Q&A with Arne Elovsson -- Handball World Championships President

(ATR) Arne Elovsson, president of the organizing committee for themen’s handball world championships tells Around the Rings the crowds for the tournament have been loud and enthusiastic, and the only complaints are from athletes over food.

The tournament, taking place in Sweden, started on Jan. 13 and runs until the 30th. Pool matches end Friday, with 10 teams having qualified for the Main Round, including the host country.

Matches between the 24 countries that qualified take place in 10 venues in 10 cities. Organizers claim the tournament is the largest event in Scandinavia in 2011.

Elovsson, 67, is a former handball player in Sweden’s top handball division. For 35 years he’s worked with the Swedish federation in a variety of roles, and is now an honorary president.

He spoke with ATR on Jan. 18.

Around the Rings: How has the tournament gone?

Arne Elovsson: I must say that it has been successful so far, for spectators and arrangement with very good atmosphere in the matches. Especially in the two big arenas with around 10000 spectators in the matches. We have four venues and the others are smaller and I think we are satisfied.

ATR:You’ve had several phases of ticket sales, how are sales?

AE: Yes we have had sold--paid tickets, this is very important that the tickets are paid. We have many tickets which are blocked but we will not count them until we have got the money on our account. I think that we now have, the last figures I saw was from yesterday we are now about 175,000, 170,00 paid tickets.

We have every week we have followed the ticket situation, every Monday. I think it was only some matches, only some sessions which were very good before Christmas. After Christmas we have had a very good development. From the beginning it was more or less, the final, we had to stop as we had no more tickets to sell after one, two months, then it was very good for the semi-final. And then the best game was Croatia/Denmark. And then after Christmas we have had very good development in the Swedish matches, and also the Danish matches and also for Germany.

ATR: What’s been the biggest challenge?

AE: That is to organize all this logistical and practical things. That is a real great challenge. The other challenge is to sell tickets. We are satisfied.

Regarding the organization question, I mean always the first match day is a very stressed day and depending on all our volunteers, they haven’t done it before. All the activities with the cars, transport, hotel reservations and so on. The teams and the officials they make so many changes the last days so it’s very difficult to follow it up.

ATR: What else has been successful?

AE: I understand outside the arena we have fanzone in every venue. I know several of these are not sold out they are free tickets, but they are maximal occupied with viewers, with spectators. I think they are satisfied with these fanzones with venues. This means we have had a good result from the Swedish media and that is also important for us. The Swedish team has won their three first matches. That is very important and perhaps the most successful for us out of tickets and organizations is the victories for the Swedish team.

ATR: What are you expecting for the rest of the tournament?

AE: I hope that it will be better and better, less and less problems, less and less details to solve. Also now there will be a good ticket situation in the main round.

I hope that it will be running well and that we will have no great problems. As you know in the north in Europe it can always be a problem with the weatherand I hope that we can have the same weather this week and next the week which we have had so it can be no problem for the spectators to go to the arenas. I hope there will be no problems with people who will destroy some things for us.

I hope the handball clubs that will use the possibility to recruit many young players. We have so much of the Swedish sports media here. That is an excellent possibility to recruit new young players. I hope that they will succeed with this.

ATR: Have you talked to the athletes about the tournament? What has been their response?

AE: Our bridge from the team, is more or less, we have a team guide in each team and the team guide is in every hour in contact with the head of the delegation, the coaches and so on. This is input from the teams for us; we have the international federation together with us sent a letter that said if they send and demands they have to send them to us.

ATR: Have you head any complaints or demands?

AE: It's always with the food. Athletes from one two three four five different continents with the different culture and the different foods, and of course we have sent a questionnaire before the tournament and only two of the 24 or 23 of the delegationshave answered us. So it was not so much help for us.

Now we have got demands and complaints, and they say "you are Sweden and Swedish food and meal traditions". We have to see it out of an international aspect but nevertheless it's another situation when you come from another country or South America so on and so on.

We have said that all these demands we have to solve them and fulfill it as long as possible for us.

It’s not an economical question for us so if they say if they want more meats we can organize it if they want other dessert we will organize it, anything, soup, anything special, more pasta, we will organize it.

ATR: What have the crowds been like? How have they reacted?

AE: I must say the Swedish fans have enjoyed the tournament. I’ve written in the Swedish newspapers that this was one of the most fantastic atmosphere in Swedish indoor sports. Also the Danish fans, they are here.

We have chosen to play in the south and the southwest of Sweden. One reason is that from the south and southwest of Sweden it is close Norway, our neighbors, Denmark, Germany and Poland. And all these four countries are great handball nations. We expect many spectators from these four countries, many fans, and we are satisfied with the results, and these people create good atmosphere in the matches.

ATR: How is media coverage? How many countries are broadcasting matches?

AE: As I know it was journalists here from between 30 and 35 nations and we have about 1,300 accredited employers from media.

Our first information is from rights holders is close 150 nations.

ATR: How many people are working on the tournament?

AE: We are about 1500 volunteers. All volunteers. All these are recruited from the handball clubs, perhaps 1400 from the clubs.

ATR: How has the federation supported you?

AE: We organize this tournament in a company, and this company is owned by the federation. We have separated the normal tasks of the federation, and we have a special organization for the world championships. But we have support from the federation as they are the owners.

I will not speak so much about the international federation. They are here to check that everything is OK and they are here to support us.

Interview conducted by Ed Hula III.