Top Bundesliga side Flensburg has long been known for its strong Danish connections. Located on the Germany – Denmark border, their current roster includes 7 Danes and if you visit their website you can choose your language: German or Danish.
http://www.sg-flensburg-handewitt.de/home.html
On Friday, Montpellier signed Tunisian Center-Back, and last year's LNH MVP, Heykel Megannem to a 4 year contract starting next
Summer. http://www.montpellierhandball.com/actus.php?m=1&a=383 Assuming that Sobhi Sioud, Wissem Hmam, Issam Tej, and Marouene Maggaiez stay with the team it will now be possible for Montpellier to field every position but the wings with Tunisian players.

Montpellier has taken steps to market this demographic and many of their games are now also shown on Tunisian TV. Is it only a matter of time before the homepage invites visitors to chose their language? French or Arabic.

Zagreb Coach Nenad Klajic at the press conference following his team’s 21-23 loss to Flensburg: “I do not expect amazing things from Flensburg in Tschechow (Russia). We would rather come third in the group and gain international experience in the Cup Winner’s Cup. A top club in the last sixteen is still too early for this young team.”

Flensburg player, Johnny Jensen, who heard these words in the press conference, was flabbergasted: “Actually, we also want to win in Russia…”

As Zagreb needs Flensburg to win at Chehovskie Medvedi next weekend, Klajic’s comment are probably intended to incite the Germans into giving a 100% effort in a game that is meaningless to them now that Flensburg is assured 1st place. At least, I can’t imagine anyone in the world really wanting to play in the 3rd string Cup Winner’s Cup instead of the Champions League Round of 16.

Memo to coach Klajic: If you really want to go to the Cup Winner’s you don’t need to rely on a less than amazing Flensburg performance. All you have to do is lose to winless Skopje on Sunday. Here’s hoping that is exactly what happens.

Source: http://championsleague.eurohandball.com/index.asp?page=20071071X,1410#scroll

From time to time, I surf the web to find out what other handball sites are online. Recently, I’ve recently discovered two English language web forums with a lot of good online discussion. These two forums have been added to our links section on the right hand side and a short description of what you will find in the forums is below.

The Betting Advice Forum http://forum.bettingadvice.com/viewforum.php?f=67 as you can guess by the title is very much focused on handball betting. But even if you never make a wager, you’ll probably find it’s interesting to see the viewpoints expressed on who’s going to win the major National Team and Club Team competitions.

The Kometal Fan Forum, http://www.kometalfans.com/forum/index.php is a broader forum with English language discussion on a variety of topics. Kometal is a top Macedonian club, but the nearly 1,000 forum members have addresses all over the world. If you’re looking for the results of a tournament, some background information on the latest EHF/IHF press release, or whether a live internet broadcast is available on the web this forum is often a good place to start.

International Herald Tribune sports reporter, Christopher Clarey, illustrates how it’s now possible to be a fan of any sport, practically anywhere. http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/26/sports/arena.php

Handball is certainly making inroads in this direction, particularly with the EHF’s broadcast of Champions League games last year, but the technology isn’t quite there yet. Sooner than you might think, however, the day will come when you will be able to view handball matches from around the world, anywhere in the world, any time you want to.

[b]The wired fan can stay local but dream global[/b]

Christopher Clarey / International Herald Tribune
Published: October 26, 2006

BOSTON: It was a Tuesday in Massachusetts, but it could just as easily have been a Tuesday in Paris or Dubai.
On the television screen in my home office, Liverpool was playing Bordeaux in Europe's Champions League, with Barcelona-Chelsea and Madrid's Masters Series tennis tournament already on the digital video recorder's hard drive and set for later viewing.
On the laptop screen, in leisurely succession, were Web sites that are the quotidian touchstones of my business: chinadaily.com for Chinese sports; marca.com for Spain; asahi.com for Japan; lequipe.fr for France and beyond.
Then there were the Web windows into single sports: golfobserver.com; skiracing,com; thedailysail.com, truehoop.com, iaaf.org for track and field and home.cogeco.ca/~courtcoverage for tennis.
It is the bubble in which I live when I am not on the road this time of year, and though there was a period, far from sepia-hued, when immersing myself in the international sports scene to this degree would have been impossible in any time zone, it is now possible in just about any time zone.
Globalization has its downsides, from homogenization to west Nile virus in cold climates to the difficulty of keeping a great, low-key beach resort in Asia a secret for long. But one of the upsides is that it allows you to order a la carte from the vast menu of life.
As usual, this is more expensive than the prix fixe menu. Broadband Internet and the right cable or satellite television package can take a bite out of the budget – well over $100 a month in my case. But the bubble is as much a hallmark of modern life among the border- crossing, culture-snacking class as a triband cellphone or frequent-flier points.
Food set the tone long ago, with cosmopolitan cities allowing their inhabitants the buzz of choosing between Chinese, Thai, Mongolian, Provençal, Tuscan, Japanese and more, sometimes all in the same neighborhood.
But it took until now for the technology to allow you to dislocate yourself thoroughly in your own home, giving you the possibility to surround yourself not only with those paintings you bought in Spain but with those radio stations you listened to in Spain when you were trying to keep track of Real Madrid or Real Betis before driving the kids to dance class.
That you are outside the culture now is beside the point. Of course you can't duplicate the feeling of community that comes with watching Spanish sports in Spain, immersed in the collective groans and cheers and next-day analysis. But what you can do is create your own personalized sports culture, and the truly remarkable part is that you can do it whether you live in the woods well out of day-tripping distance of a major sports stadium or whether you're just a short stroll from the Parc des Princes.
You can't quite have it all yet. Though the Internet continues to build virtual real estate, it is still not filling some of the niches and needs that sports television is ignoring.
My brother-in-law, an American in London, would like to watch his beloved Nebraska Cornhuskers play college football live every week in the autumn but has to settle for listening to their games on Internet radio unless the North American Sports Network happens to showcase Nebraska as one of its two or three college games a week.
Even when the Web is filling niches and low-level demand by putting any Champions League game on your computer screen for a price in North America or NFL games on your computer screen for a price in Europe, the picture often remains too fickle and small to qualify as true value for money.
But there is no question that you can still inflate your own bubble, filling it with the sights and sites, the cheers and jeers of your choosing.
When I first moved to France in the early 1990s, your best hope for following Major League Baseball from afar was the line score in a daily newspaper. Now you have a fine chance of being able to watch the regular-season game of your choosing on the Internet or even on television, now that North American Sports Network has started up its channel as part of a satellite service in France.
"I can now live here," e-mailed my friend Ron Halpern, a New Yorker turned longtime Paris resident, after North American's announcement this month.
The question for the sports fan with international tastes is fast becoming, "Where can't you live?"

As you might have guessed from this title, my ( Eurosport, Eurosport 2, Sport Plus) https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?extend.153 problems have been solved. A colleague at work has just purchased a British SKY TV satellite package. Apparently his kids wanted their Premiership Soccer and Eurosport 2 was part of the overall Sports package. So now a steady stream of videotape is being exchanged. A side benefit is that I also get English language commentary from Carlton Kirby and Paul Bray, who is now in his 20th year of broadcasting handball. http://www.sportfocus.com/webpro/handball/nlstory.cfm?ID=20715&NLID=42045 I remember first hearing his commentary when I was in Sweden for the 1993 World Championships and his distinctly British style hasn’t change a bit. Certainly, the “barging” calls bring a chuckle to this American viewer. If you live in the UK and haven’t figured out how to get Eurosport 2 on your TV, don’t even begin to call yourself a Handball fan.

I can only hope that the EHF will start internet broadcasting these games and more importantly, aggressively try to find sports networks in the US, Canada, and Australia to air these games. Heck, give it away for free if you have to, but get the sport on TV in those markets, even if its at 2:00 AM.

As I highlighted previously https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.117 USA Rugby and the IRB (International Rugby Board (Rugby’s equivalent to the IHF)) have been aggressively trying to increase the popularity of Rugby in the US. This article titled “American Dreams” from the Sunday Times in London, profiless the new Chairman of the Board for USA Rugby and his plans for the sport: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2094-2393601.html The new Chairman, Kevin Roberts, is also the CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, a major advertising firm, and has had previous success securing marketing contracts for Rugby powerhouse, New Zealand. He also appears to be someone who likes to cut to the chase. Case in point is his response to reports that he had essentially handpicked the new board, “I did want to pick my own board. At this stage of my career, I didn’t want to work with dickheads.” (Sounds straight out of the Mike Hurdle phrase book, although this guy has a little more of a resume to back up the talk)

This second article highlights the NFL’s efforts to efforts to increase the popularity of American Football in Europe. http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/06/sports/ARENA.php American Football has been a tough sell in Europe and it’s not a coincidence that it has done best in Germany, where there isn’t a popular competing outdoor contact sport (rugby). You’ve got to give the NFL credit for trying. And surely, if the Washington Redskins can have a French Linebacker training with them, then couldn’t Montpellier can have an American Goalie on their training team as well.

Bottom Line: Why aren’t the more successful Handball Institutions exerting a little bit more effort to make Handball more popular in the US and other nations where it barely registers a blip on the national sports scene?

The addition of several broadcasts of Champions League on Eurosport 2 is only good news if you have access to Eurosport 2. Living in France one would think this would be a simple matter of calling your cable company to add that channel to your contract. Unfortunately, my current provider, Noos, doesn’t have Eurosport 2 as an option. Oh well, I thought, it’s just a simple matter of switching to another provider. A bit of a hassle, but probably worth it. But then, I discovered that there is no provider in France that offers both Sport Plus (which has the rights for the French club games in the Champions league) and Eurosport 2. So, instead I would have to pay for an entirely new setup in order to receive only 1 more channel. Argggh!

While doing this research, I also found out some interesting facts about Handball on TV in the world, such as:

1) The EHF (or the IHF) often sells the TV rights to an event to a media company. For instance, the EHF sold the European Championships for National Teams to Infront sports. http://www.infrontsports.com/mediarights/european-handball.html Infront sports then sells the rights piecemeal throughout the world, usually on a country by country basis. These rights also include internet broadcasts and this unfortunately makes it less likely that there will be free internet broadcasts. The EHF might have a long term market broadening interest to promote the sport, but Infront, as the middleman, will simply try and squeeze as much revenue out of the TV rights as possible.

2) Internet broadcast rights can be regionalized and this is already being done for other sports like rugby that are also available on local television markets. The idea being that the local television market doesn’t want internet competition. I would argue, however, that the difference in video quality is so great that very few people won’t shell out the money for TV if it’s available. Hopefully, if concerns about the internet siphoning off too many viewers becomes too great the EHF will regionalize their internet broadcasts to places like the United States where matches are not available on TV.

3) As best I can tell the TV rights for the Champions League are being sold directly by the EHF and are probably a complex hodge-podge of contracts. Each country has their own TV networks, varying fan interest, and varying ability to pay. For instance, fan interest is probably pretty high in Eastern Europe, but the market price there is probably lower than it is in some Western Europe countries with a higher standard of living. This has got to be an incredible headache for the EHF marketing staff. There are certainly some economies of scale when you consider that leagues like the NFL can sell one contract for 300 Million people in the US.

4) Handball is available on TV in more places in the world then you might think. Courtesy of Canal Satellite, Handball is broadcast to French territories and French speaking regions in the Caribbean, Africa and the South Pacific. For instance, as parts of North America are within the Caribbean satellite footprint, in theory, those signals would be available to anyone with a contract with Canalsat. You would probably need to pretend to be ordering from one of the countries listed on the website. http://www.canalsatellite-caraibes.com/, but it could probably be done. It wouldn’t surprise me if some French expats in Florida have actually done so. Perhaps the same thing could also be done in Australia for the New Caledonia feed. And best that I can tell, the English language broadcasts on Eurosport 2 can also be picked up by anyone in Europe with a sky satellite contract and the appropriate sports package.

When Europeans are introduced to Team Handball in the United States they are often puzzled by the lack of structured league play as this is totally different from the organization they are familiar with. Instead of a double round robin of season long league competition (one game a weekend), the US model is often to get in your car Friday night, drive 5 hours, play 6 games over two days, drive your aching body back home Sunday night. That is if you didn’t have to shell out $300 for plane tickets.

In terms of why the US has featured weekend tournaments the reasons are principally related to geography, lack of club commitments and organization.

Geography, of course, is related to the costs of travel. Quite simply, it is less practical for amateur clubs to travel vast distances for one or two matches. The logic being that if you’re going to travel 6 hours to play handball you might as well get your time and money’s worth. The lack of club commitments and organization also steers more organized clubs to prefer tournaments that they organize and control independently. If you host the tournament, charge entry fees and do the organization, you don’t have to worry about other less organized clubs failing to commit to reciprocate properly. Additionally, many clubs can throw together a team for one weekend, but simply don’t have the organization or facilities to host a game. On top of all these reasons, the European model of a national federation playing a primary role in organizing leagues doesn’t apply in the US for other more established sports, let alone handball.

While I won’t argue in favor of totally adopting the European model https://teamhandballnews.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.12
onto a nation with different sporting traditions and a vastly different geography (i.e. the US is huge), I will argue that we definitely need more leagues in the US. The recent trends have been positive with 3 leagues operating last year and more recently the alliance formed between the Quebec league and the North East Team Handball Conference. With the new alliance not every team is going to play every other team twice and the match schedule some weekends is too busy, but despite those shortcomings it has the makings of quite a good competition. The teams involved must think so. Especially Alberta, which is making 3 plane flights 2000 miles east to participate! In fact, I would argue that winning this season long league is more prestigious than winning either the Canadian or American long weekend National Championships. Hopefully, other parts of the US will see the success of the NETHC/Quebec Alliance and it will spur further league development.

In fact, it’s still only September, so there’s still time to organize league play for this season. A rhetorical question, but wouldn’t it make more sense for Carolina, ATH, the Condors, Houston Clubs, and Miami to organize a league instead of their own individual tournaments?

Well, the USOC asked for sport development ideas and suggestions, so I took advantage of the opportunity. Here’s a summary of my suggestions:

– Establish an informal or formal partnership with the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK, Ireland and India Handball Federations:
— Develop an English-language marketing strategy to make television available to those countries.
— Partner with the English speaking nations to develop a European based sports academy/club.
– Establish a new competition as a bridge between club and national team play:
– Create an All-American Collegiate Team:
– Sell DVD copies of US matches:

More detail is provided in the extended post

[b]Establish an informal or formal partnership with the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK, Ireland and India Handball Federations[/b]: These nations have many common traits when it comes to Handball. Namely, they have developing programs that are not competitive and they speak English. Additionally, these nations and the US have demographics that present tremendous growth opportunities for Team Handball. Alone these nations may have difficulty in engaging with the EHF and IHF to further develop the sport in their country. Combined as one unified voice they could, however, have a greater impact. Areas that they should work together to commonly address:

– Develop an English-language marketing strategy to make television available to those countries. If video rights are waved for those nations and quality English language production can be made available at nominal cost, these markets would be ripe for increased exposure and growth. Such a strategy should be done in conjunction with the EHF and IHF and involve a concerted effort to get Handball on television. Additionally, someone with marketing expertise from one of the major US sports should be hired to effectively execute this strategy. The USOC alone could not do this, but the nations identified above, along with the EHF and IHF could.
– Partner with the English speaking nations to develop a European based sports academy/club. As the British Handball Association is already establishing a partnership with 2 Danish Sports Academies, I see no reason why such a partnership couldn’t be broadened to include athletes from all of the above nations. Subject to available funding, a limited number of athletes with significant potential should be sent to those Academies. The overall common costs could then be shared by the member nations pooling their resources together.

[b]Establish a new competition as a bridge between club and national team play: [/b] The gap in terms of the level of play between USA club competition and international competition is huge. To help bridge this gap a new competition, similar to the discontinued US Olympic Festival should be established. Club players with the potential to eventually play on the US National Team would be selected to play on regional teams. Teams would practice for one week and then play games for another week. This could be either strictly an American competition or structured as a combined Canadian/American competition, similar to what was developed by USA and Canadian Rugby with support from the International Rugby Board:
Official Site http://www.narugby.com/news.html
Wikipedia short descriptionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_America_4

[b]Create an All-American Collegiate Team: [/b] Similar to USA Rugby’s All-Americans a college all-star team could be established. This team would train together for a week to 10 days and then travel to Europe for 2 weeks of matches. Ideally, this would be fully funded, but if this is not feasible players would be notified that a portion of the trip would be self-funded. Such a team would provide a realistic goal for college handball athletes and serve as a stepping stone between club and national team play. http://www.usarugby.org/natteams/caa/index.html

[b]Sell DVD copies of US matches: [/b] While there is not a huge market for these DVDs, making these DVDs available for purchase will allow fans to feel more connected to the National Team programs. A simple way to set-up distribution would be to give the rights to sell to a youth program such as the CODP in Atlanta. They could then take responsibility for making copies of the DVD and shipping to interested parties. A nominal fee (perhaps $4) could be charged and proceeds could go to the youth program.

Within the past year there have been a number of lopsided scores in International Team Handball competitions. The English Men’s Junior team got pasted 67-3 https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.71 by Sweden and the Canadian Men’s and Women’s Teams were blitzed by Brazil and Argentina just this past week at the PATHF Junior Championships. https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.141
Such lopsided matches are nothing new and certainly are not restricted to Junior Teams. The Australian Senior Women’s and Men’s programs took a beating at the last World Championships (57-9: Women vs Hungary; 49-16: Men vs Sweden) And just to make sure that no one thinks that I’m neglecting to mention any US embarrassments I will point out a few scores from at the 2001 Men’s World Championships. (41-12 vs Croatia; 45-18 vs Spain) And on an even more personal note, when I played at the 1993 World Championships we played and lost all 6 of our matches by an average of 15 goals.

So, the question that is often asked is, “What’s the point of these massacres?” And the summary judgment is usually along the lines of, “These pathetic teams have no business even being on the same floor as the best in the world.” Or “Too bad, I’m not an American. If I were I could be playing in the World Championships.” Beyond the negative rhetoric, here’s the standard for and against arguments that I have heard:

Arguments against playing these matches:
– The inexperienced team is going to injure the experienced players with some risky play
– The games are not entertaining for spectators
– The difference in skill level is so great that the inexperienced team is going to learn nothing from these encounters

Arguments for playing these matches:
– The inexperienced team is going to learn how to better play the game (i.e. seeing somebody execute a perfect swim move and drop-off pass to the circle is one thing, having it done 1 on 1 against you at full speed is another thing entirely)
– The inexperienced team is going to find out exactly how far behind the more skilled teams they are by virtue of the final score. And they are going to see if they are improving or getting worse from year to year.
– These matches are inclusive in that they make a World Championship something more than a European Championship (with a few extras, like South Korea and Tunisia)

Well, as you can probably tell by how I’ve framed these arguments, I am definitely in the “For Playing” camp. In particular, I think I can build a case against each of the “Against playing” arguments. While they are legitimate arguments they can and are being mitigated.
– Inexperience play leading to injury: A definite concern but this can easily be rectified by a minimal amount of coaching to teach players that they can’t do dangerous things like grabbing a shooting arm from behind. Good players will still risk injury, but every time a player steps on the court they risk injury. Additionally, a game against a weak opponent is often one that won’t count in the standings and allows some top players to not play or see only limited action.
– Games not entertaining: There’s no way around this fact. I know I prefer to see two evenly matched top caliber teams. However, the IHF has done a good job of scheduling and seeding World Championship matches. Yes, there will be some non-entertaining matches, but usually those matches are paired with a good match in a double-header format.
– Difference in skill level is too great: When I played at the World Championships, we took a beating in almost every match. There were, however, stretches when we held our own against the top teams, including only being down by 4 at halftime against Sweden in front of their home crowd. The difference was huge, but we were close enough athletic wise to learn a lot from the experience. But what about teams that are getting blitzed by 40, 50, even 60 goals? Can those players really learn anything from that sort of experience? The answer is still yes, but I would agree that there are diminishing returns as the difference in the teams becomes more pronounced. Still, despite total annihilation, you can’t help but learn something and I bet if you were to ask almost any player who has experienced such a defeat whether they gained anything you are going to get a positive response.

In fact, if the raw athletic ability is there it’s only a matter of time and experience until those teams can close the gap. A case in point is the Swedish women’s hockey team upset of the highly favored USA Women’s team at the Torino Olympics. https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?extend.32 The Swedish players and coaches made the point repeatedly that they never would have been able to improve without the Canadians and Americans being willing to play them when they were not a competitive team. If some of the less experienced teams can keep their teams together long enough (and add some European club experiences for their top players) you’ll eventually see the same thing happen in Handball. Of course, one could argue that it’s already happened in the case of the Tunisia Men and Brazilian Women. The jury is still out and we will see what happens in 2007

The USA is not participating in any of the four ongoing PATHF Junior and Youth competitions. The rhetorical question is, “Why not?”

Well, with the USOC‘s decertification of USA Team Handball, there isn’t a functioning National Governing Body (NGB) to organize and send teams to this competition. The USOC could theoretically field teams, but this would be extremely challenging with the current state of affairs. I know that the US has sent teams to Junior competitions in the past and hopefully they will be able to participate in future events.

Participating in these age based championships, however, is challenging for the US for a number of reasons.

The most glaring reason, of course, is the relatively late age that players have traditionally picked up the sport in the US. For many, myself included, the first exposure to the sport was in college after their career playing one or more of the traditional American sports has ended. If an athlete is only beginning the sport at age 19 it is unrealistic to expect that he will be competitive against athletes that have been playing the sport for years. There are and have been some youth programs in the United States, (notably the Rock Handball program http://www.rockteamhandball.org/ and the Community Olympic Development Program in Atlanta http://www.communityteamhandball.com/ ) but this is still a pretty thin talent pool to work with.

Another challenge for US teams is the scheduling of the Pan Am Championships. Often this tournament has taken place while schools are in session. As the tournaments are currently ongoing it might not have interfered with some school schedules, but it would have interfered with classes at West Point and the Air Force Academy- two programs that have contributed several players to previous championships.

Finally, there is the issue of cost. Funding a trip down to South America isn’t cheap. With limited resources sometimes choices have to be made concerning which tournaments and programs will be supported. It would be nice if there was enough money to fund everything, but unfortunately that is not the current state of affairs.

Participating in Youth and Junior competitions should become an integral part of the US program as these players could then become the core of the Senior Programs. Additionally, if talented athletes were to participate in these World Championships they could also parlay strong individual performances into contracts with European Clubs. The American athletes playing overseas could then become the stars that US teams could be built around (like Bruno Souza for Brazil and Eric Gull for Argentina).

Without question Club Team Handball in Europe is the best in the world in terms of quality of play and organization. To even begin to compare it with the handball club system in the United States would be ridiculous. But, if you compare European Club Handball with flourishing amateur and professional leagues in other American Sports it’s Handball that clearly has a lot to improve upon.

Case in point is the overwhelming disparity between the top and bottom clubs in the Champions League.

The Champions League tournament is modeled after the European Soccer equivalent and includes every national club champion from the previous season, plus extra top teams from Spain, Germany, Denmark, France, Hungary, and Slovenia. In total, this competition includes 39 teams and is a combination of group play and two game aggregate knock out competition. But how many of these 39 teams have a realistic shot at the title? If you believe the oddsmakers, the answer is that only 5 teams have a better than 11-1 shot of winning (Ciudad Real, Barcelona, Porland San Antonio, Kiel, and Flensburg), while 8 other teams are given an outside shot (17-1 to 66-1) (Valladolid, Celje, Veszprem, Chambery, Montpellier, Zagreb, Gummersbach, and Chehovskie Medvedi). This leaves 26 other teams with odds no better than 100-1 and in many cases much worse. These teams have no chance of winning the tournament and just advancing out of the group stage would be major upset. The reality for these teams is that just being in the Champions League and having the opportunity to get a lucrative home date with Ciudad Real or Kiel is their victory.

Well, you might say this is to be expected. It’s not really very realistic to think that the top team from Luxembourg, Iceland or Poland can compete against the big money salaries provided to players in the German and Spanish leagues. Fair enough, but why have this system in place? Wouldn’t it be much better to take the top 16 teams and set up 4 very competitive groups from top to bottom. I know that Portland San Antonio- Kiel would have much greater appeal to me than say Portland San Antonio vs Sarajevo. And this is precisely why the German and Spanish Leagues want to move the Champions League matches from weekend nights to midweek. Quite simply they feel that they are losing money at the turnstiles when they have to switch their more marquee national league matches to mid-week to make room for less than stellar Champion League matches on the weekend.

But the problem of disparity is not just a cross-border competition phenonmenon. It is also a very stark problem in the national leagues as well. According to the oddsmakers the Spanish, German, French and Danish leagues also are case of the have’s and have not’s. Here are the odds for these 3 leagues

Spanish League (odds to win)
CIUDAD REAL (1 to 1)
FC BARCELONA (2.15 to 1)
PORTLAND SAN ANTONIO (4 to 1)
VALLADOLID (17 to 1)
ADEMAR LEON (17 to 1)
CAI ARAGON (80 to 1)
ANTEQUERA (100 to 1)
DARIEN LOGRONO (100 to 1)
GRANOLLERS (150 to 1)
ALGECIRAS (500 to 1)
ALTEA (500 to 1)
ARRATE (500 to 1)
BIDASOA (500 to 1)
CANTABRIA (500 to 1)
KEYMARE ALMERIA (500 to 1)
TORREVIEJA (500 to 1)

German League
THW Kiel (-133) (Bet 133 to win 100)
SG Flensburg-Handewitt (1.7 to 1)
SC Magdeburg (8 to 1)
VfL Gummers Bach (13 to 1)
HSV Hamburg (19 to 1)
TBV Lemgo (19 to 1)
FA Göppingen (79 to 1)
HSG Nordhorn (79 to 1)
SG Kronau-Östringen (79 to 1)
TV Großwallstadt (79-1)
MT Messenger (349 to 1)
Wilhelmshavener HV (349 to 1)
HBW Balingen-Weilstetten (349 to 1)
Eintracht Hildesheim (349 to 1)
GWD Minden (349 to 1)
TuS N-Lübbecke (349 to 1)
HSG Wetzlar (349 to 1)
HSG Düsseldorf (349 to 1)

Danish League
GOG Svendborg TGI (1.35 to 1)
KIF Kolding (1.65 to 1)
FCK Håndbold (6.5 to 1)
Viborg HK (11 to 1)
Århus GF (16 to 1)
Skjern Håndbold (16 to 1)
Team TVIS Holstebro (74 to 1)
AAB Håndbold (80 to 1)
Bjerringbro-Silkeborg (100 to 1)
TMS Ringsted (1000 to 1)
Elite 3000 Helsingor (1000 to 1)
Ajax Heroes (1000 to 1)
Lemvig Håndbold (1000 to 1)
Fredericia HK (1000 to 1)
Elite 3000 Helsingor 1001.00
Lemvig Haandbold 1001.00

French League
Montpellier (-400) (Bet 400 to win 100)
Chambery (6.5 to 1)
Paris (6.5 to 1)
Ivry (14 to 1)
Dunkerque (20 to 1)
Creteil (28 to 1)
USAM Nimes (80 to 1)
Porte-Normande (100 to 1)
Istres (400 to 1)
Pontault-Combault (400 to 1)
Toulouse (400 to 1)
Selestat (500 to 1)
Tremblay (500 to 1)
Villeurbanne HA (500 to 1)

Once again, the disparity between the top and bottom is striking. The Spanish league has Ciudad Real at even money to win and only 4 other teams have a realistic shot. In Germany, Kiel is better than even money, Flensburg is not far behind and only 4 other team are even within striking distance. In Denmark, Svendborg and Kolding are huge favorites and 4 others follow close behind. The French League situation is the most split, with my “favorite team” http://teamhandball.blogspot.com/2005/10/top-10-reasons-why-i-love-to-hate.html
an overwhelming 1 to 4 favorite, a cluster of 5 teams between 6.5 to 1 and 28-1 and the rest of the league at 80-1 or higher. Big deal, you might say, all leagues consists of favorites and longshots. True, but the difference here is simply too great. Compare and contrast for instance the odds to win with the upcoming NFL, NBA, and the NHL titles in North America:

National Football League
INDIANAPOLIS COLTS (6 to 1)
NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS (9 to 1)
CAROLINA PANTHERS (12 to 1)
DALLAS COWBOYS (12 to 1)
PITTSBURGH STEELERS (12 to 1)
SEATTLE SEAHAWKS (12 to 1)
CHICAGO BEARS (16 to 1)
DENVER BRONCOS (16 to 1)
WASHINGTON REDSKINS (16 to 1)
CINCINNATI BENGALS (20 to 1)
KANSAS CITY CHIEFS (20 to 1)
MIAMI DOLPHINS (20 to 1)
NEW YORK GIANTS (20 to 1)
PHILADELPHIA EAGLES (25 to 1)
SAN DIEGO CHARGERS (25 to 1)
ATLANTA FALCONS (27 to 1)
BALTIMORE RAVENS (27 to 1)
JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS (30 to 1)
TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS (33 to 1)
ARIZONA CARDINALS (40 to 1)
CLEVELAND BROWNS (60 to 1)
MINNESOTA VIKINGS (60 to 1)
GREEN BAY PACKERS (66 to 1)
ST LOUIS RAMS (66 to 1)
NEW ORLEANS SAINTS (80 to 1)
BUFFALO BILLS (100 to 1)
DETROIT LIONS (100 to 1)
NEW YORK JETS (100 to 1)
OAKLAND RAIDERS (100 to 1)
TENNESSEE TITANS (125 to 1)
HOUSTON TEXANS (160 to 1)
SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS (200 to 1)

NBA
SA Spurs (4.5 to 1)
DAL Mavericks (5.5 to 1)
DET Pistons (5.5 to 1)
MIA Heat (4.5 to 1)
PHX Suns 7/1
NJ Nets 14/1
DEN Nuggets 16/1
CLE Cavaliers 16/1
LA Clippers 20/1
IND Pacers 22/1
HOU Rockets 25/1
LA Lakers 28/1
MEM Grizzlies 28/1
SAC Kings 28/1
CHI Bulls 33/1
WAS Wizards 33/1
MIL Bucks 40/1
ORL Magic 40/1
PHI 76ers 40/1
UTA Jazz 40/1
BOS Celtics 50/1
NO Hornets 50/1
GS Warriors 66/1
MIN Timberwolves 66/1
SEA Supersonics 66/1
TOR Raptors 80/1
CHA Bobcats 100/1
NY Knicks 125/1
ATL Hawks 150/1
POR Trailblazers 150/1

NHL
Detroit Red Wings 6-1
Ottawa Senators 7-1
New Jersey Devils 12-1
Calgary Flames 12-1
Buffalo Sabres 12-1
Philadelphia Flyers 12-1
Carolina Hurricanes 10-1
Dallas Stars 15-1
San Jose Sharks 15-1
Anaheim Mighty Ducks 12-1
Nashville Predators 20-1
Edmonton Oilers 25-1
Colorado Avalanche 20-1
New York Rangers 18-1
Vancouver Canucks 20-1
Tampa Bay Lightning 25-1
Montreal Canadiens 30-1
Atlanta Thrashers 30-1
Florida Panthers 30-1
Toronto Maple Leafs 40-1
Columbus Blue Jackets 40-1
Minnesota Wild 40-1
Los Angeles Kings 50-1
New York Islanders 50-1
Boston Bruins 48-1
Phoenix Coyotes 50-1
Washington Capitals 100-1
Chicago Blackhawks 100-1
St Louis Blues 100-1
Pittsburgh Penguins 90-1

Yes, there are favorites and longshots here, but there are also two key differences. First, the favorites are not overwhelming favorites. The top favorite is certainly not even money and is no better than 4.5 to 1 for the NBA co-favorites San Antonio and Miami. Additionally, there is a grouping of teams all within the neighborhood of the top favorite. In the NFL and NHL, in particular, there are a lot of teams that can realistically start the year and think they can win the championship. The second major point is that the longshots are not out of this world longshots. Teams have come out of nowhere to win titles in these leagues or at least have given the bookies a tremendous scare with a totally unexpected successful season. This is why you won’t see 500-1 or 1000-1 very often in professional US sports. The NFL concept of “on any given Sunday any team, can beat another team” is very true.

There are several reasons behind this parity, but the principal reasons are franchise stability, revenue sharing, player drafts and salary caps. Franchise stability is a result of American teams not having to worry about relegation to the lower league. Revenue sharing, is the concept by which league money (principally TV money) is shared equally between all the teams. Player drafts are a means to allow the worst teams from the previous season to have exclusive rights to sign new talent. Salary caps are a league provision that limits the overall total of money each team can spend on players. To my knowledge, revenue sharing is the only element of these four parity measures that are used by any of these leagues.

If European Handball Leagues were to institute some of these provisions the result would be more evenly matched teams and more compelling competition. But this is just the tip of the iceberg as far as what could be improved upon. In part 2, I’ll discuss the presentation of the games, scheduling and marketing.

Video on the internet is still in its infancy. Any Handball addict who’s strained his eyes to watch a match on his computer monitor can certainly attest to that fact. While I certainly would prefer a high quality signal straight to my TV this can’t be done yet for a combination of technical and cost/delivery issues. For handball fans in many parts of the world where virtually no TV broadcasts are available, however, internet broadcasts have been a godsend, allowing them to stay connected to the Handball world beyond written media and snail-mailed videotapes.

Aside from the technical challenges that need to be solved, there is also an ongoing debate of how this new media format will best work economically. Essentially, two different models are being experimented with: Fee Based and Advertiser Supported.

Mainstream TV shows have for the most part chosen the fee based model. Shows like Desperate Housewives and Lost can be downloaded for a $1.99 via ITunes . And downloaded they are in large and increasingly profitable numbers.

Sports programming, however, has been more split between the two economic models. This USA Today article http://www.usatoday.com/sports/2006-06-22-net-sports_x.htm highlights how more sports are going on the internet for a fee, but that the advertising model has worked well for the NCAA Basketball Tournament and the World Cup. I personally experienced this advertising model for the NCAA tournament. As I recall, the game was shown through a pop up browser with Marriot Hotels written on the side of the screen. This blog on Internet TV highlights how CBS took in $4.2 Million in advertising revenue using this model: http://www.reinventtv.com/archives/internet_tv/index.html
This article from the Sunday Times http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2103-1714494,00.html
in the UK highlights how Badminton (yes, badminton) is considering a totally dedicated channel to support the demand for content.

Here are some websites that provide video content:
Mediazone: www.mediazone.com
Setanta: www.setanta.com
Sports4all.net: http://www.sports4all.net/ (Used previously by the IHF)
College Sports TV: www.cstv.com

In terms of Handball, both models are in use. Case in point: the two previous news articles on the IHF Women’s Youth Championships and the EHF Men’s Under 20 Championships. For the IHF matches they are charging $4.95 a match and for the EHF matches you are forced to watch a 30 second Samsung commercial prior to entering the live feed.

My Opinion: A fee based system is only sustainable if the picture quality can be improved upon. I can see fans world-wide paying for top matches they can’t get any other way. I know that if I could get a decent picture and didn’t have access to TV broadcasts, I’d be willing to pay for European Championships, World Championships and Champions League Handball matches. With the current state of the technology, however, fee based, in my opinion, is a tough sell. But probably more important to consider is Team Handball’s critical need to expand beyond its currently limited market share world-wide. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that a fee based model will create ZERO new Handball fans. It is simply short-sighted to grab a smattering of revenue now from hard core fans at the expense of the long term revenue that free broadcasts could potentially create with increased interest in the sport world-wide. And as ESPN and CBS have shown, marketing needs aside, advertising supported broadcasts could even be more profitable. It’s worth at least trying!

Closing Thoughts:
EHF- Keep up the good work and thanks for helping to promote Handball world-wide
IHF- It’s time to give advertising supported broadcasts a try. Might I suggest the Men’s World Championships in Germany this January?