Katowice, Poland, September 21, 2014 – The 11,000 capacity Spodek Arena was pumping to the Polish celebrations of a first FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship title in 40 years.
Poland became the first host country to win the World Championship title since Czechoslovakia in 1966 and their Katowice triumph follows their only other previous triumph in 1974 in Mexico City.
The venue was overflowing with 12,528 fans, which took the tournament total to a record breaking half a million.
Outside of the arena, located in the heart on the city of Katowice, around 15,000 followed the action showed on several giant screens.
A total of 563,263 watched the 103 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship Poland 2014 matches spread over 23 days, smashing the previous record which was 339,324 in Italy four years ago. Japan in 2006 totalled a combined audience of 298,352.
Earlier this week, FIVB President Dr. Ary S. Graça F° said the passionate Poland public made the tournament an outstanding success.
“The strongest success of this event is the public, then the organisation. The opening ceremony was spectacular, which can be compared to the opening ceremony of the Olympics. The Polish people should be really proud of this Championship.”