The arenas of the 2027 World Men's Handball Championship

Map of 6 locations in Germany

Germany will run the January 2027 men's world championship through six halls, and the shape of the tournament is written into them: four preliminary-round rooms in Munich, Stuttgart, Kiel and Magdeburg, then a narrowing to Cologne and Hanover for the main round, and finally to Cologne alone, where the title is decided on 31 January. They range from a brand-new 3XN building that has never held a championship to a Kiel hall first opened in 1951 under a name it has since lost twice. What follows is who built each one, what it seats, which part of the draw it takes, and whose home floor it is for the rest of the year.

Places in this collection

  • MERKUR Ostseehalle — The hall opened on 17 June 1951 as the Ostseehalle, the name it is still registered under, ran as the Sparkassen-Arena from 2008 to 2020 an…
  • Porsche-Arena — Built in 2006 on Mercedesstraße, the smallest of the six at 6,200 seats, and the most heavily used for handball of late: it was a 2007 men'…
  • GETEC Arena — Magdeburg last held a senior handball world championship in 2007 and has kept its hand in since, hosting the 2023 IHF Men's U21 World Champ…
  • ZAG-Arena — Built with 10,000 seats and used for Expo 2000, the hall has not held a major championship since the 2001 IIHF World Championship, though i…
  • SAP Garden — 3XN's hall on the Olympiapark edge opened on 27 September 2024 and replaced the Olympiahalle as Munich's indoor arena; it was slated for th…
  • LANXESS arena — Peter and Gottfried Böhm's arena went up in 26 months and opened in 1998 as the Kölnarena, a 42-metre dome that Cologne still calls the Hen…

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