“Lilies go USA” – This is the headline of the homepage of the new, English-language landing page of SV Darmstadt 98, which is specifically designed for the Lilies' USA cooperation with San Antonio FC and Spurs Sports & Entertainment was created and integrated on www.sv98.de. Fans, partners and interested parties can now find all relevant information about this partnership in one central location.
A delegation from SV 98 at an NBA game in Paris? What initially seemed a little unrealistic became reality on January 23rd. The background to the visit is relatively easy to explain: Since July 2024, there has been a cooperation agreement between the Lilies, the football club San Antonio FC (SAFC) and Spurs Sports & Entertainment (SS&E). SS&E is the operating company of the US second division team SAFC and the NBA team and five-time champions San Antonio Spurs.
In the summer of last year, Tom Eilers (Managing Director of Licensed Players), Martin Kowalewski (Managing Director of Marketing & Sales) and Björn Müller (Sports Director of the Youth Performance Center) traveled to San Antonio. The city in south Texas has been Darmstadt’s official sister city since 2017 and is connected to SV 98 in a certain way through this fact alone. On site, the Lily trio met representatives and officials from the city, the local football club San Antonio FC (SAFC) and Spurs Sports & Entertainment (SS&E), the operating company of SAFC and the NBA team San Antonio Spurs. Content of the discussions at the time: A possible partnership between the Lilies, the SAFC and the SS&E. Those involved quickly agreed: Let’s tackle this project. And what’s more: This cooperation should not only exist on paper, all sides also want to fill it with content.
In addition to the collaboration with San Antonio FC announced in July 2024, the Lilies are cooperating as part of their internationalisation strategy with SVD Beaumont Texas, a soccer club in southeast Texas that was founded by Lilien fans with the support of SV Darmstadt 98.
The two clubs SV Darmstadt 98 and San Antonio FC from Darmstadt’s US sister city of San Antonio will work more closely together in the future. This is the aim of a cooperation agreement signed on Tuesday (July 23rd) between the Lilies and Spurs Sports & Entertainment (SS&E), the operating company of San Antonio FC, was closed. The cooperation was expressly welcomed by Darmstadt’s Mayor Hanno Benz and San Antonio’s Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who were also on site on Tuesday, and supported by signing a “Letter of Support”.