When ever anyone asks me where is Handball popular in the world, I rattle off several countries in Europe, and I'll usually mention that in Iceland it's their number 1 sport. Based on this article in the Iceland Review http://www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/?cat_id=16539&ew_0_a_id=305455 , however, my standard litany is going to need updating. Yes, shockingly basketball has now clearly outstipped handball in popularity in Iceland.

You'll see a lot of articles on the IHF and EHF websites heralding the ever increasing popularity of the sport, but they often mask the big challenges the sport faces against the baskeball juggernaut of the NBA. The reality is that Handball is in danger of further marginalization if the sport's leaders don't start to get a little more creative with the marketing and promotion of the sport. That's not to say that nothing's being done. Efforts like the EHF's free web broadcasts of the Champions League and the LNH's trip to Miami are to be commended. Much more, however, is needed to turn the tide if they are going to convince Icelandic kids to quit shooting hoops.

Although one could argue that this is actually good news for developing countries like the USA and Great Britain. If countries like Iceland have a shrinking talent pool, then they logically aren't going to be as good anymore and the gap between the haves and have should lessen.

[html] If you're not going to be able to watch the Champions League Final between Ciudad Real and Kiel live, you should be able to watch it "on demand" at this link:  http://www.ehfcl.com/2007-08/videos

This link will allow you to acess the match with less likelihood of seeing information about the final outcome that might spoil the game for you.  For a couple of days the EHF doesn't even post the score of the match.  But just in case have a sheet of paper handy to block out the score.

Finally, don't forget that in the home and away two game format there is no such thing as "garbage time" in the first game as every goal counts towards the final aggregate.
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[html] When I received an email from a French reader last week informing me that the French Professional League (LNH) Coupe de la Ligue Semifinals and Finals we’re coming to Miami next year, my first reaction was that perhaps somebody was aiming at payback for my April Fools Article  https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.480 . I even looked at the web addresses carefully in the links that were sent to me just to make sure that it wasn’t an elaborate web phishing trick.

Needless to say I’m excited about this happening. It’s not very often that one can make a bold statement like, “Out of 300,000,000 Americans, I’m the most devoted fan of the LNH,” with a high degree of confidence. Maybe there is somebody hiding in Butte, Montana with a lifetime subscription to HandAction magazine who has every match taped and Fedexed to him, but I doubt it. While living 5 years in France I didn’t go to as many games in person as I would have liked to, but I rarely missed an airing on TV. And even though I’ve been back in the States a year, I still follow the league as best as I can now. Really, I can’t wait to cheer against my favorite team http://teamhandball.blogspot.com/2005_10_01_archive.html in Miami.

Without question this is a big opportunity for USA Handball and Christian Zaharia and the LNH should be commended for their exemplary vision and willingness to take on this challenge. Hopefully, this match will further energize handball development in Miami and on the US East Coast. At the same time, maybe the LNH’s lead will entice the German HBL, Spanish Liga ASOBAl, and the EHF to take notice and pursue the 300,000,000 strong US market more aggressively, whether it be with similar matches on USA soil or a good TV contract.

The challenge of finding a European handball entity to take a chance on America has been met and that all by itself is a great accomplishment. But the even greater challenge will now be turning this opportunity into an unqualified success. Success will be measured in a lot of ways, but the most visually evident one will be the number of people in their seats. And while there was a lot of optimism expressed at the press conference regarding filling a 20,000 seat arena for two consecutive days of Handball in Miami, I have my doubts.

When the same event was played in Paris 2 years ago, I attended the final match, a captivating overtime game between Paris and Montpellier. Played at Paris Handball’s arena, the Stade de Coubertin, however, only about half of the 4,800 seats were filled. If they had played at Paris Bercy, the closest thing that all of France has to an NBA style arena, it would have been a cavernous emptiness. And I’ve been to games where the French National Team has played at Bercy and while there was a good crowd, there never was a sellout of all 15,000 seats. So if you can’t get a huge crowd in France, logic dictates it will be an even bigger challenge in Miami, where there is a much smaller fan base. A more realistic goal will be to fill the lower sections. Still a challenge, but potentially doable with an aggressive advertising campaign and an assist from the new USA Handball Federation.

And how could the new Federation help? Well, 11-12 April 2009 does coincide with the traditional timing for the USA National Championships. Miami has never hosted a Championship, so it would be logical for it to do so next year. The Federation would also do well, to coordinate the timing of the matches as to not conflict with the LNH games. As I think 2 matches are envisioned for both days, this would probably mean scheduling Nationals over 4 days (Thursday-Sunday) as opposed to the traditional 3 days (Friday-Sunday). Additionally, the Federation could look into playing some matches like the USA Club Championship Finale as warm up matches at the Miami Arena itself. Finally, the Collegiate Nationals have been held in a separate location in recent years. Next year that Championship too should be played in Miami.

If the National Tournaments are in Miami that would immediately add around 500 fans ( maybe more/maybe less). Not placing Nationals in Miami, however, could mean that those same 500 fans would not be there. As clubs plan their trips you could have a situation where a handball fan/player is forced to make a budgetary choice between flying to Nationals (location TBD) or Miami.

Perhaps it’s a little too soon to specify exactly what steps the new Federation should take. It’s a given, however, that they should engage proactively with the Miami organizers.  It’s also a given that any American who calls himself a Handball fan should find their way to Miami next April. I’ll be there in the front row. You won’t be able to miss me wearing my Mladen Bojinovich autographed jersey. [/html]

The EHF Champions League website recently published an interview http://www.ehfcl.com/men/2007-08/article/11388/Interwetten:+passionate+support+for+the+CL on their website with the CEO of one of their advertising partners. What’s notable, is that the marketing partner is an internet gambling company, Interwetten www.interwetten.com

Here’s my favorite exchange from the short interview:

“Eurohandball.com: You have seen an exciting game in Kiel, probably also exciting for those betting on it.

Thomas Daubek: It’s a men’s world: a fair, fast, technically very high level game, maybe the best match I have ever seen. I’m happy that I had a chance to watch it.

When the atmosphere gets through on TV to the people watching from their homes, they are ready to place their bets on it. This is an important circle: when the sports are high quality, there are many people betting on it. When many bet on it, there will be a financial basis to reinvest into it from our side, which we are willing to do. “

As an American it’s laughable to even conceptualize the NBA or the NFL having such a sponsor and posting an interview exchange like that on their official website. The major professional leagues are so frightened of gambling that they barely will even acknowledge the huge impact that betting has had on sport popularity. Of course, this fear is legitimate as scandals like the Black Sox in 1918 on college basketball in the 1950’s were devastating to those sports popularity.

The big news last year was that the NBA played the All-Star game in Vegas as a trial balloon to see if Vegas might be ready for an NBA franchise. Of course, the condition for a franchise is reportedly that Vegas will have to agree not to book NBA games. Contrast that to the CEO’s comments.

I’ll have to say, however, that I’ve evolved since I first wrote on this topic: http://teamhandball.blogspot.com/2005/12/ihf-marketing-policy-on-gambling-open.html Maybe, if you see enough games with advertisements in plain view your American puritan blood is thinned.

Maybe it is better to actually fully embrace gambling rather than ignore it entirely. Heck, if they want to help fund the sport, why not? The only caveat I would have, however, is that there need to be some very clear rules and penalties for players, coaches and officials regarding their involvement with gambling. I would think life time banishment would be the minimum penalty. It would be interesting to know whether such rules exist in the IHF, EHF and National Regulations. As the recent Asian Championship match between Kuwait and Iran shows the possibility for match manipulation is very real.

Hopefully, such a betting scandal never occurs, but it wouldn’t hurt to be ready to respond forcefully when it does. Or even better, make clear to everyone right now that the penalties are so severe that they outweigh any potential gains.

Well there’s nothing like people losing money to stir up strong emotions. If you’ve been following the controversy related to the ISAE and Bern Wulffen you’ll see that it’s received a lot of interest from our readers. And, unfortunately some of those readers have gotten a little bit too personal in their comments or have decided to use our site for their own agendas. As I’ve got a full time job and don’t have the time and/or inclination to monitor comments regularly something has got to give.

So here’s the deal. I’m turning off the comments on news articles that I think could result in a lot of commentary that might need policing. Readers wishing to rant, however, still have a couple of options:

1) Start your own handball website or blog
2) Post in the forum section on Team Handball News. (Link is at the top of the page)

The 1st option will allow you to spout off without monitoring. The 2nd option will be monitored, but, as far as I’m concerned, readers will have more leeway as to what they write there. Just keep it relatively clean.

As for the comments that were posted, I’ve moved them to the forum. Feel free to continue the discussion there.