12. December 2025
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Handball World Championships at SWT Arena Trier

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

SWT Arena Trier

SWT Arena Trier
3.3

Rating

 3.3/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Nicely sized arena
  • Helpful staff

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Parking issues (esp. on first day)
  • Service issues inside the arena

A year after the Faroese Women Handball National Team qualified for the European Championships and played at St. Jakobshalle in Basel, they were back in Central Europe in late November 2025. Germany and the Netherlands hosted the Women Handball World Championships, the Nordic ladies were scheduled to play in Trier in Southwest Germany. Of course, I had to be there and support them from the stands. Here is my review of the venue, SWT Arena.

 

SWT Arena – Location & Transport

The venue is located Northeast of the city center of Trier. The area is very commercial, with different kinds of stores and businesses around. It is also very close to the B49 national road, which is connecting the South Moselle shore area of Trier. Close to the SWT Arena, there is also the inception of the A602 motorway.

The arena is also well connected by public transport. Right in front of it, there is a bus stop (SWT Arena, lines 1, 53, 86, 800). The nearby roundabout is linked to multiple additional bus lines as well.

Parking and Traffic Issues

In general, if you come by car, getting to SWT Arena should be an easy thing as well. The website states that there is sufficient parking. However, especially on the first day of my visit, when there was just a third of the full capacity in the venue (some  1,500 people), it was an absolute nightmare. SWT Arena’s parking deck was full and the major parking lot of a nearby parking lot, which is used as a venue parking, did not operate as such. The parking staff around the arena was friendly and helpful, but did not get the right information. Thus, I was sent to multiple places, including the to-be-closed hardware store parking. Finally, I ended up parking at a nearby street. It took me over 40 minutes to park my car, which was absolutely ridiculous. The other days, parking went more smoothly – but you just cannot state that the signs and information was well done.

On top of that, one has to mention that the city of Trier has an absolutely ridiculous traffic organization. Especially if you travel in from West, e.g. from Luxembourg ,you should factor in major delays before you get even close to the venue. Finally, it might even make sense to drive along the city first and then making it to SWT Arena from the East.

 

SWT Arena – The Venue

SWT Arena has been opened in 2003. It majorly served as home for the German top league basketball team TBB Trier. Nowadays, it is majorly home of the ProA / 2nd Bundesliga team Gladiators Trier and the handball squad of PSD Trier. Depending on the exact configuration, it has a capacity of some 5,900 seats for basketball and around 4,500 for handball. As a concert venue, it can host up to 7,500 people.

As the arena is built for basketball (which has a smaller field size), a lot of the seats are foldable in retractable stands. They are not overwhelmingly comfy, but fine. Overall, the arena feels much older than it actually is. During the Handball World Cup, some areas were blocked so that you could not access all stands from the top gallery (which is the typical way of entering them). Especially for the “best seats” close to center line on one side, that meant that you had to take a ridiculous labyrinth of stairs going up and down.

 

Handball World Championships at SWT Arena – Atmosphere

Overall, handball events in Germany are very respectful and come with a relaxed atmosphere. The support and atmosphere by the fans significantly differed with the team on court. Germany played in parallel in Stuttgart. In general, the Faroe Islands outnumbered all other teams of their group together by the amount of fans easily. Not too surprisingly, they were driving the support in Trier. in their group, only Montenegro came with a larger number of supporters as well. The Faroese managed to catch the neutral supporters, so that their matches were surprisingly fun in regards of that.

 

SWT Arena – Merchandise & Food

All vending places are located on gallery level. There were three food stands, which have fixed locations, a cocktail bar and a few vending and sponsor booths. The selection of merchandise available was surprisingly limited.

Food was not too well organized. Especially in half time and between the two matches of each session, the lines at the booths were simply too long. The staff was not well organized at all. Even on the better visited days, the arena just ran at about half of the capacity it has for basketball matches. Keeping that in mind, the management of the food/drink booths was bad. The quality and prices were rather fine. However, here were just small printed menus in English as well – and these did not even include all items in stock. For example, I had a cheese pretzel on my first day which was not on the menu at all.

 

SWT Arena – Services

Overall, the staff was friendly and helpful. In general, I would have loved having more signs and communication in English as well. The toilets are not on gallery level, but on ground level, which felt a bit weird.  You could leave and re-enter the arena, e.g. in the intermission between two matches.

 

Handball World Championships at SWT Arena – My View

SWT Arena comes with a history in premier basketball, it hosted the Davis Cup and a couple of other sports events. The nicely sized venue could be a gem for the city of Trier. However, I felt it was more on the disappointing side. It feels a bit old-fashioned and services like food and parking were terribly organized, especially during the first days. You cannot blame them for the traffic in the city, but it is simply another negative factor worth mentioning.

 

Postings about Handball

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