2024-01-09 22:49:33
Waiting to be selected by the Austrian Handball Federation (ÖHB) are Romania, Croatia and Spain in “Hammer Group” B. In addition to sporting highlights, Mannheim promises players and fans alike a special indoor experience. This is guaranteed by the SAP Arena, which has a capacity of around 13,000 spectators and is used by the handball Bundesliga team Rhein-Neckar Löwen as well as the ice hockey cracks of the Mannheimer Adler. The multifunctional hall from 2002 also serves as a venue for major sporting events and concerts.
Mannheim, Düsseldorf, the Cologne Lanxess Arena (approx. 20,000 spectators), but also the other halls in Berlin (15,000), Hamburg (13,000) and Munich (12,000) are the symbols cast in concrete for the largest and most ambitious continental finals since its introduction in 1994. In the end, significantly more fans than ever before will have streamed into the halls – Europe’s EHF association is aiming for the one million mark.
Record crowd at the European Handball Championships
The European Handball Championships in Germany will open with two games in front of a world record crowd of over 50,000 spectators. The Düsseldorf football stadium was converted at great expense for this purpose.
Handball number two behind football
Germany is already considered a handball dream country, the halls in the world’s strongest league are well filled even outside of the European Championships. On average, the 18 Bundesliga clubs welcomed 5,000 spectators to their home games this season. The leaders are the – always sold out – THW Kiel from ÖHB captain Mykola Bilyk with 10,160 spectators, the Füchse Berlin (8,300) and the Rhein-Neckar Löwen (7,300) also have top figures in this regard.
In terms of viewer interest, only “King Football” is clearly ahead of the handball players, whose upper house clubs reported income of 140 million euros last season. According to the sports business platform SPOBIS, this puts them just behind the DEL ice hockey league (150 million) and ahead of the BBL basketball league (125 million).
“Something very special”
“After our home European Championship, this is the biggest event for us as a national team,” said Bilyk, for whom, like Lukas Hutecek (TBV Lemgo-Lippe), it is a kind of home game. “The atmosphere there will be, how full the halls will be and what will happen around handball is unbelievable. This is something very special because handball plays a huge role in Germany.”
Handball team is looking forward to the European Championships
Austria’s national handball team is looking forward to the beginning of the European Championships in Germany.
It remains to be seen which team will play the biggest role in the fight for the title. Surprises can be ruled out. World champion Denmark is the favorite, defending champion Sweden, European Championship runner-up Spain and, above all, World Cup runner-up France are also to be reckoned with. Host Germany is aiming for a place in the semi-finals and is hoping for an effect similar to that at the home World Cup in 2007, when the audience carried them to the title.
For a big player, Germany is certainly the last European Championship. France’s mastermind Nikola Karabatic will complete his final continental title fights, and the home Olympics in the summer will be his final farewell to the big stage at the age of 40. The three-time Olympic champion, four-time world and three-time European champion, who won the Champions League three times at club level, has announced his retirement next summer.
Groups of the 2024 European Handball Championship
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