Expensive tickets for handball tournament draw criticism – handball girls demand more fans

Ticket prices to see Norway and other handball nations compete for gold at the World Championships keep many people away. The number of spectators for the opening match against Greenland was historically low. It is possible to wait for a “significant price reduction” next week.

-We thought about seeing Iceland on Monday, but then I saw the price. I don’t have a lot of money, I can afford it. An evening at DNB Arena for approximately NOK 900. It’s very violent. I must say so.

Rødt’s Storting is political and he sathe satPeople from Stavanger Mimir Christianson.

Finally, Norway continues to play Home courtHome courtNorway, Sweden and Denmark are organizing the Women’s Handball World Cup this year. Norway plays its preliminary matches at the DNB Arena in Stavanger and the main round at Trondheim Spektrum in Trondheim. In the tournament again, but already after the first match, ticket prices receive harsh criticism.

– All children, families and everyone who plays handball – there is a point that they should see the Norwegian national team play for a potential gold medal without breaking the bank. This is a national team and it is not the Unionthe UnionThe main stadium of Manchester City.“, says the 37-year-old.

A day ticket at the DNB Arena in Stavanger has gone on sale in different price ranges. A small number of tickets can be purchased for NOK 400 in the unnumbered seats, considered the worst seats, while the majority of tickets on the short sides and long sides are sold for NOK 690 and NOK 890 respectively for the preliminary rounds of Norway.

– 890 Quite comical. The question is whether you want to create a grassroots festival, where a lot of people come with a full program, or whether you want to create it so you have fewer people in the stands and get more money from it, Christianson says. VG.

– One might think that this goal should be as accessible to people as possible. Cheaper is more available. It’s a bit disappointing if you leave out a lot of people. We are in an expensive time. There are people who can afford it, but there are hundreds of young girls and boys who don’t come because they can’t afford it. It’s very naive to think that everyone can pay NOK 690 or 890 for a handball match.

Despite the apparently exorbitant prices, the Norwegian Handball Association reported that ticket sales for the three match days Norway plays in Stavanger have gradually risen.

The price level is quite similar to what it was in the EU for men in 2020, says Head of Media and Communications Lars Hoegem Kvam.

– This is a team sport of the highest level. They are perhaps Norway’s best national team ever, regardless of sport or gender, as World Cup and European Commission champions. In addition, there is France, which is the Olympic champion. We believe that this maintains a very high standard and that the prices are therefore reasonable, Kvam tells VG.

-At the same time, we have full respect for the fact that it can be expensive for some, especially at a time when it requires a lot of costs. “We have also done evaluations, but it is as if we have set a price that we think is reasonable based on the cost of holding a tournament like the World Cup on our soil,” he explains.

Kvam told VG that the cost frame for the Norwegian part of the World Cup is around NOK 40 million.

The preliminary rounds will be held in Stavanger, while the main round will be held in Trondheim Spektrum.

However, match sales in Trondheim have not gone as expected, and Kvam suggests that this may be related to the price level. Now he brings good news for those who want to see Norway in the qualifiers.

Work is currently underway to launch a separate show for Norway’s first match in the main round. We hope this will allow more families to try girls’ handball at home.

– The offer will include a significant price reduction, and applies to all sections of the runway. The goal is to launch this within the next few days, once all the details are ironed out with the ticket supplier, says Kvam.

• Handball girls want more people in the stands:

It was not only the price level that attracted attention after the match against Greenland. Hundreds of them in fact king The ticket did not appear.

– We saw that. I don’t have an exact overview, but it’s like if you’ve bought a ticket, we can do little more than hope those who have bought a ticket will attend, says Kvam.

DNB Arena in Stavanger can accommodate about 4,200 spectators. For the match against Greenland, Kvam stated that only 400-500 tickets were sold. However, only 3,345 people attended, a distinctly lower number than in the opening matches of the previous three home tournaments.

Kvam explains that sponsors have a number of tickets that are handled by the International Handball Federation (IHF). These tickets can be returned and put on sale. Admittedly, this also happened to some tickets for the opening game.

Christian is highly critical of sponsors who likely won’t return tickets and won’t attend games either.

-At the same time that there are some people who can’t afford it, there are also some people who have so much that they can’t be bothered to come and who don’t go and enjoy themselves. “I find that absolutely disgusting, simply because there were thousands of people who wanted to attend that game,” Christianson says.

• Norway’s next match against Austria will be held on Friday at 20:30. You can follow the match VG Live!