Positive assessment of the UEFA EURO 2024
Whether from Denmark, Scotland, Ukraine, Hungary, Slovenia, Belgium or Spain: Hundreds of thousands of football fans from all over Europe created a fantastic atmosphere in the Host City Stuttgart for four weeks during UEFA EURO 2024 - true to the motto "The whole city is one stadium". The Stuttgart Arena was sold out for all five UEFA EURO matches with a total of 255,000 football fans and a peaceful atmosphere prevailed around the match days and in our four Fan Zones. The EURO 2024 FESTIVAL in our city centre came to an end with Spain's victory in the final yesterday on Sunday.
A total of almost 900,000 people visited the Fan Zones and Fan Meeting points in the city centre - most of them, of course, for the public viewing on the Fan Zone Schlossplatz. The past four weeks have shown above all that the plans and concepts coordinated with all authorities and the "blue light family" have worked - this applies to traffic management, public transport and security.
Lord Mayor Dr. Frank Nopper: "We can look back with great satisfaction and gratitude on a fabulous summer of European football in Stuttgart. Stuttgart was the only Host City with two Germany matches. Stuttgart was a place of enthusiasm, cheerfulness and community spirit. All of Europe watched a friendly and well-organised Stuttgart during the five matches. And all of Europe will have wonderful memories of Stuttgart. We had some great guests - fans who were happy to celebrate, peaceful and fair, and high-ranking guests of state. And we were also the proud Team Base Camp city of the Swiss national team. Obviously, the 'Nati' were spurred on by the support from Stuttgart like only very rarely - true to the motto: learning in and from Stuttgart means learning to win."
Deputy Minister President and Minister of the Interior Thomas Strobl: "Peacefully celebrating fans, great football matches and a welcoming Baden-Württemberg - that is my summary of the EURO 2024. Our emergency services were friendly, communicative and, where necessary, consistent and strong. I would therefore like to thank all the police, firefighters, aid organisations involved in civil protection and the technical relief organisation, as well as all the other helpers who have done a fantastic job here. The past few weeks have once again shown how well the full-time and voluntary staff and the police and civil defence forces have worked together at all levels. They all made sure that everything ran smoothly throughout the entire European Championships and that all the security mechanisms meshed together!"
Stuttgart Police Headquarters registered 400 incidents
The Stuttgart Police Headquarters can generally give a positive assessment of the 32 days of operations during the European Football Championship. Thanks to the great nationwide support of police officers, in particular from the Police Headquarters, as well as many regional Police Headquarters, the State Office of Criminal Investigation and the Police Technology, Logistics and Service Departments from other federal states and the federal police, it was possible to successfully complete this four-week operation. A total of around 20,000 officers were deployed over the tournament period, totalling around 170,000 hours of operation.
The police registered around 400 incidents in connection with the European Football Championships, including over 300 criminal offences in the areas of theft, assault and insult as well as almost 100 administrative offences, mainly violations of the Weapons and Explosives Act due to the prohibited use of pyrotechnics. In view of the large number of peaceful revellers from different nations and the occasional increase in alcohol consumption, Stuttgart's police chief Markus Eisenbraun is very satisfied with this result: "Our emergency services ensured a peaceful fan and family festival with the utmost commitment and professionalism. The immense preparation paid off. During this operation, all the cogs worked together, both between the various security partners and within our own organisation. My thanks go to all the fans who, with this great atmosphere in the city, also made it possible for us to be what we want to be, a friendly and citizen-orientated police force," said the police chief.
The ESCAPE PRO innovation project, which simulated fan marches in advance and was able to implement the findings on the days of the event through police tactical conclusions, contributed to this success. Air security, which had been a focus in the run-up to the tournament, was also guaranteed. Drones were recognised several times, removed from the no-fly zone and the drone operators reported. "At the same time, our colleagues from the helicopter squadron not only provided us with excellent support in terms of airspace reconnaissance, but also in terms of providing an overall overview of this large operational area, which is often confusing on the ground."
Additional camera technology was used for video surveillance in order to keep a detailed eye on the operational area in places with a high density of people. The images from drones, helicopters and the emergency services from all over the city came together in a specially set up image transmission centre. This tool was particularly crucial to the success of the incident in the Fan Zone on June 26, 2024, in which four people were injured with a knife during an altercation, as it enabled a rapid response to the situation and the perpetrator could be arrested at the scene.
The new mobile police station provided visitors with another point of contact directly at the Fan Zones where they could seek police assistance. Unfortunately, the positive balance of operations was overshadowed by the tragic death of police officer Thomas Hohn, who died in a road accident on Monday, June 24, 2024, while accompanying Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to Stuttgart Airport.
The Public Order Office has been intensively involved in the preparations for three years to ensure that this European Championship runs as smoothly as possible. A large team from the public order office has been on duty every day in recent weeks: employees from the police authority, the traffic authority, the integrated traffic control centre, the municipal enforcement service, the catering authority and the food control department. This showed how important it is to be well prepared, how important it is to take preventative safety measures and how important it is to think ahead about possible problems and solutions. Special operations were also carried out by the employees of the municipal enforcement service in particular. They removed narrow points on Königstraße at short notice, supported the state police with closures and very quickly checked unauthorised special structures.
The past four weeks have been a challenge for traffic. On the five match days, Cannstatter Straße / Bundesstraße 14 was completely closed for the fan walks to the stadium. This led to heavy congestion in the traffic network. Car traffic was reduced by around 15 per cent on the match days thanks to targeted public relations work. Many Stuttgart residents reacted carefully to the appeal to leave their cars at home. There were traffic jams, but no traffic chaos. The Integrated Traffic Management Centre (IVLZ) supported the management of traffic over the entire EURO with technical measures such as the variable switching of traffic light programs, guidance systems and variable message boards.
Thanks to these measures, traffic was kept stable. Arrivals and departures to and from the stadium and the Fan Zones were very orderly. The cooperation with the motorway, the Ministry of Transport and the Verband Region Stuttgart went extremely well, so that traffic could also be controlled and managed regionally on the motorways. The IVLZ and the police were supported by ADAC traffic congestion advisors. In numerous cases, these were sent to broken-down vehicles so that restrictions on the routes could be lifted relatively quickly and the flow of traffic, including for public transport, could be quickly restored. The motorcades of cheering fans were also accompanied: by blocking traffic, it was possible to direct them in such a way that access for emergency and rescue vehicles was guaranteed at all times.
"We knew that we could handle large events. In retrospect, we are nevertheless very pleased to have mastered this major task so well," says Susanne Scherz, Head of the Public Order Office. "A large team has been involved in planning and preparing this event for years and has overcome all the challenges on a daily basis over the past few weeks. We are now looking forward to the next major events in Stuttgart, whether at the Wasen, in the stadium or in the city centre."
Public transport has been the central pillar of transport over the past four weeks. The SSB had considerably extended its timetable. During the four weeks of the tournament, the trams and buses travelled 300,000 additional kilometres. An additional 6,700 hours had to be accommodated in the timetables. The special line to the Stuttgart Arena, the U11, transported around 167,300 passengers. On board, the international guests were greeted in their national languages. Most passengers - no fewer than 40,200 - travelled on the SSB on July 5, during the match between Germany and Spain.
Deutsche Bahn (DB) also reports a functioning mobility concept for Stuttgart during the UEFA EURO 2024. The Stuttgart S-Bahn operated 366 special trains for the five matches in the Stuttgart Arena and expanded its capacity by an additional 186,240 seats during the UEFA EURO 2024. In addition, three ICE trains travelled to and from Stuttgart main station every day as UEFA EURO special trains. The football fans travelled reliably to the stadium and to the EURO 2024 FESTIVAL in the Fan Zones and back again. The Federal Police counted a total of around 65,000 fans of the two competing teams on the match days, who used climate-friendly trains for their journeys to the arena and the Fan Zones.
DB significantly increased the number of staff at Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof, Bad Cannstatt, NeckarPark and Stadtmitte stations. A total of almost 35 additional multilingual passenger guides were on duty. They helped fans and visitors find their way in and around the stations. 30 additional cleaning staff and a mobile cleaning team ensured a pleasant stay at the stations during the UEFA EURO 2024. DB also increased its pool of security staff at stations and on trains by around 20 per cent for the UEFA EURO 2024. An additional technician was also on standby to immediately rectify faults on escalators and lifts. For the first time in Germany, DB also used NaviLens, a special route guidance app for visually impaired people.
It was a huge task to ensure that the UEFA EURO 2024 was held safely in the city and that all guests and people felt safe. This can also be seen from the fact that the Stuttgart Fire Department had declared an extraordinary operational situation for these four weeks. Thanks to extensive preparations, the Fire Department always had the situation under control together with all non-police emergency response partners. In addition to the 300 firefighters from the Stuttgart Fire Department, more than 1,000 external firefighters and civil defence personnel from all over Baden-Württemberg were deployed on the days of the match, most of them volunteers. Fortunately, there were only minor incidents in connection with the European Championships, including a grease fire in the Stuttgart Arena and a bee colony on the edge of the pitch.
The state capital also proved to be a good host with the Team Base Camp of the Swiss national team, which played a great tournament. As the pitch did not meet expectations at the start of training for the "Nati", the turf in the stadium on the Waldau was quickly replaced. On two weekend days, a replacement turf was selected on several turf farms, transported to Stuttgart in around 20 trucks and laid at an impressively high speed.
Stuttgart generated above-average media coverage with its five matches. Independent of the stadium accreditations, a total of more than 350 national and international accreditations were requested for the Host City area, which reported on the city and from the Fan Zones. The international media came from countries including Scotland, England, Switzerland, Slovenia, Denmark, Spain, Hungary, Ukraine, Belgium, Italy, Poland, Bulgaria, America, Brazil, Argentina and Qatar.
Satisfied hotels, a high demand for tourist offers and, above all, an excellent atmosphere: "The hotel industry benefited from good occupancy around the match days. Our projection shows around 200,000 overnight stays generated by the UEFA EURO 2024 in the Stuttgart Region during the EURO period. The number of international guests was extremely high. The number of guests from the UEFA EURO 2024 nations Scotland, Denmark and Hungary, who played their preliminary round matches in Stuttgart, recorded a particularly large increase. Overall, the tournament was a very important event for tourism in our city," says Armin Dellnitz, Managing Director of Stuttgart-Marketing GmbH. "However, the actual significance is not only measured by the pure figures of the past four weeks. Stuttgart was able to present itself as an excellent host. We presented ourselves worldwide as an attractive city holiday destination, even outside of football. This will have a positive effect on tourism in our city in the coming years," says Dellnitz.
During the UEFA EURO 2024, an additional one million day visitors travelled to the city. Cultural and amusement facilities such as the Mercedes-Benz Museum and the Porsche Museum received an above-average number of foreign visitors during UEFA EURO 2024, including a disproportionately high number from the countries whose teams played in Stuttgart. The two tourist information centres were very busy during the UEFA EURO 2024 and registered around 30 percent more tourists in June 2024 than in the same period last year. The Stuttgart City tour also recorded a high number of UEFA EURO 2024 guests.
"We are delighted with the positive international coverage of Stuttgart as a Host City on TV, radio, in print and on social media channels. The media response and the high-profile attention that Stuttgart has generated in the course of the EURO is remarkable. Stuttgart has made an impression. Our extensive activities on site, in Germany and other European countries, in the run-up to and during the tournament will contribute to the lasting success of this major event. We now hope that football fans will soon return to Stuttgart for a city trip," emphasises Andrea Gehrlach, authorised signatory and Head of Marketing at Stuttgart-Marketing GmbH.
Sport plays an important role for the city
"Stuttgart will continue to organise top-class major sporting events in the future. We are currently trying to bring "The Finals" to the state capital in 2027," explains Lord Mayor Nopper. "The Finals" combine the German championships of various sports over four days to create a very attractive event with high media visibility. Where possible, mobile sports facilities will bring top-class sport directly to the centre of the city and to the citizens. Stuttgart is also bidding to host the Men's Handball World Championships in 2027, while the road cycling events have been decided: the Women's Cycling Grand Prix and the associated Brezel Race for everyone will take place on September 15, 2024. Women's cycling will also be back on the pedals in Stuttgart and the region in 2025. The opening match of the Women's Handball World Championship is also firmly on the Stuttgart sports calendar in December 2025. The German women's handball team will be playing in the Porsche Arena. The Porsche Arena will host a total of 12 matches at the 2025 Women's World Handball Championship, three of which will involve Germany. "Sport is and will remain a key image driver for Stuttgart," continued the Lord Mayor.
