It isn't just marketing, it's also having a great product to sell. You say it's hypothetical nonsense, whereas I say it's common sense (see City and Chelsea; money = titles). If United bought Arsenal's best player's every year (as we naturally would), we would win the League every year, just like Bayern are/will. Some money doesn't guarantee titles, but the difference between United and Arsenal this last decade is huge, just like Dortmund and Bayern the last few years.
There is a close correlation between points earned and wage bill for an obvious reason. Our salary would have been 50% higher, ergo common sense would suggest a huge disparity in quality and titles.
Of course more money makes it more likely to win titles, no one is denying that. You're massively exaggerating the level of dominance possible though. All the European top teams have a bad season/spell at least once every decade. The only exception was United under Ferguson, yet you take the fact that United finished above Arsenal every season for a decade as the norm, when it's clearly the exception. Real, Barca finished behind Villareal, Atletico, Valencia, Deportivo at one point since the turn of the century. Milan often had bad league seasons despite having the biggest budget in the league. Bayern finished behind several teams. It's the nature of the game, the dominance you expect simply never happened and there are good reasons for it.
I think Bayern vs the rest of the League is the biggest gap that needs plugging, everyone else is quite competitive. The disparity between them and everyone else is staggering. Bayern can offer triple the salary vs your nearest rival, that is anti-competitive by nature. The gap between first and second over the last 2 seasons was 44 points. The gap between 2nd and 10th for example was only 51 points and the gap between 11th and 20th was 38 points.
You're really overrating the points gap. Dortmund finished 8 points ahead of Bayern in 11/12 and 25 points behind Bayern in 12/13. In both cases the team that finished second actually played in the CL final and had a good case for being one of the strongest teams in the world. The gap doesn't reflect the actual strength of the teams, let alone is a good prediction for the future.
The biggest problem in the Bundesliga is the gap between first and second, as I mentioned above. Distributing the Champions League income would only exacerbate this problem, as you'd be taking away maybe 5% of Bayern's income, but maybe 15-20% of Dortmund/Shalke's in order to redistribute to others. You'd be closing the gap between second and 20th, but increasing an already insane gap between 1st and 2nd.
Again, that's true, but the gap between 1st and 2nd won't get fixed unless the Bundesliga establishes itself as a top league, increases its popularity worldwide and clubs like Dortmund increase their commercial revenue and fully exploit the hype around them at the moment. I personally think it was shocking from Dortmund that they didn't go on a pre-season tour in Asia or the US. Even Leverkusen played friendlies in Korea because of a sponsorship deal. Everything you suggest is a drop in the ocean for the gap between Bayern and the rest and has severe sideeffects for other clubs. That can't be the way to solve the problem.
In general the competitive part of the league is overrated when it comes to selling the product. Being successful in Europe and having star players is what's important. No one cared about the Bundesliga when it was highly competitive but shit. Once Bayern got to the CL final and the nationalteam started to play entertaining and successful football, the hype started. Dortmund was the first team to use the hype to their advantage, built a fantastic team and pushed the league forward the same way Chelsea did in the Premier League. They set an incredible points record in the league, which pushed Bayern to strengthen more and more and the interest in German football doesn't slow down at the moment. 2nd tier clubs like Gladbach and Wolfsburg sign better players than they ever did before for example. Judging the league on the gap between 1st and 2nd is just weird at a time when the 1st placed team can beat teams like Arsenal, City, Juve or Roma in CL away games with ease. That's not the norm, it won't stay that way, it's just the peak of a cycle and once that cycle goes down a bit, the gap will naturally get smaller again. You would have had a point if Bayern from 04-09 dominated the league with insane point records while being shit in Europe. Look at Juve for example, finishing on more than 100 points in the league while being useless in Europe, that's a worrying development and a huge sign for a lack of quality in the league throughout. A close title race between Roma and Juve wouldn't help selling the product if the overall quality is far away from the top leagues.
Not many companies can offer triple the salary across the board than their nearest domestic competitor; can you think of any?
It's not a domestic business though. It's clearly European, or even worldwide and if Bayern weren't able to compete with the salaries in England, Spain, Italy and France, it would be a way bigger problem for the Bundesliga than what we have now. There aren't any regulations within the EU that would prevent a German company from being competitive in terms of wages against companies from other European states, that would be completely stupid. Triple the salary isn't true anyway.
If PSG's owners had taken over Stuttgart and Monaco's had taken over Hamburg I think the Bundesliga would be great to watch. Is this a long term solution?
First of all, the Bundesliga is great to watch. So many exciting things happening and the great thing about European football leagues that the competition is about much more than just the title fight. It's something I hate about US sports for example, bad teams deliberately tanking to get better lottery picks in the draft is just insane, while in domestic football in Europe you have brilliant relegation fights, often involving teams that actually play great football, but are unlucky for some reason, great battles for CL and EL spots and the Cup competition which countless upsets from smaller teams every year.
Second of all, the regulations in the league won't allow investors to take over clubs, so it's a moot point. I don't think Stuttgart could attract a rich owner anyway, bored billionaires would pick clubs from big cities which make for a more interesting product. Hamburg, Hertha, Cologne and similar to City as United's local rival, 1860 as Bayern's could probably attract a potential buyer. It's something I also hate about rich investors. It screws small clubs even more, because it turns the chance to win something from unlikely to impossible while they also have no chance to win the lottery.
And at last, let's just assume Wolfsburg and Hoffenheim spent 300m more than they already did and had a realistic chance to beat Bayern to the title, but would at the same time completely destroy any longterm chance for Dortmund and Schalke to establish themselves as top clubs in Europe. Would that make the product Bundesliga more interesting? I don't think so, it would turn the Bundesliga into a weaker version of the Premier League and take everything that's unique about the league away. That's not the way to go. Like I said before, it's great that the European leagues offer something different, in terms of playing style, structure, fans. Everyone can pick what they prefer, so much is on offer. If someone bases the entertainment of a league solely on the title fight, fair enough, stay away from the Bundesliga at the moment until Bayern collapses again (not that Dortmund's title win in 2011 was a close battle by the way, people enjoyed it because they beat Bayern, not because it was close and thrilling).
If you really like all the following about the Bundesliga,
I like the Bundesliga. I love the fact that the ticket prices are low and I love the fans and the atmosphere, as well as their sensible approach to safe standing and the closeness between the club and its fans.
Fair enough. That's not what I was talking about though, I was only refering to things happening on the pitch. The way football is played in the league; the importance of youth development and trusting young talents as key players in the teams; the strong connection between the league and the nationalteam, which is a huge reason why Germany became so successful again; the tactical development with a huge influence on football all over the world.
You could comfortably add the youth development, trusting youth, coaching (and lack of coaching restrictions) and the connection between the teams and the National team to the list of reasons why I like German Football. It wasn't an exhaustive list!
a temporary dominance of one team won't keep you from enjoying the league.
The goalkeeper position is Benfica's major problem in their team. Let's see if it doesn't happen the same as Koln's Yannick Gerhardt. They had things wrapped up but the player changed his mind in the last minute.
