Uli Hoeness's new project, FC Bayern Basketball, hope to advance in German League Playoffs

Tonight FC Bayern plays a very important game in the grand plan of being an even larger brand name in the world of club sports. A few years ago Uli Hoeness, President of Bayern Munich, made a conscious decision that has born fruit much ahead of most people's earlier predictions. Mr Hoeness saw an opportunity to compete for trophies against the likes of FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, or Panathinakos. So Mr Hoeness began building a proper basketball team. FC Bayern had meandered around in the lower leagues for some time, had few fans following the team, and rarely demonstrated much interest in being promoted to the first league. For the 2010-2011 Mr Hoeness went out and acquired known Bundesliga Basketball players who he thought could get them to the first division, and not only did they accomplish that goal, they won the second league with a few games to spare and began to sell tickets. By the time they won the title, the small and cozy Olympic Ice Hall was selling out regularly with about 3,000 fans. And they also had to move to a larger arena, due to the first Bundesliga rules, and they moved to a recently renovated Munich Dome (Audi Dome) on the west side of Munich. Tonight they try and continue their rapid rise in a do-or-die deciding 5th game against the Artland Dragons in Quakenbrück. If they win, they would play the reigning champions Bamberg, in the semi-finals of the German Championship. This would certainly generate even more interest and assure at least two home games in the Audi Dome, and give the FC Bayern fans something else to make them proud of. And for Mr Hoeness, it would bring his club one step closer to playing those Spanish giants and other European clubs in basketball, and to continue to satisfy his burning desire to compete.
Tip-off is tonight at 17:10, and is on Sport 1