The Copper Box

The Copper Box is the venue for the Olympic Handball group stages. Located in the Olympic Park in Stratford, London, it is a stones throw from the Olympic stadium, the Aquatics center and the Velodrome, and where I will experience my 2012 Olympics live.

Today was my first of 5 full days in London, 3 of which contain tickets for the men's handball group stages. The 12 teams are split into two groups who play a round-robin tournament, with the four best from each progressing to the quarter-finals and the ensuing knock-out phase. Great Britain, being hosts, have their first handball team in the olympics and are massive underdogs for progressing, let alone a match victory. But the remaining teams are top-flight, and some epic showdowns are on the horizon.

Every other day all 12 teams play, resulting in 6 matches split into 3 sessions of 2 games. A ticket thus gets you 2 matches in succession, which is great value for money and allows the crowd to get a better idea of what handball is all about. Today Croatia stuffed Hungary, after which Great Britain, after an enthralling first half, ran out of steam and were brutally whipped by Argentina. After losing by 44-15 and 41-19 in their first two games (to France and Sweden, admittedly), this was a great performance by a team just started 6 years ago.

The best part about it was the venue. The Copper Box seats 6500 and was packed with home supporters. No-one in England knows anything about handball, but the pace of the game and the stamina, skill and strength required appeals to British fans. Before the game, a 30 minute program was shown on the big screens to educate the spectators on rules, stats, tactics, teams, players, and history so that they weren't clueless when the game started. It is all a part of branding the sport for a UK audience for the coming years. The crowd seem to take a liking to it - of all the Olympic events, handball has received the best feedback from spectators with a ranking of 9.9 out of 10.