LACK OF INTEREST FOR EHF CL 23/24: Where are the fans?
What is going on with the interest of handball fans across Europe for the premium handball product Men’s EHF Champions League? The first two rounds of the new 2023/2024 season didn’t show that handball lovers, in the cities of the EHF Champions League teams, miss the TOP handball so desperately.
The first two mid-weeks of the season have been attended by 60.478 fans in total on 16 matches which gives approx 3.779 per match.
However, when this is put in correlation with the Arena capaciticies (104.439 total seats), this give info that only 57.9% of the hall’s seats was sold.
A glass of water can be half full or half empty, but the situation is quite serious when you find out that the derby match between Barcelona and Magdeburg had 1.873 fans (capacity of Blaugrana 7.500) or Kolstad was far-away from solding out hall on their home debut against Kielce.
The two most miserable attendances have been seen in Porto’s matches – at home against Wisla Plock 1.200 and in Celje (1.700).
There only three matches in the first two rounds in Bitola, Aalborg and Veszprem have been sold-out.
ROUND 2 (fans / capacity):
Barcelona 1873 / 7585
Kolstad 5.611 /8.600
Kiel 5.234 / 10.285
Veszprem 5.019 sold out
PSG 2.523 / 4016
Aalborg 5.072 sold out
Wisla 4.100 / 5.467
RK Celje 1.700 / 5.827
31.132 / 51.871 (60.02%)
ROUND 1 (fans / capacity):
Porto 1.207 / 2225
Magdeburg 4.224 / 7.800
RK Zagreb 4.874 / 15.200
Pick Szeged 4.700 / 8143
GOG 2.454 / 4.000
Montpellier 7.500 / 8.000
Pelister 3.000 / 3.000 sold out
Kielce 3.800 / 4.200
29.346 / 52.568 (55.82%)