EHF EURO host cities - part 1: Herning
Herning, a relatively young city, originally built up around textile industry, and today with a population of 87,000 in the center of the Jutland peninsula, is a real sports city.
Handball may not be the daily top sport in the city, though. One might think that FC Midtjylland, Danish women’s champions and Main Round participants of the EHF Champions League, were playing their home matches in the Jyske Bank Boxen, but they stick to their original home court in the smaller and intimate Ikast Brande Arena, 15 kilometres east of Herning.
However, the men´s football team of FC Midtjylland have their home ground right next to Jyske Bank Boxen, at the MCH Arena, where Midtjylland have been particularly triumphant this season, spending the winter break of the Danish league on the first place, three points ahead of number two.
Just like its home town, FC Midtjylland is also a new club, founded in 1999 as a merger of the clubs Herning Fremad and Ikast fS. Ambition has always been a key word in Herning, and an example is that when professional football was introduced in Denmark in 1978, Herning Fremand signed none other than Bobby Moore, a part of England´s winning team at the 1966 World Cup.
Herning is also the home of Denmark´s most successful ice hockey team Herning Blue Fox, who have won 16 Danish championships.
Jyske Bank Boxen
Jyske Bank Boxen with a capacity of up to 15,000 spectators, depending on the kind of event, has really made Herning a kind of Danish metropolis, when it comes to sports events, shows and concerts.
The arena has hosted concerts with artists from Lady Gaga, Prince and Britney Spears to James Last and Hans Hinterseer, and in the middle of December, it was even the venue of the European short course swimming championships.
A temporary swimming pool was simply built up inside the arena – not because Denmark is in need of excellent swimming stadiums, but because none of them could take as large an attendance as Boxen.
Once before, Jyske Bank Boxen hosted a major EHF EURO event. In December 2010, it was the venue of one of the main round groups as well as the final matches of the Women´s EHF EURO2010 which was hosted by Denmark and Norway.
On December 18 that year, 11,411 spectators – at that time the largest attendance ever for a women´s handball match – saw Norway defeat their Danish neighbours 29:19 in the semi-final, before defeating the third Scandinavian country, Sweden 25:20 in front of 11,004 people in the final the next day.
At the men´s event in January, the arena will be housing Group A of the Preliminary Round, with Denmark, FYR Macedonia, Czech Republic and Austria as the participants, as well as Group I of the main round, the semi-finals, the bronze match and the final.
The fan zone
In connection with the EHF EURO 2014, a special fan zone will be established in a hall attached to Jyske Bank Boxen. In the fan zone, handball fans from all participating countries will have the opportunity to take part in a number of activities and events arranged by series of companies and a number of volunteers.
Everyone with a ticket for the matches in Boxen will have access to the fan zone, where they will also have the chance to get autographs and have their picture taken with their favourite players.
Photo credit: visitherning.com
TEXT: Peter Bruun / cor
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