One month to go until the VELUX EHF FINAL4

Well-established traditions combined with several interesting innovations will fill in the entertainment programme of the VELUX EHF FINAL4 as organisers revealed more details on the fringes of the semi-finals draw event in Cologne on Thursday, exactly one month before the first playing day of the most prestigious event in club handball.

“We want to bring new ideas, new activities and surprise our guests,” EHF Marketing managing director Peter Vargo said at the official press conference in the German Sport & Olympic Museum in Cologne.

After last year’s success with a golf auction dedicated to support the German Cancer Aid (Deutsche Krebshilfe), the golf tournament with handball legends like Christian Schwarzer and Frank von Behren will enter its second year. However, this time all participants of the auction will also have a chance to win a car in a lottery.

New feature – opening party

“One of the new features, compared to the last year, will be the opening party on Friday evening in front of the LANXESS arena,” Vargo said.

The Opening Party is planned for up to 6,000 people. Fans will be able to take part in a whole host of activities and also enjoy live music from bands including Cologne’s favourite band, Bläck Föös.

All four teams will be presented, together with the winners’ trophy, club mascots and a number of handball legends.

Additional entertainment includes Human Beat-box and the high-tech Robokeeper, the fastest handball goalkeeper in the world presented by title sponsor, the VELUX Group. adidas will also launch the new official match ball for the 2013 VELUX EHF FINAL4 and the upcoming season.

Four singing rising stars confirmed

Fourth edition of VELUX EHF FINAL4 is going to prove the reputation of a great social event as four high-flying singing stars will entertain 40,000 spectators in the LANXESS arena. Performances of Ole Soul, Jenna Hoff, Robert Fowler and Nathalie Dorra will be one of the highlights of the weekend in Cologne.

“We want to bring the party atmosphere from Friday forward to the arena too. All four singers are well-known from the German format competition are very young, strong and full of energy – exactly as we see ourselves and our event,” VELUX EHF FINAL4 Team leader David Szlezak said at the press conference adding a new special stage for the singers will experience its world premiere at a handball event.

Huge media and public interest

The media and public interest in the VELUX EHF FINAL4 is great. The tournament will be broadcast in 140 countries and there will be 350 media people working directly on site in the LANXESS arena.

“The ticket demand was huge and we could have sold much more tickets. We have sold 17,000 tickets and remaining 2000 have been distributed to the participating clubs. A small amount of tickets are still available at our ticket partners like Vietentours and Ticket2Final, but I am sure the arena will be sold-out for both days,” Szlezak informed.

All fans who failed to buy a ticket for this year’s edition can avoid the same situation next year, if they buy the tickets for 2014 VELUX EHF FINAL4 sooner this time – the ticket sale starts on 1 June.

Draw of the fourth edition at the starting point of the premiere

The draw event of the upcoming tournament was not the first VELUX EHF FINAL4 event hosted by the German Sport & Olympic Museum in Cologne. “For us it is a pleasure to be on the same place where we already were four years ago at the start of this event,” EHF Secretary General Michael Wiederer underlined.

The Lord Mayor of Cologne Jürgen Roters emphasized that VELUX EHF FINAL4 has become the sporting highlight of the year in his city.

“It has been a very good partnership and friendship what has developed between us and the organisers of this tournament. We are proud that our city will be again the capital of handball for three days,” Roters said.

New mobil app

Handball fans around Europe will have in their hands the opportunity to get the latest news from this big event, follow the thrilling matches live and share their favourite videos and photos with friends.

A new project myServiceFellow is a smartphone app that allows customers to document  and evaluate their individual experience of a product or service. This approach allows researchers to slip into the shoes of customers and understand their “customer journey”. Deriving from the fast-growing field of service design, myServiceFellow helps organizations to iteratively improve customer experiences.

Fans in the LANXESS arena willing to take part in this brand new quality survey will receive a code and after downloading the application to their smartphones they can provide the organisers with a valuable feedback.

Further information

Fans looking for the latest news and information can join the conversation using the hashtag #EHFFINAL4. Twitter users can keep up to date with the latest happenings on the EHF Champions League official Twitter channel @ehfcl.