When SVT Sport talks to Krister Bergström, only the bronze medal match and the final remain in the 2023 handball WC organized by Sweden and Poland.
- It is a fantastically successful championship.
The supporters show up like no other and we fill the arenas pretty much every game.
We had a few challenges in some matches in Jönköping, says Bergström, CEO of the Handball WC.
"The price strategy works"
But while attendance records have been broken several times during the World Cup, with a peak of over 23,000 spectators during the final, there has been criticism of high ticket prices.
Bergström does not share that image.
- The prices we have this championship are the same as we had in EC 2020. Despite an inflation of ten percent, we have not changed our prices.
The price strategy works, we are breaking records and that proves it all.
Only in a week or so will the championship be evaluated to see what lessons have been learned.
It will also take some time before the financial results of the World Cup are known.
- After all, we run this in the form of a limited company and have annual accounts at the end of December.
But I think we can do an interim financial statement for the men somewhere before the summer holidays, says Bergström.
Surplus of ten million last time
When Sweden organized the EC 2020, the surplus landed at around ten million.
Do you have any sense of what the surplus might be this year?
- It costs approximately 70 million to do a project like this, so it's a lot of money we have to cover.
But if sales records are broken, it means that we will make a good result.
The surplus goes to the Swedish Handball Association, which then decides what the money will go to.
- It is distributed to various projects, for example the national teams and youth projects.
But it is the union that decides what will happen to the money.