- Schalke 04 confirms rumors that the club is looking into the potential sale of its League of Legends LEC slot
- The slot would go for around $24 million, estimates French daily L'Équipe, which first reported the news
- Schalke said that it would not want to give up on its League of Legends franchise, but the club is still evaluating the situation
Faced with mounting debt and under a threat of relegation, German soccer club Schalke 04 confirmed that it's considering selling its League of Legends LEC slot.
German Club Schalke 04 Mulls Sale of LoL LEC Slot
German soccer clubs Schalke 04 was one of the first sports organizations to buy into League of Legends and set off on the exciting journey where sporting franchises branch out to competitive video gaming.
A new report published in L'Équipe, a French daily newspaper, reports that Schalke 04 may be looking to divest from its League of Legends European Championship (LEC) slot the team obtained in 2016 as one of the first organizations from the sporting world to do so. The club has confirmed the rumors.
Schalke could potentially sell the team's slot for roughly $24 million. Having played in competitive League of Legends for several years now, Schalke could be looking to secure a considerable upmark on their slot, with the competition proving a perpetual driver of viewers' and advertisers' interest. The pandemic has impacted the club, pushing its debt to $240 million as of December 2020, according to an ESPN report.
Troubles on the Field, Troubles in the Virtual World
The team is facing financial troubles, but it's also looking at a relegation, which would move the team from the Bundesliga to a lower-tier division, compounding its financial problems further. While the LEC slot franchising rights aren't too expensive on the look of it, they could prove a good way to start chipping away at the club's piling debt.
Schalke will most likely be revealing details as the Bundesliga draws closer to an end in May. The club, though, is not overly-keen on selling the slot but acknowledged that the extraordinary conditions the club faced in a tweet earlier this week.
Schalke said that the team is in the process of evaluating its options, including the sale of the LEC slot. Schalke 04's League of Legends results haven't been too impressive as well, and short of the Miracle Run, there is little the club can write home about.
As of the time of reporting, the team is looking at 7th position in the LEC Spring 2021 standings with five wins and seven losses, and behind Rogue and G2 Esports, which both have ten wins and two losses each.
Schalke 04 almost made it into the Worlds last year but missed its chance to qualify, making it a fairly-unknown team in the international esports League of Legends competitive space.
