Bayer Leverkusen: Monheim city council rejects proposed Bayer 04 Campus development

By 25 votes to 19, with one abstention, the city council of Monheim am Rhein (population: 45,000, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) rejected, following a secret ballot, the proposed "Bayer 04 Campus" that Bayer 04 Leverkusen (Bundesliga) plans to build within the municipality, on 15 July 2026.

"Bayer 04 Leverkusen has been searching for a suitable site for about 10 years and assessed 70 alternative locations during that period, in coordination with the Cologne and Düsseldorf districts. No suitable site was available within a reasonable timeframe, which is why the club chose Monheim," it said.

Germany’s State Secretary for Sport and Volunteering, Andrea Milz (CDU), had travelled to Monheim to advocate for the project in the interest of North Rhine-Westphalia, a state that presents itself as…