Lego Munich Supporting Bayern Munich?

bahnstormer

Be interesting to find out if they spoke to Audi about how many sales they lost to the fans of the 91 other clubs in the English League when they started sponsoring Man U.

Istokg

I had forgotten.... in some countries that's almost grounds for divorce... ;-)

http://youtu.be/nzBXeCYxZ1A

bahnstormer

that d be too expensive! billy connolly came up with a novel solution

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Slw08b3bHFE

DavidRod8

I like Bayern... Wonder if they'll have any special sets

krklint

for those of us in the States that haven't mastered the world futbal leagues, is this equivelant to Lego becoming a sponsor of the NY Yankees football team? Or is it worse?

bahnstormer

^^ they dont need to , standard minifigs also fall over somewhat easily :-)

DavidRod8

very funny bahnstormer... guess they are not your favorite team :) Sounds like according to you, the Bayern players are watching too much Italian futball..

@krklint the yankees play baseball not football... ;) but to put it in perspective, imagine that the NFL had a 95% popularity (which it pretty much does) but imagine that there was no NBA, NHL or MLB... and that they played 10 months out of the year... and not just the 32 top teams, but there's also a second league, third league.. etc... it's an amazing team... top 2 teams in the second league go to 1st league, top 2 from the 3rd go to the second, and the same way goes for the bottom teams... they get relegated...

bahnstormer

^ yep relegation makes the end of season finale much more interesting. there are now a number of foreign owners in premier league and if 14 of them agree , relegation will stop and it will operate like a franchise.

in england its bottom 3 go down, top 2 of lower league come up and 1 team from places 3-6 goes up after playoffs, the playoff final is worth some $50m to the winner.

Germany has 3rd bottom team in league 1 play team that came 3rd in 2nd league. winner takes the available place in league 1 and isnt worth anywhere near as much to the winner.

drdavewatford

for those of us in the States that haven't mastered the world futbal leagues, is this equivelant to Lego becoming a sponsor of the NY Yankees football team?

Yes it is - NY Yankees in the US, Manchester United in England and Bayern Munich in Germany are teams that everyone except their own fans love to hate; doesn't matter if it's baseball or football, the principle still holds.

krklint

ah, thanks everyone. I knew they were different sports, but I only thought people hated Man U. I've never actually heard of Bayern Munich before this thread! Now I know to wear my anti-yankee face whenever I see a Bayern jersey, too :)
jk. futbal might grow on me someday. until then, I'm sticking to Curling and Lego!

mrseatle

Moon-chin... :)

collect_that

This is not the first time LEGO have partened up with Bayern Munich, both these sets were released in 2003. The parts inventory were identical to the regular releases, but also included a sheet of Bayern Munich football kit stickers for minifigures.

brickset.com/detail/?set=3420-2

brickset.com/detail/?Set=3422-2

Istokg

I've always wondered why TLG virtually abandoned Hohenwestedt (near the Danish border) for Munich as the LEGO HQ in Germany.

Hohenwestedt has such a long LEGO history going back to Jan. 12, 1956, when Germany became the 4th LEGO country (after Denmark, Norway and Sweden)... see first image below (from my LEGO DVD) showing Ole Kirk Christiansen, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, 2 LEGO execs and German LEGO Director Axel Thomsen and his wife. Axel Thomsen was also the manager of LEGO in Sweden, in the town of Lerum, where he owned a doll house making factory, but moved to Hohenwestedt in 1956 to take on the large German market.

In 1999 (after Axel Thomsen and both Ole Kirk Christiansen (died 1958) and Godtfred Kirk Christiansen (died 1995) were long gone), TLG moved the LEGO HQ from Hohenwestedt to Munich... thus leaving most of a vast complex of buildings empty.

TLG had a large factory, a development center and an employment center (the only part still open) on their extensive grounds in Hohenwestedt. After Billund, the Enfield Connecticut and Hohenwestedt in Schleswig-Holstein (German state) were the largest LEGO complexes... but sadly even Enfield is only a fraction of its' former self.

These images are from Chapter 73 - "LEGO Sales and History by Country" of my LEGO DVD...

Gary Istok

Images courtesy of Sven Köppchen of Germany.

Huw

There are a couple of new FC Bayern keyrings in the BrickLink database:

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?G=5000146
http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?G=5000147

I haven't added them here yet.

Gavin83

I've always thought its risky business sponsoring a football team. It's a very emotional sport, rival fans would actively avoid your company just because your name is linked to the club. I don't think it would necessarily attract fans of the club your sponsoring either.

To be honest I'd love to see Lego across the front of my teams shirt though. :)

bahnstormer

^^ Given how badly they got spanked tonight I wouldnt bother !!

bahnstormer

@collect that, I picked up a 40 kilo lot and found these in it - the kid had replaced all of teh bayern heads with white skulls.....

mrseatle

I wish Levis would sponsor some sports givaways here in the US. Hot Wheels has been known to givaway special team edition cars to the first 10,000 fans for a lot of pro baseball teams here.