The 12th Men’s World Floorball Championship took place 1st-9th December 2018 in Prague. The bi-annual event was loaded with high expectations as the local organizing committee (LOC) had announced its ambitious targets to beat all previous attendance records.
To the delight of the International Floorball Federation (IFF) the LOC delivered and beyond. The new overall attendance record now stands at a respectable 181,518 (up from the previous record of 104,445 in 2014).
The Czech organisers had created floorball-mania by creating 12 fan zones across the country, one in each district capital. The final day also produced the new single day attendance record with 36,856. The final match between Sweden and Finland at the O2 arena was witnessed by 16,276 spectators, once more a new record. Finland was able to successfully defend its title in front of a frenetic crowd, to be crowned World Champions 2018.
The Sportcal General Sports Impact (GSI) study will be conducted for this event (estimated to be available in April 2019) but the IFF estimates to be ranked among the top 20 World Championship events in the world for 2018.
During the event the IFF also published three renewed partnership agreements. On Saturday 8th of December 2018 the participants of the IFF General Assembly witnessed the agreement publications with Swerink, the floorball rink provider, and Gerflor, the manufacturer of vinyl sport floorings. On Sunday 9th of December 2018 during the first intermission of the bronze medal match the continuation of the Unihoc deal, official floorball equipment manufacturer, was announced. All three partnerships will run through 2019-2022.
The effects of the WFC were also seen in the follower numbers of the social media channels, especially for Instagram, which has experienced a 37% growth in comparison to the previous Men’s WFC in Latvia, Riga 2016. In the respective time span over 20,000 new people have subscribed to the IFF YouTube channels. The increased figures, visibility and interaction with the fans will aid floorball in the quest of tempting new partners for the sport.
