Cologne’s LANXESS Arena has won the right to host the 10th anniversary edition of Final4, European handball’s biggest annual competition.
The European Handball Federation (EHF) has opted to retain the venue as the host for the 2020 staging of Final4, the season finale to the Champions League club competition.
The German city has staged the Final4 since its introduction in 2010. While the current contract with the 18,000-capacity LANXESS Arena and the City of Cologne, which was agreed in March 2015, runs until 2020, it included a one-time option to move the Final4 to a different location.
The anniversary edition of the Final4 could have been an option for such a switch, but the EHF has confirmed it will remain in Cologne and will be held on June 1-2 next year.
Stefan Löcher, managing director of the LANXESS Arena, said: “The fact that the EHF decided to stage the anniversary edition of the Velux EHF Final4 in the LANXESS Arena feels like an accolade for the arena and for Cologne as an event city.
“The Velux EHF Final4 has developed into Europe’s best and most important indoor sport event and impresses year by year also off-court with an incredible show programme. We are looking forward to the next three editions of the Velux EHF Final4 and hope that this spectacular event will also stay beyond 2020 in Germany’s largest and best-visited multi-functional indoor arena.”
LANXESS Arena is primarily used by Kölner Haie (ice hockey), VfL Gummersbach (team handball), Köln RheinStars (basketball), and as a concert venue. U2, Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift and Katy Perry are among the acts to have played the venue since it opened in 1998.
MAIN IMAGE: EHF (LANXESS Arena)
IMAGE: © Raimond Spekking / CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)
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