Berlin, 10 May 2011 Berlin is the only city in the world in which foxes play handball, ice bears hockey and steamers football. And they play quite successfully for the moment. The handball players of Füchse Berlin fight today in the qualification for the Champions League. The Eisbären Berlin have won the German ice hockey championship for the fifth time, and also Hertha BSC – named after a steamer on which club founder Fritz Lindner once took a trip – has reason to be delighted: the football team celebrates its return to the first Bundesliga.

During their home matches Berlin’s sports clubs regularly attract a big crowd. More than 7,000 volleyball fans recently came to the Max Schmeling arena to support SCC Berlin during the second final match for the German championship. Ten times as many guests are expected at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium on 26 June 2011 to attend the opening march of the FIFA Women’s World Cup. The final of the German Football Federation Cup will be staged in the sold-out stadium already on 21 May.

Berlin’s leading position for large-scale sports events is documented by the current sports cities study of the Hamburg Institute for International Economics. The German capital tops the “Sports Events Ranking” – ahead of Cologne, Hamburg and Munich. This top ranking is attributable to the excellent sports infrastructure of the metropolis: Berlin boasts 1,080 sports halls. Some of the venues can accommodate a very large number of fans. These include, in addition to the Olympic Stadium and the Max Schmeling arena, the O2 World, in which all home matches of the Alba Berlin basketball pros take place, and the Velodrom, where some 74,000 visitors experienced the 100th Six-Day Race live at the beginning of the year.

More information about the sports metropolis Berlin is available on www.visitBerlin.de. If you want to learn more about the German capital as venue of the final of the German Football Federation Cup, you can go to www.pokalfinale-berlin.de.

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