| The Fury said: Are they okay financially? Relegation from the prem can mean problems in the future because of wages and expectations of clubs in the top flight for a while, Portsmouth are the biggest example. |
No, despite playing in the Mercedes-Benz-Arena and Mercedes being their main sponsor. Stuttgart is one of the richest cities in Germany but also one of the most conservative ones when it comes to spending money. The club could be up there financially with Borussia Dortmund or even Bayern München (which is partially owned by the three A's: Audi, Allianz, Adidas), if the local companies wanted to. Besides Daimler/Mercedes there are Porsche, Bosch and many other Baden-Württemberg-based enterprises worth billions you've probably never heard of (like Würth or Mahle).
Even though they were in trouble due to mismanagement already during the last few seasons, the relegation is a big shock for the city and the state Baden-Württemberg. 30 years ago the only rivals in the southern parts of Germany were Bayern München and to a lesser extent Eintracht Frankfurt and 1. FC Nürnberg. This season VfB was surpassed in 1. Bundesliga by south-German clubs 1899 Hoffenheim (a comparably tiny club financed by a SAP co-founder and billionaire), FSV Mainz 05 (currently the best managed "small" club in Germany, they will play Euro league next year), FC Ingolstadt, FC Augsburg and Darmstadt 98. Even worse, their main federal state rival SC Freiburg just won 2. Bundesliga and will look down on VfB next season with great pleasure. All these southern clubs are managed better than VfB at the moment.
It will be interesting to see if their injured pride - VfB Stuttgart is the club of Jürgen Klinsmann and Sami Khedira after all, and the winner of 5 Bundesliga championships - will cause a radical change in club financing and managing in the near future.
BTW: My parents and most of my relatives are from Stuttgart, two of my siblings were born there, but I for one - a Borussia Dortmund club member living literally 20 minutes away from Bayern München's Allianz-Arena - am glad that the slowpokes from VfB got relegated today and not the entertainers from Werder Bremen (they saved themselves 2 minutes before their season ended, Werder-style). 
