FC Bayern Basketball ‘ride’ high with BMW deal

Article posted by Coliseum, July 12^th, 2023

Image: FC Bayern Muenchen

The FC Bayern München Basketball players are now playing and training in the BMW Park – the new name of the Rudi Sedlmayer Hall in Munich, Germany, which was built for the 1972 Olympic basketball tournament.

‘FC Bayern Basketball’ stated that the new name is part of the comprehensive mobility partnership between BMW Munich and FC Bayern Basketball. The deal was struck on July 1^st and was announced at a presser held at the BMW headquarters in Munich which sits on the Frankfurter Ring.

The FC Bayern München Basketball GmbH, commonly referred to as Bayern Munich, is a professional basketball club, a part of the FC Bayern Munich sports club based in Munich, Germany. The club competes domestically in Basketball Bundesliga and internationally in EuroLeague.

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The Rudi-Sedlmayer-Halle, now known as the BMW Park, is an indoor arena located in Sendling-Westpark, Munich, Germany. It was initially named after the President of the Bavarian State Sport Association. The 6,700-seat hall opened in 1972 to host basketball events for the 1972 Summer Olympics.

The FC Bayern Munich or simply Bayern is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men’s football team, which plays in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. The 75,000-capacity Allianz Arena serves as their home ground.

The BMW Headquarters, also known as the BMW Tower, is a high-rise building located in the Am Riesenfeld area of Munich, Germany. The building has served as the global corporate headquarters of German automaker BMW since 1973.

The Basketball Bundesliga, for sponsorship reasons named easyCredit BBL, is the highest level league of professional club basketball in Germany. The league comprises 18 teams. A BBL season is split into a league stage and a playoff stage.

The EuroLeague, known as the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague for sponsorship reasons, is a European men’s professional basketball club competition. The league is widely recognized as the top-tier men’s league in Europe.

‘FC Bayern Basketball’ further stated that as part of the deal, BMW Munich will provide the players and the coaching staff of the five-time German champions with fully electric vehicles. The FC Bayern Munich Basketball (FCBB) Managing Director Marko Pešić and national player Andreas Obst received the first BMW iX models on behalf of the current Cup winner.

Keeping the sustainability factor in mind, the above translates to the fact that the FC Bayern basketball players will be able to travel in Munich emission-free in the future. Both partners will also pool their strengths off the pitch, take up social causes and support charitable projects, especially in the Munich metropolitan region.

Joint Social Projects

Observed Bernd Döpke, Head of BMW Munich, “FC Bayern has done a lot for basketball and brought pride for Munich. Our shared hometown has become a top address for this sport, both at the national and at the international level, and is attracting more and more fans. This striving for success and this dynamism connects both partners beyond their roots in Munich, as well as their shared interest in the joy of sport, which is in the form of FC Bayern Munich Basketball in a particularly integrative and family-friendly atmosphere.”

Added Pešić, “The entire FC Bayern Basketball team is looking forward to the exciting mobility partnership with BMW and to the vehicles to be provided to our team. We would like to thank you for the great trust bestowed on us. The physical proximity to BMW is of course just as ideal a circumstance for our cooperation as the fact that two well-known brands will be pursuing common goals on an equal footing. The BMW Park will also be a mainstay for us, so that we can establish ourselves among the top European teams and at the same time inspire even more fans to watch our sport. We are particularly pleased that we will initiate and promote social projects in Munich in tandem with BMW.”

FC Bayern Basketball will play its first games in the BMW Park in September 2023 as part of a warm-up match with EuroLeague teams. The first home game in the BBL, which is also the first competitive game for the new Head Coach Pablo Laso, will take place on September 29^th against their peer team MBC from Weißenfels.

Mitteldeutscher Basketball Club, for sponsorship reasons named SYNTAINICS MBC, and commonly known as MBC, is a professional basketball club based in Weißenfels, Germany. The club currently plays in the Basketball Bundesliga, the first tier league in Germany. The 3,000-capacity Stadthalle Weißenfels serves as their home arena.

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The joint social commitment of the FCBB and BMW Munich will also start with the new season. Details will be announced shortly.

THE BMW GROUP, with its BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce and BMW Motorrad brands, is the world’s leading premium manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles and a provider of premium financial and mobility services. The BMW Group production network comprises over 30 production sites worldwide and the company has a global sales network with representatives in over 140 countries.

In 2022, the BMW Group achieved global sales of almost 2.4 million automobiles and over 202,000 motorcycles. Earnings before taxes in the 2022 financial year amounted to €23.5 billion and sales to €142.6 billion. As of December 31^st, 2022, the company employed 149,475 people worldwide.

Long-term thinking and responsible action is the secret sauce of the BMW Group. The company set the course for the future at an early stage and consistently places sustainability and resource conservation at the center of its operations, from supply chain through production to the end of the use phase of all products.

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