Euro 2012 fan zones break attendance record
Submitted by Rajiv Dhoot on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 09:54.
Kiev, June 26 - The first two weeks of the Euro 2012 football championship set a new record for official fan zones attendance, with over a million visitors crowded the huge Kiev fan zone alone.
"Over 5.5 million people have already visited 8 official fan zones in Ukraine and Poland, up from 4.2 million guests during Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland, the previous record," the director of Euro 2012 tournament in Ukraine Markiyan Lubkivsky said at a press conference Monday.
The 51,000 square meters Kiev fan zone has attracted over 1.2 million visitors since June 8 with a 150-square-meter screen, showcasing all the matches, live concerts, street dance and a number of other entertainments, Lubkivsky said.
The Ukrainian hospitality and friendliness were a surprise for foreign fans, he said.
Though over 250,000 liters of beer were consumed in the fan zone, no serious conflict was recorded in the area, Xinhua reported.
The number of visitors in Kiev fan zone can grow for at least 500 people during the next three matches while the final match July 1 will attract around 200,000 fans.
The Kiev fan zone, which is equipped with facilities valued around $1.26 million, was launched June 8. The zones have been also set up in Ukraine's three other host cities of Lviv, Donetsk and Kharkov and in Poland's Warsaw, Gdansk, Poznan and Wroclaw. (IANS)
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