Enough spectators, minus in the frame: The German Handball Federation (DHB) drew a positive conclusion of the Women’s World Cup despite the early elimination of the German team. A total of 237,263 spectators visited the 84 matches at the five locations.
This corresponds to an average of 2825 visitors per match and was the second highest total number of spectators at a Women’s World Cup after France in 2007 (397,550 at 96 matches). The balance sheet loss of 500,000 euros calculated by the association was not exceeded.
“We have achieved our first goal of being a good host. In the preliminary round, we were able to welcome more spectators in the arenas than expected, and our investment is within a pre-calculated framework,”said DHB President Andreas Michelmann at the closing press conference on the fringes of the medal games on Sunday. The German team was eliminated in the round of 16 against Denmark (17:21).
For the DHB, the event was at the same time a kind of dress rehearsal for the Men’s World Cup 2019, which the association organizes together with Denmark in just over a year. The cooperation was officially sealed once again on Sunday with the signing of the contract by world association president Hassan Moustafa, Michelmann, DHB chairman Mark Schober and Morten Stig Christensen of the Danish Handball Federation.