16. January 2025
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Women Handball EHF Euro at Basel St. Jakobshalle (Switzerland)

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Basel St. Jakobshalle (Women Handball Euro 2024)

Basel St. Jakobshalle (Women Handball Euro 2024)
4.6

Rating

 4.6/5

Even though the bets felt to be more than clear, this match-up felt too tempting. On 3rd December 2024, the Women Handball EHF Euro hosted the battle between the debut team and bloody underdog Faroe Islands against Denmark. The Atlantic islands are autonomous in the Kingdom of Denmark, so they somehow faced their sister, mother or whatever state. The second match of the day, which was held at St. Jakobshalle in Basel, made Switzerland face Croatia to potentially advance to the main round. Here is my stadium review.

 

St. Jakobshalle – Location & Traffic

The arena is located in the borough of St. Jakob, East of the city center of Basel. South of the St. Jakobshalle is a major park. The most striking place around is the St. Jakob Park, soccer home ground of FC Basel. The stadium also features a shopping mall.

The indoor venue is rather nicely connected by public transport. There is a local train station, Basel St. Jakob. However, the station is only used for major events, especially soccer matches. However, there is a public transport stop between the stadium and St. Jakobshalle, which is connected by tram 14 as well as three bus lines, 36, 37 and 47. Bus 36 is connecting the stadium with the Swiss rail station Basel SBB as well as the German rail station, Basel Badischer Bahnhof. The soccer stadium and shopping mall also offer parking in close proximity – which is of course limited in case St. Jakob Park has events in parallel.

 

St. Jakobshalle – Arena & Ticket Situation

The venue has been built in 1970 and renovated from 2015 to 2018. It nowadays has a capacity of 12,400 people and is thus the third largest indoor venue. No sports club is using the venue regularly, apart from the annual ATP tennis tournament (Swiss Indoors). In 2025, it will host the Eurovision Song Contest. The complex also includes some minor venues, including three with a capacity of 1,400 people or more each.

The ticketing situation for the EHF Euro was rather easy. The matches I attended were the best-sold ones of the tournament in the Swiss city, having an official attendance of 3,800. Apart from the popularity of the sports in Switzerland in general, a reason might have been the comparably high ticket prices in Switzerland. My ticket rather high in the ranks, but in a rather central location was 80 CHF, roughly 86 Euro. The seats had a reasonable width and a good pitch. One short side of the arena was used for hospitality.

 

Women Handball EHF Euro in Basel – Atmosphere

There were some stands from organizers and sponsors. Nonetheless, there was hardly any atmosphere from Danish fans and also the Croatian support was limited. The Faroese fans, who came with a crowd of some 300 to 500 people, was outstanding. Of course, the home team had quite some push by the local fans as well. I did not like the show elements during intermission, which were either somehow repetitive or boring. The video screens at the short sides of the venue felt rather small and distant from my position.

 

 

Basel St. Jakobshalle- Food & Shopping

Rather close to the main entrance, there was a merchandise store. Similar to the (Men) EHF Euro I attended in Berlin earlier that year, there was a clear focus on Swiss merchandise. The venue also drove some food booths. The pricing might feel shocking for other European fans, but I overall felt it was rather reasonable in regards of Swiss price levels. The quality of the food looked good – I however did not check it out. There were some additional souvenirs given away by sponsors. However, the interaction was limited and by far did not meet my Berlin experience.

 

EHF Euro 2024 – Altes Kraftwerk Fan Zone

The organizers also put up a fan zone, where you could meet up before the match. Maybe also due to the schedule, it was more or less a Faroese fan zone before the match against Denmark. The Nordic crowd was partying (at lower drink prices) and even had a domestic DJ with them. You just had to love these people (I love their country anyway), who supported their team despite having limited chance to proceed to the main round in Vienna.

 

Women Handball EHF Euro at Basel St. Jakobshalle – My View

Handball European Championships are a special event. Similar to international ice hockey tournaments, the atmosphere is very friendly and supportive. Thus, I definitely enjoyed my trip to Basel. The arena is modern and nice. However, the atmosphere and technical equipment lead to some issues. The traffic connection is also not ideal, at least as long as the rail service is not in place.

 

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