Germany Lifts its Game to Host More International Sports Events

This year, along with this summer's soccer World Cup, Germany has hosted a number of high profile sporting events such as the World Equestrian Games and the World Men's Field Hockey Tournament.

President of the International Sports Press Association Football Commission, Keir Radnedge, who has covered every world cup since 1966, said more international events are being held in Germany because once a big sporting event, like the World Cup, is awarded to a country it creates a ''domino effect.''

''The World Cup is awarded to a country six years in advance, so there is a bidding momentum and an awareness that is generated," Radnedge said.

To cater to the World Cup crowds, Germany had to provide the facilities to cope with such a large-scale sporting event.

''The World Cup effects the infrastructure of the country in a big way and the international sports administrators are becoming more attuned to this,'' Radnedge said. ''If Germany has the capacity to hold such a big event, then they will obviously have the capacity to do the same for more large events.''

Radnedge attributes the increased number of high-profile sporting events in Germany to an ''international vote of confidence.''

''The moderators are able to see how a country is able to cope with the more major events,'' he said.

Barry Newcombe, a sports reporter and chairman of the Sports Journalists Federation, said Germany has a good international reputation for organizing sporting events.

''People expect that events in Germany will be well run and that things will go smoothly,'' he said.

Attracting international attention

The FEI World Equestrian Games in Aachen, which ends this weekend, has generated a lot of international publicity very quickly, according to Newcombe.

''Mainly because it involved Zara Phillips (Princess Anne's daughter), so it has the celebrity attraction,'' he said.

Specialist facilities built

The World Men's Field Hockey Championships are to be held from the Sept. 6 to Sept. 17 in the western city of Mönchengladbach.

The event is to be held at the Warsteiner Hockey Park, described as ''Europe’s biggest and most modern hockey stadium,'' according to the events website.

Stephan Abel, president of the German Hockey Federation, said following Germany's bid for the 2012 Olympics, it was decided to build the hockey facility that was proposed for the games even through the bid was unsuccessful.

The Hockey Championships have been ''unexpectedly very successful'' with almost 60,000 tickets sold, according to Abel.

''In the past, the largest hockey event in Germany sold 28,000 tickets and we have sold nearly three times that amount for this event,'' he said. ''We have had many international and domestic visitors and enormous media coverage.''

Abel observed that Germany has attracted a larger than usual number of visiting foreign reporters, spectators and sporting representatives because ''the (soccer) World Cup is just as important as the Olympics.''

More international events for Germany in the future?

Newcombe expects there will be more sporting events, although he does not expect they will just come ''flooding in.''

''It's no surprise that if you put on these big events then more will be happening in the future and I think Germany has set itself up well,'' Newcombe said.

Radnedge thinks it is a confidence-building exercise for German domestic sports, who have become more willing to ''put themselves out into the international community'' following events such as the World Cup.