Berliner Zeitung: Ruhr Devils file for bankruptcy. Retrieved on June 4, 2020 (German).
  7. ↑ a b "Image damage for basketball". Retrieved June 4, 2020 .
  8. ^ Table of contents FAZ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung from May 30, 1998, page 3. Accessed on June 4, 2020 .