Huge natural scenery, few fans: the organizers are partly to blame for the spectator crisis at the World Cup in Planica.
Photo: imago/Petter Arvidson
On Monday, as expected, things were calm at the competition venues of the Nordic World Ski Championships. The rest day of the title fights was used for training. Planica’s problems are described by an experience the day before: when Slovenia’s mixed ski jumping team finished third and finally gave the host of the World Championships the long-awaited place on a podium, most of the 1,000 spectators left the stadium in a hurry. The flower ceremony for the proud medal winners had the character of a district championship in front of a handful of fans.
However, the sad scene is characteristic of the largest sporting event in the history of Slovenia. Instead of the announced 250,000 fans, there is a gaping emptiness in the grandstand of the ski jumping stadium. Only around 27,000 spectators are said to have made the pilgrimage to the top sports venues in the beautiful Valley of the Schanzen during the first five days of competition at these World Championships. And even this number published by the organizers still seems a bit too high. After more than two years of Corona sport without fans, stars like ski jumping world champion Andreas Wellinger were finally looking forward to a “terrific mood” again, but instead there is sheer disillusionment.
The response is very disappointing. At the start of the Ski Jumping World Cup in Wisla, Poland, at the beginning of November, the Slovenian World Championship organizers announced that most of the World Championship competitions were sold out. “That’s why we even bought ticket contingents for our team. But it looks different when it’s sold out,” comments Horst Hüttel, the World Cup sports director for ski jumping and combination at the German Ski Association.
The reasons for this are diverse. At the top, however, are the horrendous prices, which the local fans in particular cannot afford. VIP day tickets cost up to 400 euros. For a seat in the grandstand you have to pay up to 99 euros on most competition days. It is therefore no wonder that the huge grandstand in the ski jumping stadium has so far been built for nothing. Even standing room on the cross-country ski run or in the ski jumping stadium costs 49 euros. World Cup fun is therefore priceless, especially for families with children. The fact that special family tickets have now been introduced in the midst of the audience crisis comes too late.
When choosing the prizes, the World Cup organizers probably had the well-funded fans from Norway and Sweden in mind, who regularly flock to Nordic title fights in droves. But even for the Scandinavians, the moon offers were obviously too high, especially since the hotels in the Planica area are also asking for record prices. Because there are not even affordable options for athletes in the most famous Slovenian winter sport, Krajnska Gora – where the award ceremonies of these world championships take place – the German team, for example, has moved into quarters in Tarvisio, Italy, and Arnoldstein, Austria.
“It is also very difficult logistically for normal fans at this World Cup. Not everyone can walk two kilometers up the valley and the shuttle service doesn’t work perfectly either,” says Hüttel, giving another reason for the disappointing response. The huge World Cup arenas in the »Valley of the Schanzen« can only be reached via a single narrow road, which is why car traffic has been extremely restricted. Nevertheless, every year tens of thousands of Slovenian fans make the pilgrimage to the Ski Flying World Cup final and create a unique atmosphere. So what is the big problem of this World Cup besides the high prices?
“One problem is the cold weather at the World Cup. At the Ski Flying World Cup finals at the end of March, it’s usually already very warm, the sun is shining and the fans are having a huge party in their T-shirts,” says a representative from the World Cup press team. In addition, there are only real Slovenian national sports heroes like Anze Lanisek in ski jumping. The Slovenian ski association tried almost desperately to persuade former cross-country skier Anamarija Lampic to start at the World Championships. But the two-time bronze medalist at the 2021 Nordic World Ski Championships in Oberstdorf canceled, saying that she wanted to concentrate fully on her new sport, biathlon.
Meanwhile, there was also criticism of the organization of the World Cup. Because the landing slope of the ski jump for the World Championships premiere of the mixed competition in Nordic combined was not sufficiently prepared after snowfall on Sunday, there were several serious falls. “That was very dangerous, grossly negligent. They didn’t do their homework there,” complained national coach Hermann Weinbuch. “Something like that shouldn’t happen at a World Cup.”
