Munich Sports

There’s a whole lot of soccer on the Munich sports scene, most notably FC Bayern Munich, which is arguably the country’s most popular football club. Bayern plays in the massive Allianz Arena, an ultra-modern stadium that often sees its greatest attendance when Bayern dukes it out with local rival TSV 1860 Munich – a match-up that has come to be known as the Münchner Stadtderby (Munich derby) whenever the two teams compete.

FC Bayern München Basketball, meanwhile, has a long tradition of hooping it up in Munich, and has attracted a solid following since the 1940s. Despite being a relative newcomer (est. 1998), the Eishockeyclub München (or EHC München) ice hockey team managed to win the district championships in its first year of operation, and has since won several titles in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (German Ice Hockey League).

Other big sports in Munich include The BMW Open Tennis Tournament, which always manages to attract quite a crowd, as does the similarly sponsored BMW International Golf Open. Even though the Olympics are long gone, Munich Olympiapark is home to numerous sporting activities in the heart of town, including an Olympic swimming pool, the ice center, tennis courts, and a leisure sports area for joggers, walkers, and skaters.    ← read less