After two years of corona-induced waiting, the German floorball scene celebrated a rousing Final4 at the Max-Schmeling-Halle in Berlin, Germany, this weekend. It was the biggest stage for the young sport in Germany so far and it is said to have been only the prelude.
The ETV Lady Piranhhas Hamburg in the women’s competition and the UHC Sparkasse Weißenfels in the men’s competition were crowned the 2022 Cup winners – for the team from Saxony-Anhalt it was the tenth Cup triumph in the club’s history, for the Hanseatic women it was the title premiere.
Talent Cup and coaches’ workshop
In addition to the finals and the four semifinals, the youth tournament “Talentepokal” with 14 teams in three age categories took place in the side halls of the Schmeling-Halle. In the run-up to the finals, the Special Olympics Game was held in the main hall. Over the weekend, coaches from all over Germany learned from Niklas Nordén, coach of the reigning men’s world champion Sweden, in a workshop.
— On this Final4 weekend, everything worked out super organizationally. It was a milestone for floorball in Germany and also historic: for the first time, a competition took place in one of the country’s large multifunctional arenas, is the conclusion of Remo Hubacher, President of Floorball Germany.
— The organizational team around Niklas Wangnet, Robbi Haschker, Doreen Koschke and Pascal Heyn from the Floorball Association Berlin-Brandenburg has worked tirelessly. This also applies to the armada of volunteers – I would like to say thank you to them. The Final4 in the Schmeling-Halle was advertising for our sport and an exclamation mark, adds Hubacher to explicitly praise the organizers.
Decent attendance – livestream is overwhelmingly well received
The event took place under 2Gplus conditions and FFP2 masks were mandatory for visitors in the hall. This did not dampen the atmosphere – fans from Bonn, Holzbüttgen, Hamburg, Weissenfels, Leipzig and the host Berlin Rockets celebrated their teams loudly.
For the semifinal on Saturday 1,228 fans came to the hall, and on Sunday’s final, the number also reached 1,021 fans. The figures for the livestream on the Twitch channel Spontent One were impressive: On average, more than 3,400 people watched the semifinal matches online on Saturday. In total, around 281,000 unique viewers were counted on Saturday – that’s viewers who watched the stream for at least 15 minutes.
The broadcast of the final matches on Sunday was similarly successful: around 3,050 people watched on average, and 140,000 unique viewers were counted in total. The livestream team led by Janek Wöbke managed more than 20 hours of live coverage over the weekend.
“Are on the right track”
— Only together with the help of the biggest clubs in the region and a great team could what was thought impossible now be made possible after all!, says Adrian Mühle from the organizing Floorball Landesverband Berlin-Brandenburg while looking back on the last six weeks as “probably the craziest in the association’s history.”
— Even if some figures made it seem that the event was not well attended, all the facts show otherwise. Berlin is up for more, all the feedback gives us strength that we are on the right track! In 2023 we will be back, then with 5,000 spectators, that is promised, he says with a smile.
All statistics on the men’s and women’s games
The pictures from the Final4 weekend on Flickr
Source: https://floorballfinal4.de/
Photos: Justus Stegemann/Instagram: justus.fotos
