Nine European Championships, more decisions than at the Olympic Winter Games at the beginning of the year – a major event is taking place in Munich with the European Championships. Ticket sales are still slow, but hope is high. Even if a crowd puller is missing.
Munich has put in a lot of effort. On the Königsplatz in the city center there are 2500 tons of sand for the beach volleyball players, around which they have built a stadium for 5000 spectators, next door there are three artificial rocks for the climbers. The goal for walkers, marathon runners and cyclists is on Leopoldstrasse, the cheering mile after FC Bayern triumphs. And the Olympic Stadium got a new track.
Munich has put in a lot of effort, has dressed up and exudes a touch of the Olympics for the second European Championships after 2018 in Glasgow and Berlin (only athletics): Around 4,700 athletes are expected to attend the nine European Championships this time, 177 winners, that is larger dimensions than at the last Olympic Winter Games in Beijing with almost 2900 athletes and 109 decisions.
Munich has also put together a supporting program for this “mini Olympics” that is brimming with ideas – and of course is intended to attract as many visitors as possible. But the Multi-EM seems to have a problem with the spectators. 450,000 paying visitors are expected, 250,000 tickets were sold by Wednesday. Organization and Olympiapark boss Marion Schöne believes that many spontaneous people will come along.
In the Olympic Stadium, with its ample space for 55,000 spectators, there is a risk of significant gaps, especially since the few German hopefuls have already canceled – or like the long jump Olympic champion and world champion Malaika Mihambo still have to fight for the start. It could get crowded outside: Mountain biking on and BMX on the Olympiaberg as well as triathlon in and around the Olympiasee do not cost admission.
Advance sales have only been going reasonably well for the past two weeks, and it would certainly have helped if they could have hosted a tenth European Championship in Munich. Four years ago in Glasgow, swimming was a crowd puller, however: The renovated Olympic swimming pool only offers eight of the prescribed ten lanes, a temporary facility on the exhibition center would have exceeded the budget of 100 million euros. Now they are swimming in Rome at the same time.
In the end, the organizing committee would be very happy if all the events attracted around a million spectators – after all, 50 years after the Olympic Games in Munich, the Olympic Games in Germany are also at stake. The German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) dreams that the Lords of the Rings will once again send it the largest sports festival in the world – of course nothing would work before 2030 (winter) and 2036 (summer).
At least a signal should go out from Munich, says Olympiapark and OC boss Marion Schöne. She knows that after the two failed attempts due to citizen votes, with applications for the 2022 (Munich) and 2024 (Hamburg) Olympics, the IOC-skeptical German population first has to be convinced again. “You have to create trust and that has to be regained first, and that’s also a bit of our mission,” she said.
So Munich is loading up a lot in its Olympic anniversary year: memories of 1972, including commemoration of the Olympic assassination attempt on September 5, 1972, which killed eleven Israeli athletes and a German police officer, the European Championships – and then start-up assistance for a possible German application for the Olympics. Schöne emphasizes that Munich wants to show that a major event like this is possible in Germany.
“For me and many others who work in sports, that would certainly be a big dream,” said Schöne. And “if the support of the population is there, if you carry it together like at the European Championships, we have a good chance of getting the Olympic Games here again”.
