Category Archives: John Ryan Commentary

Forget “The Last Dance”, the Documentary for Handball to Copy is “Basketball: A Love Story”

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It doesn’t take much imagination to envision a Handball version of this outstanding documentary.

Why, I Won’t Get on “The Last Dance” Bandwagon

No less than three handball podcasts have speculated recently on what should be the handball version of ESPN’s new documentary, “The Last Dance”.   I understand that with the pandemic a lot of folks have binged all ten hours of this chronicling of the Michael Jordan led Chicago Bulls of the 1990s.  However, despite being a huge basketball fan, I haven’t been one of them.  Why?  Two reasons:

1) I spent the better part of a decade rooting for them to lose.  I can’t bring myself to watch 10 freaking hours celebrating their greatness.  Seriously… Gag me.

2) I recently finished watching 20 hours of the best sports documentary I’ve ever seen:  Basketball: A Love Story.  I didn’t want it to end. The Last Dance would just be a letdown.

  • ESPN site for Basketball: A Love Story: Link
  • Trailer: Link

Why “Basketball: A Love Story”

Basketball: A Love Story is actually 62 loosely connected mini documentaries covering multiple topics.  Some, like a feature on James Naismith were strictly historical.  Others like a segment totally devoted to “passing” were more reflective on specific aspects of the game.  Some tackled more difficult topics such as the NYU point shaving scandal, the Latrell Sprewell incident and racism at Kentucky University.  Others tackled great rivalries like the Celtics-Lakers and classic showdowns like Lebron’s Cavs coming from 3-1 down to beat Golden State.  And, there are player profiles including a handball shout out from Dirk Nowitzki reflecting on his handball playing dad telling him that basketball was a game for girls.   The mini-documentaries use a combination of interviews and archival footage to tell the story.  And, pretty much everybody who is somebody is interviewed except Michael Jordan and Bobby Knight.

What appealed to me was the wide variety of topics and storytelling.  A straight historical documentary covering everything would have been too dry and boring after a while.  But, as it mixed history, social commentary and, at times, the whimsical I was always entertained. And, because they were mini-documentaries they only took the time needed to tell the story so they varied in length from 5 to 30 minutes.

Some stories were a trip down memory lane, reminding me of great games I had seen in the 80s and 90s along with interviews to provide little tidbits that I wasn’t aware of. Other stories were before my time, and that I only kind of/sort of new about such as the stories about the old ABA. One particular favorite was the bizarre story of the deal the owners of the Spirits of St Louis basketball club cut with the NBA when the two leagues merged. A deal that has netted the owners of that defunct club hundreds of millions of dollars for doing essentially nothing.

Handball: A Love Story

As I watched all 20 hours of this documentary I couldn’t help, but wonder about all the handball history and stories that I know absolutely nothing about. And, how, as far as I know, there is next to nothing available in written or video form that could educate me and others interested in learning about the heritage of the game. At least not in English. Case in point: Last year someone wrote an article about Holger Nielsen, arguably the modern day inventor of handball and it was the first account I had ever read about him. That’s kind of crazy when you think about it.

And, surely my lack of knowledge doesn’t stop there. There are surely dozens of mini documentaries that could be made about handball history, personalities and epic battles that took place over the years. Here’s a first cut of the stories I’d like to see in Handball: A Love Story.

History Focused

  • Origins: A story about handball’s beginnings
  • Field Handball
  • Bernhard Kempa and the Kempa play
  • 1972 USA Olympic Team: Make the team… or head to Vietnam

Nation Profiles

  • Greenland Handball: The one nation where handball is #1
  • Iceland Handball: Pound for Pound: the top performing nation
  • French Handball: The dynasty of the 2000s
  • Sweden Handball: Benga’s Boys of the 90s
  • South Korean Women’s program

Club Profiles

  • Flensburg – Kiel: Handball’s top derby
  • Montpellier: The art of the two game aggregate comeback
  • Barcelona
  • Celje: Cradle of handball player development

Individual Profiles

  • Magnus Wislander
  • Erhard “Sepp” Wunderlich
  • Ivano Balic
  • Nikola Karabatic
  • Lars Christiansen
  • Hassan Moustafa
  • Claude Onesta

Aspects of the Game

  • Defense with perhaps a profile of Didier Dinart
  • Wings: Patience on the corners
  • Centerback Maestros

Controversies

  • 2007 Olympic Qualification Kuwait – South Korea

Whimsical

  • The Sri Lankan National Team that disappeared

I realize I’m just scratching the surface… If you have some suggestions for topics and stories that should be considered please let me know on social media or via email at john.ryan@teamhandballnews.com

Straight Handball Talk: Someone Asks Me the Burning Questions for a Change

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Bini Mustafa, the President of the New York City Team Handball Club has been taking advantage of the COVID-19 lock down to interview several handball personalities both in the U.S. and internationally. I was honored to be one of the personalities he chose to interview and it was great to have someone else ask the questions for a change. He through me a couple of curve balls so, in my opinion, it’s a pretty interesting interview.

Here’s a timeline of some of the highlights of our conversation

  • 05:15 My handball origination story
  • 11:30 Playing at the 1993 World Championships
  • 13:50 Bini asks me, “Someone with a resume like yours, a background like yours… Why, are you not involved with the business of USA Team Handball?”
  • 21:50 Bini asks me, “In your opinion, from the practical and tangible aspect of it, what will be considered truly a successful outcome for this new leadership?”
  • 26:15 A discussion on the latest Pro League concept
  • 32:10 Indoor soccer and why that might be the model for a pro handball league
  • 35:10 How USA Team Handball might coordinate with a pro league
  • 36:40 A discussion regarding handball on TV in the U.S.
  • 40:50 The best thing that’s happened to me all year…
  • 42:20 The financial arrangements for handball on TV in the U.S.
  • 44:30 The problems with 3rd party agencies being responsible for selling TV rights in the U.S.
  • 46:50 Why cornhole is on TV and handball isn’t
  • 48:45 Why handball is headed to a better TV network (fingers crossed)
  • 49:45 The reality handball show concept
  • 52:55 Bini asks me, “If you had $10M to invest in handball how and where would you invest it first?”
  • 56:50 The great advice USOPC Executive, Rick Adams, gave USA Team Handball at the 2012 Strategic Planning Session in Utah
  • 59:15 Bini asks me, “Who’s your all time favorite U.S. Club?”
  • 1:02:40 Bini asks me, “Who’s your all time favorite U.S. born player?”
My apologies for forgetting your name, Richard Jacobs!
  • 1:06:50 Bini asks me, “Who is my favorite expat player in the U.S.?
  • 1:08:50 Discussion on U.S. Nationals still taking place this year
  • 1:11:40 Bini asks me, “Who I think is the best player in the world, currently?”
  • 1:13:25 Bini asks me, “If you were to change one rule in handball what would it be?”
  • 1:16:40 Discussion on adding a 13M line for two point goals

And, my interview is just 1 of 10 recently posted. It’s a diverse group that includes Carlos Prieto, Sayed Shalaby, Danilo Rojevic, Ljubomir Vranjes, Vladimir Bicvic, Julio Sainz, Mark Ortega, Gil Pires, Vid Kavticnik, Kim Ekdahl Du Rietz and Laszlo Nagy. That should keep you busy!

Straight Handball Talk Episodes: Link

What We Want (Part 5): The Big, Hairy, Audacious Project

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Yes, that’s the actual title that was given to this mysterious plan. The full details have not been revealed, but the outline of what is hoped to be accomplished is, indeed, truly, big, hairy and audacious.

This is part of an ongoing series: Link

Parts 1-4, covered USA Team Handball’s Strategic Plan which was developed and approved by the Board of Directors. Part 5 identifies what’s known about CEO Barry Siff’s audacious plans for handball in the U.S.

USA Team Handball CEO, Barry Siff, has been on the job now for 13 months and to many, myself included (to some extent), has been a breath of fresh air.  Enthusiastic, energetic with a positive, “can do” attitude.  Those are attributes that folks can get behind.

However, positivity, can only take an organization so far.  You’ve got to have solid plans moving forward.  And, while a strategic plan was awaiting the new CEO, he came into the job with some plans of his own.  To date, not much has been revealed in terms of details, but over the past year some bits and pieces have trickled out.

The Big, Hairy, Audacious Project (Bits and Pieces)

Here’s a compilation of interview quotes and articles that contain the basic elements of the “Big, Hairy, Audacious Project.”  And, yes, that’s the actual title that was given to this effort.

  • Board of Director Meeting Minutes (26 Apr 19): Link 
    • “Sarah Gascon: Is there a plan to recruit athletes leading to a residency program in the future?  Barry Siff:  current model is athletes living and training and competing in Europe but didn’t rule out a residency program in the USA.  SG: A development plan for USA athletes in needed. BD:  The IHF wants a USA Handball Academy in the future, there is current interest in France about a residency program for NT – women in 2020 and men possibly in 2021. Regional geographies are envisioned to feed athletes to Europe and to have pipeline extend to regionally targeted high schools related to a vertical pipeline. BS:  Opening the eyes of top athletes is one path and exposure of the sport through multiple levels will grow the sport.”
  • USA Team Handball Town Hall (26 May 2019): Link 
    • (32:45) “I’m not even getting into talent transfer. I’m not even getting into going after water polo players and basketball players, but those communications are already happening.  I have already met with the Women’s Water Polo team.   I’ve talked to the USA Water Polo directors.  There are ways to grow the sport quickly.  To get athletes in.”
    • (43:00) In response to a question regarding the starting of a new residency program. “I don’t know. I doubt it. … Probably, not in the cards.”  Follow on question: Then how we are going to develop national team caliber players? “That’s what we’re going to do.  I don’t know if it’s a residency program.  I don’t know if it’s a series of training camps.  I don’t know if it’s going out and recruiting people and giving them two months of training in the United States and then sending over a 100 of them to Europe.  I will tell you that’s something I’ve been talking about for two years in my prep for this job is maybe a program where we somehow develop people to a base level and then send them over to Europe and get them onto clubs.”
  • Babbitville Podcast Interview (23 Jul 2019): Link 
    • (29:05) “We’re going to be in Paris… My goal. I think our organization goal… The U.S. with our athletes’ talent; with the number of athletes we have and the support that we are getting from the U.S. Olympic Committee and the International Handball Federation there is no reason our women and men won’t be represented in Paris.”
    • (31:00) “To develop a pro league we need 12 to 16 teams, so we need a couple hundred players. That’s the plan.  We have a strategic plan to get those few hundred players.  Get them trained up.  Get those football players; those basketball, water polo players and youngsters college players playing right now…”
    • (31:57) “and our intention is to get 100 collegiate clubs by the end of 2020 for sure”
    • (34:45) “The concept that I had in 2016 was to have a kind of Netflix, 30 for 30, whatever it is documentary building the next great America sport. What we were going to do was track going out and having tryouts in New York, in LA, San Francisco and Chicago.  Having tryouts; bringing these athletes…”
  • KWMR Radio “Off-Center Sports” Show (21 Sep 2019): (audio no longer available)
    • (22:15) “And, then ultimately the goal in 3 years is to have a professional league here in the United States.  And, we’re working on that today.”
    • (47:10) “Then ultimately, like I mentioned, we’ve got to plan to develop a professional league, but at the same time. I think it’s going to be easy, and I really do mean this. I think it’s going to be easy to get a league, in concept, together.  We just got to have a couple hundred high level players here in the U.S.  And, that’s what Staffan Olsson’s major objective is as a High Performance Director is to figure out how we can develop a couple hundred great players, here in the United States to play professionally on television, on social media, on OTT networks, etc.”
    • (57:00) “Staffan and I are talking about doing tryouts for our national team. Open tryouts.  This will be both a marketing campaign, a media campaign, but also finding our amazing athletes out there and probably doing it, in I’m going to guess, probably southern California and New York.  I don’t know when.  Maybe it’s 3 months.  Maybe it’s 6 months.  But, find those diamonds in the rough who are amazing athletes.   Who we might be able to fine tune and give them the proper training, techniques, etc.  And, who knows they could be the next Olympian.”
  •  Leadership Podcast Interview (15 Oct 2019): Link 
    • (6:10) “The title of our project was USA Team Handball: Big, Hairy, Audacious Project”
    • (39:15) “I know we’re going to have over 100 colleges, collegiate clubs.  Playing, I think by the end of 2020; certainly in early 2021″
    • (39:23) “I guarantee we’re going to have 10s of thousands of youth playing handball in the next couple of years.  We already do, we don’t know about it.”
  • Sport Business Journal Article: Verizon Steps into Rings, Sponsors Team Handball by Terry Lefton (20 Jan 2020):   Link 
    • Article passage: “With few people playing team handball in the U.S., Siff knows the sports must be nurtured at all levels, from grassroots — where he says there is a growing club scene in major U.S. cities — to the formation of an American professional team handball league, a project now under R&D at IOA Sports in Orlando, where former Major Indoor Soccer League executive Paul Garofolo says it reminds him of his early days with that startup. While the new league is yet nameless, and has no completed logos, he expects to be pitching prospective owners before the year is out. Garofolo says it will require a minimum of 10 franchises to launch for a league that would begin play in 2023 with each franchise costing $3 million to $5 million to launch.

      Likely prospects? “NBA or NHL owners in one-tenant arena situations,” Garofolo said. “Some of the big European sports brands like Barca or Paris Saint-Germain also have their own team handball teams.”

  • PlaySqorr TV Interview (21 Feb 2020): Link 
    • “When we do our tryouts later this year I think we’re going to shock some people in the type of athletes that we’re going bring onto handball and onto our team.”
    • “I know this is sacrilegious and I’m insulting a lot of people, but I don’t think it takes these 2, 3, 4, 5 years of learning all the nuances and techniques, etc…”
    • “I don’t think long term that well… I’m only going to be here through Paris, you know. This is like my last stint of full time stuff.  And, you know, we got to get to Paris.  Long term, we’ve got to be really competitive in L.A., but, my personal goal is to have a team or two in Paris for sure.  And, the way to do that is through getting some of these athletes that we’re talking about.  These high, high caliber athletes starting to play right now.”

The Big, Hairy, Audacious Project (Rough Outline)

So taking all of these quotes into account it’s possible to form a rough outline of this plan.  Here it is in a nutshell:

  • Find 100-200 athletes from other sports
    • Mode of finding: Tryouts, communication with other sport NGBs. 
    • Targeted sports: commonly mentioned are water polo, basketball and football
    • Ages: Not clear, but most likely post college 
  • Train athletes to a “base level” in the U.S. for a period of time
    • What is “base level?”: Not defined, but presumably to a level at which a European based club will not have to teach basic fundamentals
    • Time required for stateside training?: Not clear, but 2 months has been mentioned
    • How trained?: Not clear, but it’s hard not to see athletes being trained in a residency program type framework. It could be called an “Academy”, but in function it would be similar to what has been done with residency programs, just for a shorter period of time.  (Perhaps similar to this concept: Link)
  • Send athletes to European based clubs for further development
    • Level of club?: Not defined, but presumably clubs that train professionally on a daily basis (2nd teams for top clubs would be a likely target)
    • Time athletes would stay in Europe?: Not defined, but a 2023-24 USA pro season suggests 2-3 years
  • Start a USA based Pro League in 2023
    • # of clubs: 10 to 16
    • Athletes: Presumably, the athletes would be primarily Americans that had trained overseas;  Also, it’s not explicitly stated, but it is probably just a Men’s Pro League
    • Franchise startup cost: $2M to $5M
    • Potential support envisioned from top European clubs; presumably “sister” franchises

Top Level Thoughts

  • This plan is not a strategic plan, but rather an action plan very focused on developing high level athletes for our national teams and a pro league. And, in a very short, ambitious time frame: A pro league in 2023 and 2024 Olympic Qualification.
  • It’s hard in some instances to sort out what parts of this concept applies to both the Men’s and Women’s programs and what parts are separate.
  • There is some discussion in regards to growing the college game, even with the ambitious target of 100 clubs in 2020, but for the most part collegiate club development is an afterthought for this concept. For sure, there are currently a very limited number of college athletes with the potential to quickly transition to top European clubs.
  • There was a brief mention in one interview of 10’s of thousands of youth playing handball in the next couple of years, but again this plan does not align very well with grass roots development.  Obviously, however, if there is a pro league started youth development is very likely to follow.
  • If this plan is implemented successfully it would be a marketing bonanza that will surely get the word out big time.  Even more so, if the original reality show were to be done in parallel.

Is it Possible?

A pro league populated with a couple hundred born and raised Americans playing handball at a high level. A couple hundred pro handball athletes battling for 16 coveted American National Team roster spots. Just like a European handball nation! As America’s self described #1 handball fan how could I, or any other handball fan in this country, not “want” that. It would be as if I had died and gone to heaven.

But, is it possible? Well, in theory, just about anything is possible… Given enough time and money.  Is it probable? I’ve got my doubts. It would seem at a quick glance that it is just too much of a great leap forward from “what we have” today. And, that we have neither the necessary resources nor the time for this plan to have even a remote chance of success.

But, I don’t do quick glances. Even, if seems like it’s overkill, we need to follow the process.  I’ve spent a lot of time mapping out “What We Have” and “What We Want”.  It’s time to figure out if we can actually get there.

What We Want (Part 4): Marketing

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Are more TV broadcasts the “silver bullet” marketing goal for Handball in the U.S.?

This is part of an ongoing series: Link

Marketing Handball in the U.S.: A Long Standing and Vexing Challenge

Virtually every newcomer to team handball in the U.S. has the same reaction, “This sport is awesome! How did I not even know this sport exists?” And, often the next conclusion is, “Wow. Whoever is responsible or behind this sport must be horrible marketers.” After all, what else could possibly explain why you’ve never heard or seen it before?

An understandable, if simplistic response, but if one does a little investigation it becomes clear that there are some underlying issues that make marketing handball in the U.S. is challenging. I first captured some of those issues in a series of commentaries I wrote to explain why the U.S. wasn’t at the 2012 Olympics. The marketing sections are below:

Part 5: A lack of awareness and marketing: One in a million? The 312 real fans of Team Handball in the U.S.:  Link
Part 6: A lack of awareness and marketing: The Catch 22 TV paradox:  Link
Part 7: A lack of awareness and marketing: The historic lack of European support:  Link
Part 8: A lack of awareness and marketing: Europe sees the light, but can’t quite figure out how to properly invade the U.S. market:  Link

While much of what I wrote 8 years ago still rings true there have been some positive developments:

  • Handball has been on TV more often. EHF Champions League matches have been on beIN Sports since 2013. The IHF World Championships have also been aired regularly, first with beIN Sports and then with the NBC Olympic Channel starting in 2019.
  • Social media has become more prevalent and has become another way to promote the sport.
  • Most importantly, the IHF and EHF have seen the light and are starting to more aggressively pursue development of the U.S. market.

USA Team Handball Strategic Plan Marketing Goals

The USA Team Handball Strategic Plan identifies marketing as one of its major goals. Here are the documented goals, objectives and targets related to marketing.

For the most part, I’ve got no problems with the identified objectives. They are all things that need to be done in terms of marketing. Objective C, with it’s Salesforce specific solution is perhaps the exception.

To varying degrees USA Team Handball also appears to be addressing most of these objectives. The organization’s first full time Communications Manager, Melissa Zhang has done a great job with the website, cleaning up athlete profiles and with regular stories on current and former athletes. And, USA Team Handball is also now more active on its social media channels and rarely misses an opportunity to engage with anyone or any outlet discussing or discovering handball.

In terms of targets the 2020 Facebook goal hasn’t been met, but arguably as Facebook has turned into the domain of old timers it’s of less importance than youth focused Instagram and TikTok. I’ve no idea whether the web hits target has been met, but one would suspect that more frequent posting has resulted in greater web traffic.

Feeding the Fan Base vs Expanding the Fan Base

While running a handball website for 14 years I’ve come to grips with a marketing dichotomy which can best be described as “feeding the fan base” vs “expanding the fan base”. I’ll say with some authority that the handball fan base in the U.S. is very, very small. Depending on how generous one wants to be in terms of definition it’s somewhere between 300 and 2,000 people. And, that’s including non U.S. citizens. As someone who’s really passionate about handball and has a website devoted to the sport I’ll just say that reality is downright depressing sometimes.

Does the resigned saying, “It is, what it is” apply? Or, is that self defeatism? Can effective steps be taken to methodically expand that fan base? Perhaps, but I would suggest that it’s very difficult to organically grow a fan base for a narrowly defined topic like team handball. To essentially create new fans of the sport via well written articles and social media engagement. For sure, such efforts are greatly appreciated, but unfortunately only by the “already converted.” Don’t get me wrong: Feeding the fan base is important… just arguably of less importance when your base is so small.

Expanding the Base Hinges Almost Entirely On More and Better TV Exposure

So what can be done to really expand the base? Answer: Regular TV broadcasts of matches and, critically important, on networks with the greatest reach into American homes. I know this sounds, “old school”, but, it’s still the reality. Anecdotally, the percentage of Americans that have first discovered the sport via TV is off the charts. And, I suspect a structured survey would simply confirm that suspicion. Analytically, Google trend data directly correlates to TV broadcasts and I can assure you that internal website metrics do as well.

It’s really simple: Nothing reaches more Americans than TV and nothing reaches more young Americans than the social media engagement that directly or indirectly stems from the video content that major TV outlets can post online to their millions of followers.

I’ve said it a thousand times. If handball were to be broadcast on a regular basis on network like ESPN, virtually every statement discussing handball’s progress in the U.S. would from that point on start with these words:

“Well, after handball started being shown on ESPN…”

Pick how you want to finish the sentence. Here are some possibilities:

  • Collegiate handball really took off with an expansion to several hundred clubs
  • Youth programs expanded in several cities feeding the collegiate programs
  • USA Team Handball had year on year membership growth of xx%; Along with accompanying increases in website visits and social media engagement
  • Merchandise sales of professional handball clubs in Europe gradually increased as more Americans became fans of the game
  • The quality of stateside play improved dramatically
  • The level of stateside talent making our national teams starting improving

One Marketing Objective Above All Others

The point of this discussion is to emphasize that one marketing objective: getting handball on TV more often trumps all others… because it’s a true force multiplier that greatly improves the likelihood of better results in all other areas. In other words, anything and everything that can be done to make that happen should be a very high priority.

For sure it’s seen as important, but it’s not clear where it stacks in terms of priorities. I would make the case that empirically, it’s the #1 goal, and, if the Strategic Plan is updated I would argue that this priority should be clearly stated. Further, there are a number of supporting objectives that could be undertaken to facilitate achieving this goal to include attending TV rights conferences and the hiring of consultants to facilitate coordination between networks and handball content owners. It might even justify the use of limited funds and resources to produce USA based TV content. Or even… in some instances pay to have content aired.

One aspect that helps. Getting handball on TV in the U.S. isn’t just a USA Team Handball goal, but pretty much a goal of anyone who cares about the sport. In particular, content owners like the IHF and EHF would stand to benefit the most from making it happen. Further, developments like OTT web streaming are making it more feasible than it was in the past.

Is getting handball on TV a panacea? The silver bullet to all our problems? I, for one, am generally not prone to such profound, blanket statements, but… yeah it pretty much is. Without a doubt, it is the one thing that could overnight change everything.

That wraps up the review of what USA Team Handball’s future plans are. At least what has been officially documented. But, are there unofficial, undocumented plans as well? It seems that there may be and I will address what those plans are next.

Why Just about any College Could Start a Handball Program and Quickly Challenge for a National Title

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Yes, in theory, any random college could make a title run.

I’m not generally one to make audacious predictions because… well, because data and thorough analysis usually result in the conclusion that it’s just not going to happen. But, sometimes audacity is indeed possible.

A former intern for the Pardon My Take (PMT) Podcast recently got a hold of a handball and has issued a few team handball related tweets (1, 2, 3). It’s always great when the sport acquires a new fan, but it also got me to thinking.

Could Billy Football or someone else, coax a few friends, start a brand new club and come out of nowhere to win a national collegiate handball?

On the surface, it seems crazy to even consider this as a possibility. How could a brand new club with totally inexperienced players win a national title? C’mon… And, for almost any other sport in the U.S. it would indeed be a crazy proposition. Most sports are just too established for some upstart to knock over the apple cart without a massive injection of resources and stellar recruiting.

But, team handball is not “most sports” in the U.S. Here’s why it could be done.

  1. Few Contenders: There are currently only 15 Men’s collegiate programs in the U.S. And, only a handful of those programs are firmly established.
  2. Minor Experience Gap: Colleges are guaranteed to lose athletes each year to graduation. And, since most athletes are brand new to handball every college has to constantly bring brand new handball players up to speed. Thus, even a brand new program has only a 1 to 2 years gap in experience.
  3. Modest Raw Athletic Talent: The current collegiate handball game has several athletes with solid athletic talent, but overall the level of athleticism is fairly modest. This, of course, makes sense. The best athletes tend to get college scholarships in other sports.

So, what’s the blueprint for such audacity?  Here’s what it would take:

  1. Great Recruiting: Not traditional recruiting whereby a coaching staff convinces great high school athletes to commit to attending their college.  But, in this case great recruiting to get the best possible athletes already on campus to commit to this club sport.
  2. Great Handball Coaching: Taking great athletes and turning them into capable handball players is easier said than done.  But, make no mistake. It can be done.  And, a good coach could accomplish such a transition relatively quickly.  Keep in mind… we’re not talking about a 5 year project to win an Olympic Gold Medal, but a much more feasible collegiate title.
  3. Great Organization:  There are a lot of nuts and bolts logistical issues that go into successfully running a collegiate club.  From finding a time and place to practice, to uniforms, to transportation to tournaments.  It doesn’t just happen.  It takes planning and preparation.
  4. Regular Competition Against Quality Opponents:  Last, but not least, teams and players need to be tested in competition.  And, generally that means getting your butt kicked by teams that are better than you so you can learn how to win.

So, could some random D3 College in say, western Massachusetts tick off these 4 boxes? Well, it’s possible, but right now, I would say they probably could only check off 3. Here’s what could be done.

  1. Recruiting. In theory, it would be good to have some athletes that already know each other. Perhaps a group of seniors finishing off their D3 football careers could be coaxed into trying handball for a season. Ten such athletes would be a good core group to start with. Not future NFL players, but I suspect enough raw athletic talent to eclipse every other current collegiate handball squad, but perhaps West Point.
  2. Handball Coaching. Unless there is some handball expert living quietly in the Berkshires I suspect this is going to be a problem. Maybe, however, some capable coach could visit for a handball boot camp. This might take some PMT sponsorship.
  3. Organization. A coach or team captain with organizational skills is a must. It just requires someone to step up and take the lead.
  4. Regular Competition. Western Massachusetts is in driving range of both Boston and New York City. A trip to Montreal wouldn’t be too hard either. If desired, there would be plenty of opportunities to play and learn the game.

The Wild Card: Pardon My Take Sponsorship

So while this might be possible, I’m thinking it’s going to need a little extra jolt to actually happen. And, there probably could be no better jolt than a little Pardon My Take sponsorship. What would that entail? Some publicity to encourage on the fence recruits, enticing a name coach to help out and for sure, some splashy uniforms.

Hey Big Cat and PFT Commenter: I know an Olympic Gold medal is the end goal, but you know what: Helping some random college come out of nowhere win a Collegiate National Championship would be pretty cool too. And, it would be great proof of concept trial run before embarking on a far greater challenge.

Would it be easy? No. It would take a lot of work, some humility and a lot of commitment. The other collegiate programs might not be world beaters, but there are some quality athletes out there and they have a head start in terms of experience. But, make no mistake it could be done.

Any Other Takers?

This, actually, is not the first time I’ve had such audacious thoughts regarding our college game. In 1976, Air Force almost won an open club title with a roster mostly composed of their D1 hoops tean (doesn’t hurt to have two future Olympians playing). It doesn’t take much imagination to envision a gifted group of athletes winning just a college title.

Three years ago, Virginia practically did exactly what I’ve described, losing to West Point in a close final, albeit it wasn’t done in a year, but was more of a 3 year effort. And, somewhat incredibly, they accomplished what they did without the benefit of a coach. (Podcast with UVA Handball: Link) I suspect if Virginia had had a coach with the requisite handball knowledge, recruiting and organizational skills they probably would have won a couple national titles. Might even have started a dynasty.

The reality is that right now a juggernaut college team could probably be created about anywhere in the U.S. Sure, it wouldn’t be easy and some locations would be more challenging… but, make no mistake it could be done. In fact, I’ve told multiple aspiring coaches in the U.S., that if they really want to show how good of a coach they are, they should start a college program from scratch and take that program to a national title.

Any takers?

A Junior College in Fort Dodge, Iowa Won a Collegiate Rugby Title: Really? What the? Could that Happen in Handball?

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Iowa Central Junior College: D1AA Collegiate Rugby Champions:
Could that possibly happen with Team Handball?

As rugby in the U.S. is the closest parallel to what handball might someday be in the U.S., I regularly listen to several rugby related podcasts. It’s kind of fun to listen to discussion related to their NGB, their fledgling pro league or their college game and simply switch the word “rugby” with “handball” to see if it still rings true. Quite often it does and quite often it gets me wondering whether some development or effort being tried there could be applied in a handball context.

Yesterday, I was “gobsmacked” by this podcast interview with Brent Nelson, the rugby head coach of the Iowa Central Tritons, the 2019 D1AA National Champions. Gobsmacked because of the following:

  • How does a small college beat far larger colleges?
  • How does a Junior College (2 year program) compete with traditional colleges (4 year programs)?
  • How does a coach recruit “anyone” to come to Fort Dodge, Iowa? Let alone international students and inner city kids from Florida? (FYI: I’m from a small town in Iowa; This is truly amazing)
  • This program started from scratch just 6 years ago. In that time they’ve jumped 2 levels of play. Sometimes by design… sometimes because the other schools kicked them out because they were too good.

Some bigger picture thoughts:

  • It’s not the first time that the JUCO (Junior College) route has been considered for team handball: Link
  • Not every young adult is inclined to get a 4 year degree. This could be a great path, a better path for some athletes.
  • But, some of these athletes do indeed continue their education at a four year school. Could North Carolina, Texas A&M and other schools be in a recruiting war for talent some day?

Not sure where such a program would be started, but based on what Iowa Central has overcome and accomplished, it clearly could be done for team handball.

Goff Rugby Report Article: Link

Google Trending: What the Data say Regarding all the Recent Handball Buzz

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Recent Google Trend Data for “Handball” in the U.S.

The past few months have sure resulted in a lot of handball buzz in the U.S.  Here’s a rundown of the events that have given handball more attention than normal:

  • December:  NBC broadcast the 2019 Women’s World Championships.
  • January:  The 2020 Men’s European Championships were broadcast on beIN Sports and ESPN showed two handball related plays of the day on SportsCenter.
  • January 28:  Jay Cutler sets the handball world on fire with his comments about winning a gold medal on the popular Pardon My Take Podcast.
  • February/March:  Cutlergate results in a slow burn of Twitter spats and handball discussion on other shows like ESPN’s Highly Questionable.  Pardon My Take even devotes an entire segment to discuss handball with former pro, Xavier O’Callaghan.
  • April 13-19:  The NBC Olympic Channel is coaxed by USA Team Handball to essentially turn itself into the handball channel with around 12-16 hours daily of 2019 Men’s and Women’s World Championship match broadcasts.

Quantifying the Buzz

So, anecdotally, there’s little doubt that handball has been granted some extra attention. It can be challenging, however, to quantify the buzz. To get a handle as to what is actually happening in terms of handball interest.

Social media engagement and reach can be tracked. I periodically track followers and likes for the major platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and, no surprise, numbers are up, but not a whole lot more than they would be assuming normal growth platforms. Here’s a simple tabulation of growth since 29 November with the USA Team Handball and Team Handball News social media platforms:

Keep in mind that percentage growth is generally easier when you start. Which explains why the percentage growth for Team Handball News on Instagram looks great when in reality it’s pretty paltry.

Overall, there’s been some decent growth, particularly with Twitter, but it’s hard to guage how much of that can be attributed to growth that would have occurred anyway. And, further, how much of this growth is simply a result of existing handball fans jumping on board? In particular, if your desire is to grow the game in the U.S., it’s kind of hollow to add social media followers from other parts of the world.

Google Trends Data

The best tool I’ve found for tracking interest is Google Trends. Google Trends allows users to see the relative popularity of specific search topics by region for a specified time period. It’s not perfect and it has it’s limitations, but it does provide a pretty good snapshot. After all, how many Americans can remember when and where they typed in “handball” or “team handball” into Google for the first time? It’s probably close to 100% and most folks can remember exactly what triggered their curiosity.

With that in mind here’s some analysis of “handball” searches on Google Trends.

“Handball” Google Trends (USA Only) (1 Dec 2019 – 22 Apr 2020)

Here’s a look at what’s happened since last December.

  • #1 Spike: Sunday, 26 January when the Men’s European Championship finals took place.
  • #2 Spike: This past Sunday when the NBC Olympic Channel broadcast wall to wall coverage of the semifinals and medal matches for both the Men’s and Women’s 2019 World Championships.
  • #3 Spike: 18 December which coincides with the rebroadcast of the Women’s WC final 3 days after it was completed on the NBC Sports Network Channel.
  • Other Spikes: Rounding out the five month period are a number of different spikes which are a bit harder to correlate.

Key Takeaways

  • Men’s handball trumps Women’s handball. Despite being on a network (beIN Sports) seen in fewer home it triggered far more searches.
  • Better TV Networks mean more searches. A late night rebroadcast on the NBC Sports Network trumps both the NBC Olympic Channel and beIN Sports. An existing handball fan always figures out a way to watch the big match. Not so with a newbie. The NBC Sports Network is seen in over twice as many homes as the Olympic Channel and 4 times as many homes as beIN Sports.
  • The Jay Cutler/Pardon My Take Brouhaha did result in a plus up. Those spikes in February/March would not be there otherwise. But those plus ups still aren’t quite as good as TV broadcasts.
Handball” Google Trends (World) (1 Dec 2019 – 22 Apr 2020)

For reference, here’s what happened in the entire world during the same time period. Again, the difference been Men’s and Women’s handball is very pronounced. There are also some small spikes in February and March. Perhaps that’s a knock on effect from the Handball World rising up in anger with Jay Cutler, but it could also be interest generated by the Champions League and other competitions.

“Handball” Google Trends (USA Only) (Apr 2015 – Apr 2020)

Here’s an overview of Google searches for the past 5 years in the U.S..

Takeaways

  • The impact of the Olympics in terms of the interest it generates is unmatched. Really, it’s hard to understate its impact in the U.S.
  • The Men’s WC or EC in January of every year is the only other event that regularly registers. In relative terms to the Olympics, however, it pales in comparison.
  • Moving the WC to the NBC Olympic Channel has helped. The best WC spike occurred in Jan 2019. Not coincidentally, the Olympic Channel is seen in twice as many homes as beIN Sports.
  • Notable soccer handballs also spike… even in the U.S. This demonstrates the challenge handball has in America.
  • The recent NBC Olympic Channel experiment has a nice little spike. It clearly resulted in some more searches and discovery of handball. It would be awesome if that spike was bigger, but I’ll take it. For sure, it’s better than a flat line.
  • The Jay Cutler controversy doesn’t really register. This is not to say it still wasn’t nice to have that engagement, just that it didn’t do as much as we might think it did.
“Handball” Google Trends (World) (Apr 2015 – Apr 2020)

Here’s what the last 5 years look like for the world.

Key Takeaways

  • The Olympics just doesn’t mean as much to the rest of the world. At the Olympics, handball is just another sport and has to fight for interest. Whereas as the annual big tourney in January every year handball takes center stage.
  • Again, the relative interest between Men’s and Women’s handball is very clear. The little spike (Dec) followed by the big spike (Jan) happens like clockwork.

Overall Conclusions

The way we consume and talk about sports is evolving and changing. The cool Instagram clip, the banter on Twitter, cool TikTok videos… That’s how a lot of sports are consumed today. I’ve got two teenage daughters… they’re not big sports fans, but I’ve seen it first hand how big a role social media is playing in their lives.

However, TV is still the king of sports consumption. Whether via traditional networks or streaming outlets, true fans are gained from watching a match. This is not to say social media isn’t important… It is. But, in most cases it’s a reflection of what happens after someone sees handball and discovers it. Not the other way around.

What We Want (Part 3): Fundraising

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Based on this comparison, was a $2M target for sponsorship revenue by the end of 2020 realistic for USA Team Handball?

This is part of an ongoing series: Link

Pretty much since its inception USA Team Handball has lacked sufficient funding to accomplish what it would like to in terms of National Team performance, grass roots development and anything else.  So, it should come as no surprise that the Strategic Plan has some ambitious goals and targets.  Page 4, Section 2) of the Strategic Plan covers fundraising:

Goal A focuses on near term hires and the establishment of retired executive volunteer and internship programs to support fundraising activity. To date, just the new CEO, Barry Siff, has been hired. There’s no data available yet as to how much new funding has come in, but Verizon has come on board as founding parner. It’s reportedly not a huge amount, but there is real potential for it to leading to more sponsors and sponsorship dollars.

Goal B discusses having a fundraising retreat and developing a fundraising plan. To my knowledge there has been no retreat or specific fundraising plan developed, although surely efforts to raise funds are ongoing.

Goal C discusses a long term strategic plan for fundraising. Again, I’m not aware of any strategic plan having been developed, but one can assume some sort of strategy is being developed. It has been noted that the Verizon deal provides credibility and can be a catalyst for future deals. Three of the sub-bullets refer to using Salesforce.com as a sponsorship platform, but if this platform has been acquired there’s been no announcement. For membership purposes the Sport:80 platform has now been adopted and it does have donation functionality, although not on the level of salesforce.

Goal D highlights focuses on membership and alumni as a source for annual giving. To date, I’m not aware of any new campaigns beyond the usual requests for donations.

Appendix A has several targets listed for specific time periods, but in many cases it’s not very clear what is actually attended.

  • Appendix A references “Finance” several times with a dollar value listed at the end of each quarter along with the amount of money the Board of Directors should raise in the preceding 2 fiscal quarters. It’s not clear to me what those end of Qtr dollar figures are supposed to mean. (Revenue? Cash on hand? Neither seem to make sense). The amount of money that the Board of Directors is supposed to have raised in the near term seem pretty ambitious and I suspect those targets haven’t been met.
    • End 4th Qtr 2018:  $5,000
      • BOD raises $100K
    • End 2nd Qtr 2019:  $100K
      • BOD raises $250K
    • End 4th Qtr 2019:  $500K
      • BOD raises $250K
    • End 2nd Qtr 2020:  $650K
      • BOD raises $500K            
    • End 4th Qtr 2020:  $750K
      • BOD raises $500K
    • End 4th Qtr 2024: $5M
      • “CEO raising money”
    • End 4th Qtr 2028: $10M
      • “CEO raising money”
  • Appendix A references membership several times with targets for the # of members and revenue from membership. No word as to whether these targets have been met. I suspect that membership hasn’t grown much and may have even gone down in 2020 due to the Coronavirus Pandemic.
    • End 4th Qtr 2018:  816/$57K
    • End 2nd Qtr 2019:  850/$60K
    • End 4th Qtr 2019:  900/$63K
    • End 2nd Qtr 2020:  1,000/               
    • End 4th Qtr 2020:  1,200/$84K
    • End 4th Qtr 2024:  5,000/$350K
    • End 4th Qtr 2028:  5,000/$350K
  • Appendix A references sponsors several times with targets for the # of sponsors and revenue from sponsorship. It’s not entirely clear what these numbers mean, but I think the first number refers to the # of sponsors and the 2nd number refers to the total amount of sponsorship dollars. I suspect that the 2018-2020 targets have not been met. At one time the USA website had a page that listed partners/sponsors, but it doesn’t appear that page exists now. To date there have been 2 sponsorship announcements with Verizon and Molten. One can also assume that the jersey sponsorship with Eldera is still in place. Again, I don’t think any of these near term targets have been met.
    • End 4th Qtr 2018:  9/$824K
    • End 2nd Qtr 2019:  10/$900K
    • End 4th Qtr 2019:  11/$1M
    • End 2nd Qtr 2020:  13/$1.5M        
    • End 4th Qtr 2020:  15/$2M
    • End 4th Qtr 2024:  15/$5M
    • End 4th Qtr 2028:  15/$5M

Discussion

In my opinion, the Fundraising section of the Strategic Plan needs to be totally rewritten. Parts of it are overly solution specific while other parts are overly vague. The specific dollar value targets aren’t clearly defined and the targets in many cases are so ambitious that even far more established team sport NGBs would be unlikely to meet them. Add, the current economic reality of the Coronavirus Pandemic and it’s even more clear that it’s time to start over.

What should such a rewrite include? For starters, realistic targets based in part on the fundraising performance of similar team sport federations. I would also suggest that top level strategies be identified for the major revenue categories: Grants, Sponsorship, Membership and Events.

As a reference, take a look at comparable NGB performance for 2013-2016. (The last quadrennial for which public available financial data is available.)

It only takes a glance to quickly ascertain that the desired fundraising targets are out of whack, particularly in terms of sponsorship. I guess it’s theoretically possible that Team Handball can develop some fundraising strategies that would leave these more established sports in the dust. Possible… But, really unlikely.

And, while aspirational goals can be OK sometimes, they’re not OK for realistic strategic planning. This is because plans have to match reality as to what can actually be done. And, this is really true in regards to funding because it is pointless to have grand plans if the funding to implement them won’t be available.

Where is Handball Popular? And, Just How Popular is Handball Compared to Other Sports?: Africa

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  • This is part of an ongoing series. Check out these maps for other continents
    • Europe: Link
    • North America & the Caribbean: Link
    • South and Central America (In development)
    • Asia (In development)
    • Oceania (In development)
Handball’s Popularity in Africa

Some Notes on Handball in Africa

This assessment for Africa was a bit more challenging than the European assessment. Here are some notes as to why and how I put together this map.

  • I’ve received less feedback and have less of a sense as to the popularity of sports in Africa.
  • With less resources available, there are fewer team sports (beyond soccer) played in Africa. Or, if they are played they are not played on the same scale that they are played in Europe. Accordingly, determining the 2nd or 3rd most popular sport in some nations is a pointless exercise. Or, roughly similar to comparing the popularity of the 4th or 5th most popular sports in nations with more resources.
  • I reviewed national team participation and performance in the African Men’s and Women’s Championships as a way to help measure handball’s popularity in a country. This is an imperfect tool, but it does provide some insight as to a sports popularity. Roughly this equates to
    • Regular medal winner (blue/green)
    • Regularly participated (yellow)
    • Periodically participated (orange)
    • Infrequently or never participated, but has played in IHF Trophy events (red)
    • Never participated, including IHF Trophy events (white)
  • Where is handball popular?
  • How popular is handball compared to other sports?

Those are definitely a couple of questions that I’ve been asked quite a few times. In 2005 I tackled those questions in one of my very first blog posts. Back then it was often stated that handball was the 2nd most popular team sport. Well, it would be totally awesome if that were true, but alas it’s not… not even close. In fact, even in Europe where handball is most popular there are only a handful of countries where our sport definitely takes 2nd place.

Methodology (or the Lack of One)

As an engineer I generally prefer to deal with data as opposed to gut feelings and anecdotal information. For sure there are a lot of different criteria that one could use to measure popularity. Here’s a laundry list for you:

  • # of participants
  • # of registered federation members
  • # of clubs
  • Attendance at matches
  • Frequency of TV broadcasts and ratings
  • Existence of a professional league
  • The salaries of professional players
  • Interest in national team performance
  • Social media interest.

Each of those criteria have merit, but there are several problems.

  • This data is not readily available on a country by country basis
  • The accuracy of the data that is available is often suspect or open to interpretation
  • The relative importance of each criterion is wide open to debate

Bottom line: An exercise to carefully weigh all of these criteria in a systematic reliable way is pretty much impossible.

That being said in most cases it’s fairly easy to weigh all those criteria and to come up with a ranking of the top 3 sports in just about any country. And, a ranking that most objective sports fans of that country would agree on without a whole lot of debate.

There’s a couple of reasons why this is true.

  • In most countries there is one dominant team sport and that sport is football (soccer). Practically no one will even credibly argue against soccer’s dominance. So off the top, we’re now only talking about 2nd and 3rd place.
  • And, again in most (but, not all) countries, #2 is often pretty well established based on the criteria above. Even without hard numbers the answer is obvious to people that live there.

All this being said, there are some countries, however, where handball’s place in the pecking order is open to debate. A debate, for the reasons listed earlier is pretty hard to resolve. So, instead of resolving I’ve decided to use the lack of a resolution as a way to help classify the sport’s popularity.

Classification (Key)

Here’s a few notes on how I’ve classified popularity.

  • Definitely the 2nd most popular team sport:
    • Countries where handball is 2nd in a preponderance of the criteria
  • Either the 2nd or 3rd most popular team sport:
    • Countries where there could be a legitimate debate between 2 sports as to which is 2nd or 3rd
    • Countries where handball is clearly 3rd
  • A major sport with a significant presence
    • Countries where the ranking becomes muddled from 3rd place on down, but handball is still clearly a major sport that captures significant attention
  • A minor sport with some presence
    • Countries where the ranking becomes muddled from 3rd place on down, but Handball is more of a minor sport with a small, but dedicated following.
  • A very minor sport with a limited presence
    • Countries where the sport’s ranking is somewhat moot because it’s hard to compare perhaps the 6th or 7th most popular team sport. Overall, participation numbers are small and the sport is seen as a curiosity by most of the citizens of that country.
  • A sport that is practically non-existent
    • Countries where there are no national teams, leagues or clubs.

A few more thoughts

  • There is a rough pecking order from top to bottom. Blue is top; Green is next, etc.
  • This isn’t a perfect representation. And, one could argue for even more gradation. For instance, one could take the nations in yellow and create a rough pecking order.
  • What about individual sports? If you really wanted to further complicate matters we could add Formula 1, UFC and Tennis. I didn’t want to go there.

What do you think?

This compilation/depiction isn’t set in stone. It’s just one man’s opinion influenced by feedback. If I’ve missed the boat let me know via email or social media and I’ll reconsider updating the map.

Email: john.ryan@teamhandballnews.com
Facebook: Link
Twitter: Link
Instagram: Link

Also, I’ll be creating similar maps for the other continents and I could use some feedback on Asia and the Americas.

#SeniorNight: Air Force Team Handball Class of 2020

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Handball Athletes, Future 2nd Lts and Air Force Pilots
L to R (Brian Brown, Nate Luther, Mark Simpson, Richard Vaughn, Austin Faulkner and Will Walker. Other Club Seniors headed to pilot training are Anthony Sanders and Pen Pagel)

ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt has been using his Sports Center platform to honor High School and College Seniors who didn’t get to finish their final season. I respectfully submit Air Force Team Handball’s Eight Graduating Seniors for #SeniorNight.

A lot can happen in just a month. A lot.

Air Force Team Handball: Just One Month Ago

On February 28-29, 2020, I had the opportunity to watch Air Force go 4-0 to take the title in their own Air Force Invitational. I had seen them play several times in the past few years and without a doubt I had never seen them play so well. A comprehensive 26-18 victory over North Carolina on Saturday and then an exciting last second, 28-27 victory over Dallas THC (Video) to take the title on Sunday.

Solid defense, smart shots on offense, limited turnovers. Individually some fine play, but clearly a collective team performance. After their victory over Dallas I made a point of telling the team that it was the best I’d seen an Air Force team play in years and made a prediction that was actually more of a declaration:

“Play like you did this weekend and you guys will beat West Point and win a national title.”

A bold statement since West Point has won 14 straight national titles and Air Force hasn’t beat them since 2008. Bold, but one that I stand by and not just because I’m a biased AF Academy graduate. In a different world maybe I would be sitting right now in the Columbus, OH airport writing about such a victory in the recently completed Gold Medal match at the 2020 College National Championships.

But, that’s not the world were living in now. And, it sucks… It sucks big time. Sucks for any handball player from any school that would have played in the Collegiate Tourney this past weekend. Sucks especially for the seniors.

For the eight graduating seniors at Air Force and the journey they’ve had it’s surely been really tough. Most of these eight seniors have been playing handball together all four years. They went from basic cadets with little or no knowledge that handball even existed as a sport to passionate athletes that have bonded over four years of practice and competition. The Collegiate National Championships would have been the culmination of that journey. One last opportunity to play for a title.

Like everyone the Cadet’s lives were upended by the Coronavirus Pandemic. But, this past month they’ve also been impacted in additional ways.

Just two weeks after the AF Invitational the Air Force Academy cancelled Spring Break. Most of the Air Force team had been looking forward to a trip to the Netherlands for a training camp and competition. Unlike most colleges, however, not everyone was sent home. Instead, just the Freshman, Sophomores and Juniors were sent home while the Seniors remained on campus to help ensure their on time graduation and entry into the Air Force. Additionally, to facilitate social distancing, all the Senior Cadets were moved into their own dorm rooms spread out as much as possible in the Academy’s two dorms. Classes then resumed online and for the seniors it became a surreal existence as the roughly 1,000 cadets left on campus were essentially “alone” together with strict limits on any interaction.

Needless to say this was not an ideal situation and when last week 2 cadets committed suicide within 3 days of each other the Air Force went into crisis mode. After much discussion social distancing rules were relaxed and it was decided to speed up graduation to April 18th. To give you some idea of the extraordinary times we live in this is the first service Academy to graduate early since West Point had cadets do so during World War II.

So now the 8 seniors will graduate early and all 8 will be headed to pilot training. (Contrary to what you might think not everybody who goes to the Academy becomes a pilot and for 100% of a sports club team to do so is kind of special.) Being a pilot is surely a dream and goal they’ve been working towards many years before heading to the Academy.

The minor downside for these 8: Being an Air Force pilot and continuing your handball career isn’t an easy or practical thing to do. Perhaps some of these guys will find their way to an open club nationals on down the line, but more likely than not several have played not just their last collegiate handball match, but their last handball match ever.

In a different world that last match would have taken place this past weekend. That’s a bummer… for them… for you… for me… for everybody.

On the plus side. These eight are going to be serving our country for years to come. And, we couldn’t ask for a better group of young men to do so.

Where is Handball Popular? And, Just How Popular is Handball Compared to Other Sports?: Europe

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Handball’s Popularity in Europe
  • This is part of an ongoing series. Check out these maps for other continents
    • Africa: Link
    • North America & the Caribbean: Link
    • South and Central America (In development)
    • Asia (In development)
    • Oceania (In development)

Note: This map was updated based on feedback on 31 March 2020: See paragraph at bottom for what the feedback was and why or why not the map changed

  • Where is handball popular?
  • How popular is handball compared to other sports?

Those are definitely a couple of questions that I’ve been asked quite a few times. In 2005 I tackled those questions in one of my very first blog posts. Back then it was often stated that handball was the 2nd most popular team sport. Well, it would be totally awesome if that were true, but alas it’s not… not even close. In fact, even in Europe where handball is most popular there are only a handful of countries where our sport definitely takes 2nd place.

Methodology (or the Lack of One)

As an engineer I generally prefer to deal with data as opposed to gut feelings and anecdotal information. For sure there are a lot of different criteria that one could use to measure popularity. Here’s a laundry list for you:

  • # of participants
  • # of registered federation members
  • # of clubs
  • Attendance at matches
  • Frequency of TV broadcasts and ratings
  • Existence of a professional league
  • The salaries of professional players
  • Interest in national team performance
  • Social media interest.

Each of those criteria have merit, but there are several problems.

  • This data is not readily available on a country by country basis
  • The accuracy of the data that is available is often suspect or open to interpretation
  • The relative importance of each criterion is wide open to debate

Bottom line: An exercise to carefully weigh all of these criteria in a systematic reliable way is pretty much impossible.

That being said in most cases it’s fairly easy to weigh all those criteria and to come up with a ranking of the top 3 sports in just about any country. And, a ranking that most objective sports fans of that country would agree on without a whole lot of debate.

There’s a couple of reasons why this is true.

  • In most countries there is one dominant team sport and that sport is football (soccer). Practically no one will even credibly argue against soccer’s dominance. So off the top, we’re now only talking about 2nd and 3rd place.
  • And, again in most (but, not all) countries, #2 is often pretty well established based on the criteria above. Even without hard numbers the answer is obvious to people that live there.

All this being said, there are some countries, however, where handball’s place in the pecking order is open to debate. A debate, for the reasons listed earlier is pretty hard to resolve. So, instead of resolving I’ve decided to use the lack of a resolution as a way to help classify the sport’s popularity.

Classification (Key)

Here’s a few notes on how I’ve classified popularity.

  • Definitely the 2nd most popular team sport:
    • Countries where handball is 2nd in a preponderance of the criteria
  • Either the 2nd or 3rd most popular team sport:
    • Countries where there could be a legitimate debate between 2 sports as to which is 2nd or 3rd
      • Example: In several Balkan countries depending on who you talk to either basketball or handball is 2nd
    • Countries where handball is clearly 3rd
      • Example: There’s a pretty strong consensus that the proper ranking in Sweden is 1) Football; 2) Ice Hockey; and 3) Handball
  • A major sport with a significant presence
    • Countries where the ranking becomes muddled from 3rd place on down, but handball is still clearly a major sport that captures significant attention
      • Example: In France few would argue with soccer being first and rugby being second, but 3rd place is less clear between basketball and handball. That being said, even if Handball is the 4th most popular sport it’s still is a “major sport with a significant presence.” This is clearly demonstrated by it’s pro league, attendance and national team
  • A minor sport with some presence
    • Countries where the ranking becomes muddled from 3rd place on down, but Handball is more of a minor sport with a small, but dedicated following.
      • Example: Greece has a national league and several club teams playing at different levels, but the level of play is below that of other countries. They have a national team that is competitive, but still a notch below nations where the sport is more established.
  • A very minor sport with a limited presence
    • Countries where the sport’s ranking is somewhat moot because it’s hard to compare perhaps the 6th or 7th most popular team sport. Overall, participation numbers are small and the sport is seen as a curiosity by most of the citizens of that country.
      • Example: Great Britain fits that definition pretty well. The sport is growing, but they have a ways to go move up in popularity.

A few more thoughts

  • There is a rough pecking order from top to bottom. Blue is top; Green is next, etc.
  • This isn’t a perfect representation. And, one could argue for even more gradation. For instance, one could take the nations in yellow and create a rough pecking order.
  • What about individual sports? If you really wanted to further complicate matters we could add Formula 1, UFC and Tennis. I didn’t want to go there.
  • A few tough calls
    • Iceland: I’ve seen a few Icelandic basketball players playing for USA colleges and read that the sport is making inroads there. There are even more registered basketball clubs than handball clubs in the country… Still, I’m not ready to say that handball has slipped to third in Iceland.
    • Portugal: I’m thinking that 5 years ago Portugal would have been orange, but now they’ve jumped to green? But, a couple of folks convinced me that it’s arguably #2 there. Could that be just a momentary blip due to a Euro 2020 high?

What do you think?

This compilation/depiction isn’t set in stone. It’s just one man’s opinion influenced by feedback. If I’ve missed the boat let me know via email or social media and I’ll reconsider updating the map.

Email: john.ryan@teamhandballnews.com
Facebook: Link
Twitter: Link
Instagram: Link

Also, I’ll be creating similar maps for the other continents and I could use some feedback on Africa, Asia and the Americas.

Update (31 March 2020)

After the initial posting on 29 March, 2020, I received a lot of great feedback. Based on this feedback I made a few changes.

What’s Changed and Why

  • Romania (Green to Blue): Several comments all pointed out that handball is a solid #2 as a team sport; In particular, women’s handball both at the club and national team level has a pretty high level of attention- Arguably, higher than even football.
  • Cyprus (Red to Orange): Handball is not a big time sport in Cyprus, but based on their solid performances in both IHF Emerging Nations and early round EHF Qualification matches the sport has more than a limited presence
  • Faroe Islands (Blue): This small, but proud handball nation was inadvertently omitted. Some have even suggested that handball might even be the #1 sport there. Based on feedback, however, from one resident who is also a huge handball fan, however, I’ve assessed that it’s close, but not quite there yet.

What Received a Lot of Feedback, but Stayed the Same

Some handball knowledgeable people pointed out some colors on the map that just didn’t seem quite right. While, I understood their points and even agreed with them to some extent I decided not to make a change, though, in several instances. More than anything the debate centers on the imperfect classification system which naturally leads to some reasonable disagreements.

  • Portugal should be moved to yellow… Especially if France and Spain are Yellow: It does look a little strange, but it shouldn’t be interpreted to mean that handball therefore is a bigger sport in Portugal than it is in those two countries. If anything it’s more reflective of the reality that France (rugby) and Spain (basketball) have strong #2 sports.
  • Netherlands should be yellow… Especially if their women’s team is now the World Champion: There’s no denying that the women’s team has been an incredible success, but I would argue that this success is more the result of a smart national team strategy making the most of a pretty small talent pool. Handball is still a fairly small sport there in terms of participation and national interest. That certainly could change and this map is not set in stone.
  • Why is Russia yellow… Handball isn’t as popular there as it is in other countries like France and Spain: Handball has certainly slipped in terms of popularity in Russia and I, for one, agree that it’s clearly more popular in many other countries depicted in yellow. However, it’s still an important sport there and it’s women’s team is still a force. And, if one looks at the countries in orange it’s also clear that handball is more popular in Russia than it is those countries.
  • Serbia should be yellow… Since handball has really slipped in popularity there: I got feedback from one Serbian that handball has slipped behind basketball, water polo and even volleyball. I’ll need more feedback, however, before I drop any Balkan state below green.

What We Want (Part 2): College Development: More College Clubs… and College Clubs Playing Handball at a Higher Level

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World University Championships: This biennial event might be a great way to further develop our collegiate programs and track how well those programs are doing in terms of developing handball athletes.

This is part of an ongoing series: Link

Collegiate handball has been identified as a key focus area for developing handball in the U.S.  As such, several goals and objectives to move the college game forward have been identified both in the broader USA Team Handball Strategic Plan (drafted in 2018) and in a College Specific Strategic Plan (Feb 2018).

USA Team Handball Strategic Plan

A college and university initiative is identified on page 6.

D. Launch collegiate and university initiative.

  • i. Cultivate a competitive university club system across the United States.
  • ii. Target four geographies utilize the well-established collegiate club sports model.
  • iii. Create regional league competition.
  • iv. Host season ending Final Four event.

Target Outcome

  • Increase university club programs to 40 (4th Qtr 2020)

Appendix A

  • Appendix A references “Univ Teams” several times with targets for the number of teams
    • End 4th Qtr 2018:  14 (Accomplished:  15 Men’s Clubs /3 Women’s Clubs)
    • End 2nd Qtr 2019:  20 (Not Accomplished 15/3)   
    • End 4th Qtr 2019:  30 (Not Accomplished 15/4)    
    • End 2nd Qtr 2020:  35 (Not Accomplished 15/4)   
    • End 4th Qtr 2020:  40       
    • End 4th Qtr 2024: 100
  • There are several references to the selection and identification of new regions (Accomplished:  5 “hubs” (New York City, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles) have been selected.
  • There are several references to the establishment of regional leagues in the 2018-2020 time frame.  (Not Accomplished:  There are currently no regional collegiate leagues.)
  • A Final Four tournament for top collegiate programs was identified for the 4th Qtr of 2019  (Not Accomplished)

Collegiate Strategic Plan (Feb 1st, 2020)

The Collegiate Strategic Plan was developed by a Collegiate Working Group and provides more detail on collegiate goals and objectives.  However, in my opinion, (similar to the more broad USATH Strategic Plan) it strays in some instances into what might more accurately be described as near term action plans.  Here is an over of the plan’s contents:

  • 2050 Vision
    • Team Handball is a sanctioned NCAA Sport
    • Scholarship sport that competes for the best athletes
    • Widespread media presence
    • Handball is a recognizable, established major sport in America
  • 2019-2022 College Strategic Plan Goals
    • 1) Create a comprehensive and streamlined starter pack to allow a college student to create a college handball program in a semester and supply a resource person. 
    • 2) Have sustainable clubs playing 15 games per season in 72 colleges, including 36 women’s teams.
    • 3) Have the structures and systems in place to grow participation of college club players by 400%.
    • 4) Assemble the necessary capacity to achieve the goals of this plan.
    • 5) Raise sufficient funds to achieve the goals of this plan.

In my opinion goals 1 and 4 are near term actions that will be implemented to support goals 2 and 3.  Goal 5 is probably more suited for a broader discussion on fundraising.   As I think they are more “strategic”, here’s a closer look at goals 2 and 3:

  • Goal 2: Have sustainable clubs playing 15 games per season in 72 colleges, including 36 women’s teams.
    • 2.1 Recruit colleges proximal to existing clubs
    • 2.2 Establish new clubs in locations with a concentration of colleges based on receptivity and leadership
      • 2.2.1 Achieve 40 colleges by end of 2020
    • 2.3 Provide competition structure leading toward a National Championship in order to enable the best teams in the country play each other
      • 2.3.1 Consider two-season structure to enable cross-regional competition
      • 2.3.2 Publish competition structure well in advance to enable maximum participation
    • 2.4 Develop and implement a path to ensure club succession and continuation of administration
    • 2.5 Provide support from USATH ambassador
  • Goal 3:  Grow participation of college club players by 400 percent
    • 3.1 Raise the profile of team handball
      • 3.1.1 In concert with USATH, develop and implement a comprehensive promotion plan to have handball recognized across the country 
      • 3.1.2 Offer resources for parents, coaches, athletes
      • 3.1.3 Focus on benefits of participation
    • 3.2 In concert with USATH, ensure a pipeline of athletes to join college clubs using the Athlete Development Model
    • 3.3 Support established clubs
    • 3.4 Provide pathway for athletes post college, e.g. national team, city clubs, coach, referee, volunteering

Discussion

In broad terms, I would assess that the overall goal of collegiate development is to:

  1. Increase the number collegiate athletes, clubs and leagues (Increase participation)
  2. Improve the level of collegiate play

Increase Participation

In terms of increasing the numbers of athletes, clubs and leagues several targets have been presented, but they could use further definition.  Here are some clear targets that I emphasized in bold face in the text above:

  • Have sustainable clubs playing 15 games per season in 72 colleges, including 36 women’s teams.
  • Grow participation of college club players by 400 percent

Of particular note, the text highlighting “playing 15 games per season”, seems to provide a benchmark for a club program.  Essentially, making the point that there’s a significance difference between a club that plays 15 matches and a club that holds a couple of practices and plays in one weekend tournament.  If that is the definition of a collegiate club it also decreases the # of clubs.  Using the 15 match requirement for the last two seasons, there would have been this many clubs

  • 2018-19 (9 Men/2 Women)
  • 2019-20 (7/3) (I used 10 matches as the season has been shortened)

Participation growth is not defined, but it would logically have a strong correlation with the growth of the # of the clubs.  Depending on the “start date” and the number of existing clubs at that point in time one can then project the number of clubs needed to obtain 400% growth.  As an example, the U.S. had 15 men’s collegiate clubs and 3 women’s collegiate clubs during the 2018-19 season for a total of 18 clubs.  400% growth would then be 90 clubs.  If one uses an average of 15 athletes per club, the total number of collegiate athletes for the 2018-19 season would be 18 clubs x 15 athletes for a total of 270 collegiate athletes.  400% growth would equate to 1,350 athletes by the end of 2022.  And, of course, participation could also be simply assessed by totaling up the annual number of collegiate USA Team Handball memberships from year to year.

Improving the Level of Play

In terms of improving the level of play I would assess that both documents could use more specific targets related to accomplishing this goal.  The USA Team Handball Strategic Plan mentions “Athletes identified out of University Programs” in a few places and references “pipeline development”, but there is not much “meat on the bones.”  The Collegiate Strategic Plan included several bullet points that point to improving collegiate competition, but lacks measureable targets.

Here, though are some potential candidates:

  • USA Performance in World University Handball Competitions: Link  (Actually participating would also be good. It’s doubtful that the 2020 Championship will take place, but 2022 could be a possibility.)
  • Numbers of collegiate athletes (Current/Former) on Youth (U19), Junior (U21) and Senior national teams
  • Numbers of collegiate athletes being identified for further development by International Clubs
  • Numbers of collegiate athletes transitioning to U.S. Clubs

I haven’t identified the actual numbers (and dates) that should go with these targets, but would suggest that the Board of Directors consider adding these targets (with dates/numbers) for future updates to the Strategic Plans.

That wraps up “What we want” for College development.  Part 3 will take a closer look at Fundraising and Marketing

2003 EHF Champions League Finals (Portland San Antonio – Montpellier): Remembering a Classic

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(19 Year old Nikola Karabatic with one of his 11 goals in the first leg of the 2003 Champions League Final… Notice anything strange about this goal?)

The Coronavirus Pandemic has been a real bummer for sports fans everywhere.  No more live sports.  To fill the gap ESPN and other sports networks have been airing classic matches.

Handball is no different and last week I sent out a Twitter post asking for recommendations of classic matches that were available online and “Sharp Action” replied with a link to the 2nd Leg of the 2003 Champions League Final between Portland San Antonio and Montpellier.  And, then later someone pointed me to a great Spanish site (blog youtube) with the 1st leg of this classic final. 

  • 1st Leg (Spanish):  Link
  • 2nd Leg (Spanish):  Link
  • 2nd Leg (French): Link

What a gift!  What a trip down memory lane!

It’s hard to believe it was 17 years ago.  It seems like yesterday that I was watching these matches in with my 1 year old daughter “surfing” the coffee table in our Paris apartment.  Now she’s getting ready to graduate from high school.  (I guess it’s TBD as to whether she walks across a stage or just gets her diploma in the mail.)

Handball wise, it’s been quite an education.  I remember that it took me awhile back in the 2002-03 season to figure out that club handball was on TV in France and what the Champions League was.  Not to mention what the hell a “two match aggregate playoff” was.  There was no Final Four at the time and therefore the semifinal and finals were decided by the aggregate score of two matches, with one being played in each locale.

I’ve only rewatched the first leg in Pamplona and I won’t give any spoilers, but here’s a few contextual tidbits that might help you appreciate the match more:

  • Arguably, these matches are a bit of a coming out party for France’s big 3:  Nikola Karabatic, Didier Dinart, and Thierry Omeyer.  Dinart is generally considered to be the best defender of all time.  Omeyer is in the conversation for best all time GK and, of course, Karabatic may well be the handball GOAT.  Certainly, few would argue against the reality that he has been the GOAT for the 21st century.
  • Karabatic had just turned 19 years old at the time these matches were played.  I will never forget a few months earlier watching Montpellier and checking his (at the time) relatively short Wikipedia page and absolutely being floored to discover that he was just 18 years old and thinking to myself, “Holy crap!  How good is the guy going to be in a few years?”
  • Laughably, Montpellier coach, Patrice Canayer didn’t start Karabatic for this match.  To Canayer’s credit, though, he doesn’t leave much after he does enter the game.
  • Take a look at this goal by Karabatic: Link  (Notice anything unusual?)
  • Watch what Karabatic does at the end of the first half and think about how that might impact the final outcome.
  • Check out how Didier Dinart clogs up the middle on defense.  There ought to be some handball analytics that measure what an impact that sort of play can be on the final outcome.  You just don’t see many goals scored while he’s in the vicinity of the action.  It’s hard to measure that, but if you watch just him (instead of the ball) for a few minutes you’ll start to appreciate what a difference he makes.
  • The Spanish club, Portland San Antonio was a major presence in the Spanish League and was actually located in Pamplona.  Yes, the club was located there even if the club name by coincidence featured the names of two NBA franchise cities, which are not cities in Spain.  Best that I can tell, San Antonio is a neighborhood in Pamplona while Portland was the name of the cement company that was their sponsor.  They were also a casualty of the Spanish financial crisis that caused the dramatic decline in the Liga Asobal.
  • Be sure to appreciate Jackson Richardson’s skills both on offense and defense, but keep in mind that he was also almost 34 years old and was actually entering the tail end of a great career.
  • Portland San Antonio’s leading scorer for the match was a Belarussian, Mikhail Yakimovich, who also won a gold medal in 1992 for the Soviet Union.  He was also 35 years old.  Back in the day, Liga Asobal teams seemed to have quite a few players from the Balkans and the former Soviet Union populating their rosters and this is one of the reasons the league was once considered the best in the world.
  • The GK for Portland San Antonio, Vladimir Rivero, was originally from Cuba and tragically died a year later due to an aneurysm.  He played 191 international matches for Cuba.
  • It’s kind of quaint to see all the lines on the floor for basketball, volleyball, etc, but that was pretty commonplace until the EHF instituted requirements for standardized floors. 

Links to more classic matches you can see online: Link