22 | SPORTS VENUES 2023/24 www.stadiaworld.com OPERATION Once again this year, the four best European handball teams met in the final of the EHF Champions League at Cologne’s LANXESS arena. Since 2010, the final tournament of the handball elite league has been held in the cathedral city. In 2023, the handball players of German side SC Magdeburg triumphed for the first time in 21 years. On the other hand, there was a premiere for the Žalgirio Arena, which hosted the final tournament of the Basketball EuroLeague for the first time this year. For the arena in Kaunas, Lithuania, this was certainly one of the highlights since its opening in 2011. Apart from the regular games of Žalgiris Kaunas, the local basketball club, the Žalgirio Arena has so far hardly hosted any sports events with international appeal. A few days after the multifunctional arena opened its doors, it was one of the venues for the European Basketball Championship. In 2021, during the Covid pandemic, matches of the Futsal World Cup were held in the Žalgirio Arena. Among them the semifinals and the final. Otherwise, the event portfolio of Lithuania’s largest arena features sporting events not quite as big. Quite the opposite of the LANXESS arena. The “Mecca of European club handball” has already been the venue for three Ice Hockey World Championships, two Handball World Championships, the 2022 European Basketball Championships and other diverse sporting events of international significance. In addition, the “KEC” (Kölner Haie) have been playing their home games in the LANXESS arena since 1998. Germany’s largest multifunctional arena was also opened in the same year and will thus celebrate its 25th birthday in the fall of 2023. Planning for the Žalgirio Arena in Kaunas also began 25 years ago. The municipality of Lithuania’s second-largest city began working with architect Eugenijus Miliuna on a plan for a new arena in Kalnieciu Park in 1988, as the Kaunas sports hall was deemed too small according to EuroLeague statutes. After several debates, construction of the new arena in Kaunas – at a different location than originally planned though – finally began on September 26, 2008. After about three years of construction, the new home of Žalgiris Kaunas was opened. By contrast, the LANXESS arena in Cologne, designed by the architectural firm of Peter Böhm, was completed somewhat faster: It took just over two years from the groundbreaking ceremony on July 31, 1996, before the new building, then called the “Kölnarena” (literally translatVenue comparison: LANXESS arena vs. Žalgirio Arena While the European handball elite has been traveling to the EHF F4 to the LANXESS arena in Cologne since 2010, the final tournament of the EuroLeague in basketball was held for the first time in the Žalgirio Arena in Kaunas. A comparison. Picture: AMG LANXESS arena: Germany’s biggest indoor arena in Cologne. Picture: STADIAWORLD Sketch: LANXESS arena
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