13. February 2026
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EHF Euro 2026 at Unity Arena (Oslo / Baerum)

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

EHF Euro 2026 at Unity Arena

EHF Euro 2026 at Unity Arena
3.9

Rating

 3.9/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Impressing, huge soccer field size venue
  • A lot of free space for catering / merch for handball matches
  • Location within Oslo public transport city zone

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Some public transport options, especially after event

In January 2026, it was time for handball from a spectators’ perspective again. After I supported the Faroe Islands national team at Mercedes Benz Arena / Uber Arena and at SWT Arena in Trier already, I had trip of that kind. I traveled to Oslo being part of 7,000 locals supporting their team in the preliminary round of the EHF Euro (Man) 2026. The matches were played at Unity Arena in Baerum, a suburb of Oslo. Here is my arena review.

 

Unity Arena – Location & Transport

Strictly speaking, Unity Arena is located in Fornebu, a borough of the Oslo suburb Baerum. It is located on the grounds of the historic airport of the Norwegian capital and was also known as Telenor Arena from its opening in 2009 until 2024. The area is very commercial. There are some hotels and other venues around. The area also featured a few minor museums, which are typically not that much in focus of visitors, though.

The arena is right South of the E18 motorway. There are also some car parks around. However, I took public transport on all three visits. The bus stop Fornebuparken is located almost in front of the arena. It is directly connected with the city center of Oslo by bus 31, travel time from Oslo Central Station is roughly 30 minutes. There are also other bus connections from there (lines 24, 28, 81, 145). If you head Northbound / Oslo-bound after the show, you have to pass a tunnel to the respective bus stop. During the EHF Euro, this bus stop was closed after the match and you had to walk to Telenor Fornebu, which is roughly a ten minute / 500 meters walk and a bit of bothering.

You could alternatively also use rail services to and from Lysaker station. However, it might be tricky getting into a bus from there at popular events. The venue is within the inner city Zone 1 of public transport, leading to rather cheap commutes to and from the arena.

 

Unity Arena – Arena & Ticket Situation

Call it unique or strange – Unity Arena is definitely a special place. Its opening event was Stabaek Fotbol, who played their home matches in there for three seasons, facing Valernga Oslo. Sports fans know: these are Norwegian soccer teams. Indeed, the arena is large enough to host a full size soccer ground. For the handball matches, this meant that two built in stands, parts of one short side and one long side of a soccer ground, were used. The other two sides featured mobile stands, leading to a total capacity of roughly 9,000 people. For soccer matches, there may be up to 15,000 fans. The venue feels much larger than “just” being able to host 25,000 people for concerts. One the one hand, this meant that Unity Arena had a lot of space for catering, fan zones and similar things. On the other hand, the seating was a bit of bothering and comparably far away from the field. The arena also felt comparably dark on the stands.

As far as I can identify from other picture of the arena, the jumbotron was mounted for the handball event only. My seat was at the “soccer stand”. The stairs felt steep and also somehow strange when I went downstairs. The seats were typical plastic ones, but got their job done rather fine. As you are so far away from the handball field, the arena could sell ticket even far outside the sidelines without viewing restriction. It just felt a bit too far away, even though the in-fact view was not too bad. The tickets for the EHF Euro were sold in day ticket packages. With host Norway and the very popular Faroe Islands competing there, there might have been a comparably limited selection. However, only one match day of the Norwegian team was completely sold out.

 

EHF Euro 2026 Unity Arena – Atmosphere

As said, it is a strange, large arena. This unfortunately also impacts the atmosphere in the arena, which finally significantly depended on the teams played. Even Switzerland who had some 200, 300 spectators, could not really provide a loud support. The mass of fans from Faroe Islands (and of course the locals, who played in another group) of course lead to a massive support. When their team played one long side and both short sides of the stand were almost entirely in white. It was absolutely impressing. Not only in numbers, but especially in volume, they significantly pushed their support to another level, compared to the Berlin tournament. Being that impressed about it, I already published a dedicated posting about them.

 

Unity Arena – Food & Merchandise

As said, there was a large selection of food on the ground level, in addition to some open food booths in the fixed stands area. During the EHF Euro 2026, Unity Arena featured a large beer garden, a self-service grocery-store alike food area as well as special vendors like waffles and ice, pizza and Thai food. The prices were… Norwegian – you just don’t go there to have a cheap time.

The wide space also offered the opportunity for relaxed merchandise areas. I was a bit of disappointed about the items on offer for teams other than Norway on the first Faroese match day. However, they added more items of the guest teams thereafter, so that the selection was quite nice at reasonable pricing.

 

Unity Arena – Services

The large space of the arena did not only lead to some more seating area, but also for sponsors to present their products. Interestingly, the German discount grocery store brand sponsoring the event was not represented in Oslo. Therefore, there were some games (with long waiting lines) and the opportunity having your favorite team’s colors painted in your face. The staff was very friendly. What I did not like, especially at the vending places, was that at this international events, the majority of signs, price tables and similar items were in Norwegian only. Interestingly, this was in line with my SWT Arena in Trier experience at the Women Handball World Championships a few weeks before (when everything was in German).

 

Unity Arena – My View

When Unity Arena is used for handball, it is a somehow strange place. It rather felt like a like hall of a trade fair – with some fixed stands on two sides. However, the large space inside the arena lead to a very relaxed atmosphere. The traffic connection, especially after the event, could be better organized. Furthermore, I struggled with the stairs at my stand and disliked that signs were majorly in Norwegian (even though staff was fluent in English). Nonetheless, you just cannot argue against that this place is special and unique.

 

Stadiums & Arenas

Here are all reviews and reports about (sports) Stadiums & Arenas:

 

Oslo on Flyctory.com

Here are all my posts related to the Norwegian capital Oslo:

 

 

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