Records are not just something to marvel at, they are also a business. The “Record Institute for Germany”, which “officially” certified the world attendance record at the European Handball Championship, makes no secret of this. Anyone can go there and receive a certificate after the service has been checked and the invoice has been paid.
That doesn’t make the backdrop of 53,586 spectators on Wednesday in Düsseldorf any less impressive, but it illustrates why German handball made such a magic of this number: it is a hard currency in the fight for attention. Andreas Michelmann, the President of the German Handball Federation (DHB), dismissed the question of the ecological sense of such a one-off event in a heated football stadium with the dry reference to “diverging goals” like Johannes Golla later did to the Swiss attackers.
Handball has to prove itself
Handball is in a privileged position. Every year, when the hall lights come on in January, the holidays begin for him, which is also shown by another number, the 7.6 million people who watched the win against Switzerland on television. But he has to prove himself again and again, and because basketball and ice hockey players have recently caused a sensation, even more urgently.
Above all, German handball has recognized for a while that it needs change, that it needs to become younger, more modern and more diverse if it wants to continue to play powerfully in the space that football leaves in the future. That’s why he organizes tournaments like this European Championship; he needs the charisma even more than the income.
What makes this sport so accessible can be answered intuitively and without any institute: because it gets down to business and is extremely fair. There is nothing artificial about handball, the characters are steeled athletes, but somehow also guys like you and me.
First-class play takes place not least in Berlin, but also in Melsungen, Lemgo and Eisenach. All of this attracts an audience that makes the visit not only seem like a nice family outing, but also a bit like a journey back in time to a past in which the world is not so complicated and the rhythm of the gossip is simple.
This text comes from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
That is the other side and therefore also a dilemma of handball. That he meets his audience exactly as he is – and in some respects that also means: quite conservative.
A comment from Frank Heike, Düsseldorf Published/Updated: Recommendations: 3 Frank Heike, Düsseldorf Published/Updated: Recommendations: 5 Frank Heike, Düsseldorf Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 13
A look at the Düsseldorf stadium showed: There is still another way for German handball to get where it wants. But what he has is impressive: a team that radiates a lot of positivity, handball with a certain lightness, and not a German rabble-rouser.
