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Welcome to the Volleyball Temple

Volleybox 2015-03-18 • 2830 views • 1
 
Welcome to the Volleyball Temple

Many great volleyball events have taken place at #MaxSchmelingHalleBerlin so far. Now the Champions League 2014/15 Final Four - the highlight of the BERLIN Recycling Volleys’ club history - is to come on March 28-29.

In Germany’s volleyball scene, venues that regularly attract thousands of spectators traditionally receive cultural-religious names. Whilst the arena in Halle/ Westphalia, where the national cup final is played each year, is also called “Volleyball Mecca”, the Max-Schmeling-Halle in Germany’s capital city has made a name of itself as “Volleyball Temple”. Here the crowd is not solely coming together once in a year but is frequently cheering  on the BR Volleys.

Finished in 1996, the arena in the heart of the city experienced its first volleyball event in 2002 – at the Women’s World Championship. When Italy and the US team fought hard in front of 9’000 spectators – the first record for a volleyball match played on German ground was established. Also the enthralling final clash between Italy and France at the Men’s European Volleyball Championship was witnessed by thousands of spectators in a sold-out arena. At the Women’s 2013 European Volleyball Championship 8’500 spectators watched Team Germany playing in the final. Also Germany’s men’s national squad has experienced memorable matches at Max-Schmeling-Halle as the team played several World League matches here and qualified for the 2012 Olympic Games. 

“There is a strong home advantage for Berlin”, Vital Heynen, the head coach of Team Germany, already explained in 2013: “Even if the team is not playing very well, they are usually winning at home!” Opponents are supposed to be clearly better than the home side to take a win in Berlin. Also Team Germany has built up a strong “home match feeling” and “even the standout team of Zenit KAZAN had to give off their best in this arena”, Heynen further says.

Since November 18 in 2008 BR Volleys are connected to the arena. At this day the club dared to play on a stage as big as this. Nearly 5’000 spectators witnessed the match against evivo DÜREN and the management board of Berlin felt that volleyball might also work out as great spectacle in Germany’s Bundesliga.

When clashing their arch-rivals of VfB FRIEDRICHSHAFEN in March 2011 the BR Volleys claimed a new attendance record as 8’045 spectators came to see the Bundesliga match. In 2013 this mark was even exceeded as 8’553 fans found their way to Max-Schmeling-Halle for the third playoff match against FRIEDRICHSHAFEN. Whilst in the beginning the arena had been used for single matches only, with the start of the season 2011/12 all BR Volleys matches are played in the city’s district of Prenzlauer Berg.

Also in the CEV Champions League the volleyball temple as evolved into a real stronghold. Since 2012 the home side has only been beaten there three times: in the 2013 and 2014 Playoffs (2-3; 0-3) both played against Zenit KAZAN and during this campaign’s preliminary match against RZESZOW (2-3). Both teams have also qualified for this year’s Final Four. In the semi-final (Saturday, 5pm) the venue will be completely sold-out when BR Volleys will clash Zenit KAZAN. “We know about how much our fans help us”, BR Volleys head coach Mark Lebedew says adding: “The home advantage is really import_ant to us – at home we are able to be every team. Such an unswerving belief may only be possible at a Volleyball Temple.

All information on the CEV Champions League Final Four on March, 28-29 in Berlin:

Website | www.berlin2015.br-volleys.de

Facebook | www.facebook.com/CLfinal4

 

#ChampionsLeague201415 #MaxSchmelingHalleBerlin #BerlinRecyclingVolleys

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Charálampos AndreópoulosGR 376 10
9 years ago
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i think zenit kazan is gong to win the champions league this year
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