If you want to really get into the action at the European Football Championship (EM) this summer, the best place to do it is in Munich’s Olympic Park. On the Hans-Jochen-Vogel-Platz between the stadium, swimming pool and multi-purpose hall, the city is installing a fan zone during the tournament from June 14th to July 14th, and anyone who likes can actually fly in, float in or dive in, depending on the event whatever you want to call it.
A 400 meter long steel cable is stretched from the summit of the Olympic Mountain down to the lawn in front of the swimming pool, allowing visitors to slide down – at up to 50 km/h and 40 meters above the ground. The zip line is called the Flying Fox, and with such a model you can fly through the arena from the roof of the Olympic Stadium. However, the route there is only half as long as the one that will also lead across Lake Olympia in the summer. “Flight tickets can be booked from today,” says Klaus Cyron, who is organizing the supporting program for the European Championships for Olympiapark GmbH; and in view of the current obstacles in air traffic, he promises: “Our ground staff will not go on strike.”
The Flying Fox is just one of the attractions designed to entertain fans in the Olympic Park this summer. Cyron and representatives from the city, Olympiapark GmbH and the organizing committee presented what else is planned on Wednesday morning – exactly one hundred days before the opening game of the European Championship between Germany and Scotland in the “Football Arena Munich”, like the FC Bayern stadium in Fröttmaning will then be called for the duration of the tournament.
Five more games will be played there. On June 17th, Romania will face an opponent yet to be determined in the playoffs, then the Serbian selection will play against Slovenia on June 20th and against Denmark on June 25th. On July 2nd and 9th there will be two games in the knockout round, a round of 16 and a semi-final. If you didn’t get an expensive ticket for the stadium, you can also watch the games in the fan zone with free entry. All 51 European Championship games will be shown there on three screens of different sizes.
At the home World Cup in 2006, such broadcasts took place in the Olympic Park for the first time, its boss Marion Schöne recalled: “Since then there has been a public viewing for all European Championships and World Cups here.” However, watching football together is far from enough, Schöne knows: “Sport no longer works without events around it. The fans want to celebrate before and after.”
Program for all 31 tournament days
So her team put together a program for all 31 days of the tournament, “a challenge,” as she says. A total of 30 bands will perform, from Moop mom for the younger visitors up to Münchener Freiheit for the older ones. There are interactive sports activities for the whole family: The Bavarian Football Association (BFV) is setting up a small pitch for various tournaments, and sponsors are setting up stands for various skill exercises. There is also a cultural program. “There’s so much on offer that you won’t get bored,” promises Cyron.
He’s not the only one hoping that the flair of the rooftop festival that accompanied the European Championships in the Olympic Park two years ago can be recreated. The city has approved 21 million euros for the fan program. “There is a broad majority in the city council that is behind the events,” says Verena Dietl (SPD), who is the third mayor responsible for sport: “We are experiencing it yes, again and again, how a sporting event revitalizes the city, the economy, tourism.” And on this occasion, Munich naturally wants to show its guests its best side – as hospitable and cosmopolitan. “Maybe we can get that feeling as a place for European encounters this summer,” says Marion Schöne.
A lot depends on the first game of a tournament, says Felix Brych, formerly one of the best referees in the world and now serving as Munich’s ambassador for Euro 2024. “If the first game goes well, it can turn into a fairy tale,” he said as a prelude to this year’s opening game and recalled the 2006 World Cup, the legendary summer fairy tale that began with a 4-2 opening win for the German team in Munich.
If everything goes well and the German team creates the right atmosphere, Olympiapark boss Schöne expects up to a million visitors to the fan zone. For security reasons, many more than 30,000 people at once are not allowed into the limited area of Hans-Jochen-Vogel-Platz. But for everything to go well, the weather obviously has to cooperate. And at least one guest at the presentation hoped that it would drizzle on June 14th like it did on this Wednesday. Catherine Reeves, the Scottish government director at the British embassy who came from Berlin, called it “Glasgow weather”: “If it rains, the Scottish fans would feel a little more comfortable here.”