Opening of the European Football Championship 2024
Kick-off to the 2024 European Football Championship in Germany!
As the proud neighbor of this year’s host country, we offer a new insight into the European Championship, the venues and their visitors.
Ten cities – Berlin, Cologne, Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Dortmund, Leipzig, Gelsenkirchen, Stuttgart and Düsseldorf – are the venues for this sporting spectacle. On Friday, June 14, the Allianz Arena in Munich had the honor of opening the European Championship and welcoming all sports enthusiasts to the first international match. The stadium, which seats 66,000 people, was completely sold out and turned into a sea of color and fan chants.
We took a closer look at the stadium and the surrounding area using cell phone-based mobility analysis and gained fascinating insights into the event and its visitors:
On Friday, FC Bayern Munich’s home stadium offered almost 66,000 fans the opportunity to attend the first match of the European Championship and cheer on their favorite team. The majority of people in the stadium during the analysis period were men (~67%) and 30-39 years old (~24%). A core group of 30- to 59-year-olds emerged from the analysis, which underlines the range of soccer enthusiasm.
The high proportion of international guests is particularly striking: more than 40% of stadium visitors came from abroad. The largest international group came from the United Kingdom and made up around 30% of the guests in the stadium. Far behind were fans from Austria (2.6%) and the United States of America(~2%).
The national journey was spread all over Germany – people even traveled to the stadium from one of the northernmost districts of Germany, Schleswig-Flensburg. This corresponds to a car journey of just under 9.5 hours. Nevertheless, the majority (70%) of people came to the stadium from the state of Bavaria with a significantly shorter journey. Many people also spent time in the beautiful city of Munich before the game: 40% of all stadium visitors visited the vibrant area around “Karlsplatz-Odeonsplatz-Marienplatz” before the game.
Thus, with its colorful opening ceremony, rousing atmosphere, eventful two halves and international matches, the 2024 European Championship kicked off with an impressive and promising start to an exciting tournament.
