With 63 of the total 65 matches that will see the EURO title decided having been played, the EHF and DHB can now look back on a highly successful final tournament that has been the biggest ever played.
Wiederer opened proceedings, speaking about how far the EHF EURO has come since its inception in 1994. It started with small halls and developed towards the world record attendance of 53,586 fans attending the opening game in MERKUR SPIEL-ARENA in Dusseldorf.
“We can say we are where we want to be with our product, [this] national team top event. It was an exciting tournament. It was a tournament full of challenges for all,” said Wiederer.
“I spoke about the target of having 1,000,000 of spectators and I was told at the time that this is really a challenge, understanding that you need 96 per cent, more than 96 per cent, of tickets sold. Today I can say, really full of pride, that we managed. With the already sold tickets for tomorrow, we have 1,008,660 fans in the venues. This is not only a new record. This is a tremendous difference to any kind of handball event which has taken place before.”
Wiederer added that the kinds of fans really added to the atmosphere, as he was touched to see how local spectators embraced visiting teams as well.
“We can see a clash of top teams in almost every match and this interaction between the spectators and the players on the field produces exactly what we want to show to the outside world.”
In the preliminary round, over 500,000 spectators attended the matches, which was the previous record for attendance across an entire EHF EURO. In the main round, the matches had 94 per cent occupancy and all games in LANXESS arena have been sold out.
With Germany hosting four international handball tournaments in the coming and past years, including two senior World Championships alongside this EURO, the Men’s EHF EURO 2024 was a significant milestone for DHB.
“We planned this Men’s EHF EURO 2024 as a lighthouse event in our so-called ‘decade of handball.’ It has become much more than this. With altogether the 65 matches, with the finals to be played tomorrow, we have built 65 lighthouses for our sport,” said Michelmann.
“The EHF EURO 2024 sets the tone and inspires the whole society through sport. We are looking forward to continuing this history as the decade of handball is still running.”
Boskovic highlighted how the decision to increase the number of teams competing at the EURO to 24 was right as it has allowed more nations to experience the top-level competition and develop. Boskovic mentioned key memorable moments in the EHF EURO 2024, such as the Faroe Islands’ draw with Norway, Georgia earning their first points and Austria surviving the preliminary round group featuring two-time title winners Spain and 2020 finalists Croatia then holding Germany to a draw.
“We can conclude that our championship is becoming more and more competitive,” said Boskovic, outlining some key statistics from the EHF analysis of the EHF EURO 2024 so far, which has shown a rise in the number of goals scored per match and that play is getting faster and faster.
Schober spoke about the closer-to-home goals for DHB, saying, “before the tournament we hoped we could have an impact on our sport in Germany and in Europe.” DHB wanted to raise the relevance of handball in Germany, and their social media figures such as a reach of 90 million and 90,000 new followers confirm they have achieved that.
DHB hope the EURO will attract new players, especially females. They are preparing for this by concentrating on coach and teacher education, having held activities in primary schools that have reached 270,000 pupils.
Schober concluded by commenting on the work of all staff and volunteers involved, underlining that there are 900 people working in LANXESS arena on a matchday.
Hausleitner outlined figures such as travelling fans, with 5,000 each coming from the Faroe Islands and Iceland and 9,000 from Denmark. Regarding the Faroe Islands, 90 per cent of the small country’s population watched the EHF EURO 2024 matches.
Austria saw a new record for TV viewers of a handball game, with 570,000. In addition, on the Home of Handball app, over 10,000 unique users participated in both the match predictor and Grundfos Player of the Match votes. Over 1,500 accredited media covered the EHF EURO 2024.
“My thanks goes to my team and all the people here who made this tournament a really big masterpiece and success,” concluded Hausleitner.
