Leverkusen’s Giants will move to Düsseldorf

[by Thomas Käckenmeister] - Several sources report that Bayer Giants Leverkusen will move to Düsseldorf in the next season. Manager Otto Reintjes and Düsseldorf’s mayor Joachim Erwin confirmed the change of the location.

"We will move with the license and a part of the management", Reintjes said. It is reported that he found a salesman from Düsseldorf who will help to establish the new corporation. A detailed press release is
expected in the following days. Obviously, the team will play with a new name and will stay at least in Düsseldorf until 2011.

Leverkusen’s basketball club had an impact for 40 years in the German league. With seven championships (1990-1996) they are the most successful team in the history of the Basketball-Bundesliga (BBL).

In May 2007 main sponsor Bayer, "a global enterprise with core competences in the fields of health care, nutrition and high-tech materials" (bayer.com), told the club's management that they will stop
their sports sponsorship. All season long the Giants could not find any investors to secure their current destination in Leverkusen.

The movement of Leverkusen also influences the second division team that is situated in Düsseldorf right now. The Magics could have to look for another location as well. That domino effect underlines the huge linkage
between sports and business. Only the strong survive.