Legacy of 2006 FIFA World Cup powers Bayern Munich and entire German Bundesliga

On the field, Bayern Munich is basking in the spotlight of the UEFA Champions League. The most famous German soccer club has revelled in the world's biggest annual sports tournament, has reached the 2010 final May 22nd in Madrid and will square off against Internazionale Milan before the largest single-day sports television audience on the planet.

The re-emergence of Bayern Munich among the world's soccer club elite is part of a bigger story. It is a metaphor for the rise of the German Bundesliga it has represented so well in this year's UEFA Champions League.

Off the field, Bayern Munich leads the German Bundesliga in merchandise sales and team sponsorship -- powered largely by its T-Mobile shirt deal. It is second only to Borussia Dortmund in Bundesliga attendance, with crowds of more than 69,000 the norm at Allianz Arena in Munich.

With a league title in sight with the 36th and final round of Bundesliga play this weekend, Bayern Munich appears ready to regain the status it held in the 1970s, both on and off the field.

Yet it does so as part of a Bundesliga that is itself having a banner year. The German Bundesliga is now the number one European league in three of the most important categories of sport business: attendance, merchandising and jersey sponsorship sales.

Driven by a league-wide commitment to family ticket pricing, Bundesliga clubs are averaging around 42,000 fans per game. Powered by lucrative deals in the betting and energy sectors in Germany, Bundesliga shirt sponsorships this year rose by five per cent to a league-wide average of $10 million US (about $2.5 million US per club ahead of the Barclays English Premier League). Merchandise sales have never been stronger.

It is no coincidence to me that the Bundesliga has gained strength each and every year since Germany hosted the 2006 FIFA World Cup. In fact, the growing strength of the league is a direct legacy of that World Cup.

One only has to look at the spike in attendance at World Cup host cities such as Munich, Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen (site of the Veltins Arena that is home of Schalke), Hamburg, Frankfurt, Cologne and Stuttgart over the past five seasons to recognize the impact of 2006. http://www.thesportmarket.biz/podium_news2.htm

It all begins with the new stadiums and stadium renovations that were completed for the World Cup, upgrading the spectator venues in almost half of the Bundesliga's 18 markets. The honeymoon period for those new stadia and renos is still going strong. Yet the resurgence is also reflected in media, television, corporate and fan interest, fueled in large part by the third-place berth of the German national team that year and the first-hand exposure German fans had to the world's best players, more of whom are now playing in the Bundesliga.

Call it the World Cup lift. Four years later, it's still raising the bar for Bayern Munich in particular and the German Bundesliga in general. In some respects, it's shades of the last time the Bundesliga ruled Europe on the strength of Bayern's mid-1970s dynasty. That European champion did its best work in the years after the Munich 1972 Olympics and the 1974 World Cup, which Germany also hosted...and won.

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Status of UEFA Champions League bolstered by the make-up of its final four in 2010 tournament

The UEFA Champions League has emerged this millennium as the world's biggest annual sports tournament. The European club championship is already the most important annual event in soccer. Its final match is now the most-watched single-day sports event on the planet, steadily growing in recent years to finally surpass the Super Bowl in worldwide television audiences in 2009.

Yet the UEFA Champions League still has considerable upside and will continue to gain clout and worldwide appeal in this and the coming years.

First, it will grow a larger television footprint on the strength of a weekend date for the finale, which moves from its typical mid-week slot to this year's championship match on Saturday, May 22nd, in Madrid. The worldwide television audience will also get a boost as the title match jumps from cable to FOX in the United States.

Second, it will gain more traction -- especially outside of Europe -- this year as all things soccer benefit from the global spotlight created by the 2010 FIFA World Cup. European club stars are bound to play leading roles in the theatre to be staged June 11th-July 11th in South Africa and that will only increase the number of those following UEFA member clubs in 2011 and beyond.

Yet arguably the most important boost to the profile of the UEFA Champions League will come from the make up of its final four and, ultimately, its championship pairing next month.

After having clubs from the Barclays English Premier League dominate the later rounds of the Champions League in recent years -- including last year when three English clubs reached the semifinals before FC Barcelona upset Manchester United in the finale -- the final four of the 2010 tournament features clubs from four different European leagues (for the first time in six years).

Represented in the semi-final stage April 20-21 and April 27-28 are titleholder FC Barcelona of the Spanish Primera Liga, Bayern Munich of the German Bundesliga, InterMilan of the Italian Serie A and Olympique Lyonnais of the French Ligue 1.

In a year in which CSKA Moscow and Russia were also represented in the quarter-finals, spanning Europe that way in the semifinals will only increase television, media, sponsor and fan interest throughout the continent. Moreover, around the world, it will create intrigue among millions of transplanted and second and third generation Spanish, German, Italian and French fans -- not to mention Brazilians, Argentinians and fans of the other internationals on those clubs.

That can only mean increased brand equity for UEFA and its Champions League competition this year and in the immediate future. It's a case of the popular gaining popularity and the strong getting even stronger.

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