New audience party in Gothenburg for the World Cup heroes

If you count out at the 2013 European Championships, the women's team has only attracted more than 12,000 spectators to its national arena once (Brazil 2009, 12,257). Now it seems to be time again.

Ticket sales for the European Championship qualifier against Slovakia next Tuesday, Sweden's first home-country match after this summer's World Cup bronze, have gone better than expected. With one week left for the match, 7,600 tickets, low in number, have been sold.

Given that more than half of the tickets are usually sold during the last 10 days, the vision, 12,000 spectators, is therefore clearly within reach.

- What we notice is that there is a more even distribution of tickets. Usually, 70 percent of tickets are bought by associations, but now it is more 50/50 against the regular tickets. After the World Cup, more people seem to think that they can only go with the Polar, and are prepared to pay a little more, says Christoffer Lund, responsible for audience recruitment at the Swedish Football Association.

Thus, it seems to be a dear reunion between the national team and the Gothenburg citizens. This summer, after the World Cup bronze, the players received tributes from between 20,000 and 25,000 fans at Götaplatsen.

- There is an incredible amount of interest now and we only saw when we got home from the World Cup how many people could actually gather in Gothenburg. When you got there you only felt "devils", it had really touched in Sweden. We hope it can continue, so we can do this together. When we have a lot of support behind us, we become even stronger, ”says Juventusbacken Linda Sembrant.

Djurgården's Olivia Schough, formerly in Gothenburg, is surprised when she hears how many tickets have already been sold. Not least considering that the game is played on a Tuesday, in a forecast according to the forecast autumn Sweden.

- That sounds very good. It was more than I thought. Good !, says Olivia Schough.

- It's going to be crazy, I love coming to Gothenburg. We have a fantastic memory from there this summer, so we can hope that the Gothenburg citizens can stay awake a quarter to seven on a Tuesday night. It may be an "issue" with it being an everyday life, but I hope some people can come anyway.

The past six months have also given players increased expectations of audience support. Partly thanks to the World Cup matches in France this summer, but also through the audience record - 25 882 spectators - which were set in the spring training international match against Germany at the Friends arena in Solna.

- We love to play in front of a lot of people, it is absolutely wonderful. Both in the World Cup and as it was in Stockholm before the championship, you wish you played that way every weekend. It is an incredible difference for us to get in front of a large audience and feel that atmosphere, says Linda Sembrant.