Sport
Hamburg is sometimes called Germany's capital of sport since no other city has more first-league teams and international sports events.
Hamburger SV, one of the most successful teams in Germany, is a football team in the Bundesliga. The HSV is the oldest team of the Bundesliga, playing in the league since its beginning in 1963. HSV is a six-time German champion, a three-time German cup winner and triumphed in the European Cup in 1983, and has played in the group stages of the Champions League twice: in 2000/2001 and in 2006/2007. They play at the Imtech Arena (average attendance in the 06/07 season was 56,100). In addition, FC St. Pauli was a second division football club that came in second place in the 2009/2010 season and qualified to play alongside Hamburger SV in the first division for the first time since the 2001-02 season. St. Pauli's home games take place at the Millerntor-Stadion.
The Hamburg Freezers represent Hamburg in the DEL, the premier ice hockey league in Germany. HSV Handball represents Hamburg in the German handball league. In 2007, HSV Handball won the European Cupwinners Cup. Both teams play in the O2 World Hamburg.
Hamburg is the nation's field hockey capital and dominates the men's as well as the women's Bundesliga. Hamburg host's many top team's such as Uhlenhorster Hockey Club, Harvesterhuder Hockey Club and Club An Der Alster.
The Hamburg Warriors are one of Germany's top lacrosse clubs. The club has grown immensely in the last several years and includes at least one youth team, three men's, and two women's teams. The team participates in the Deutsch Lacrosse Verein. The Hamburg Warriors are part of the Harvestehuder Tennis- und Hockey-Club e.V (HTHC).
There are also the Hamburg Dockers, an Australian rules football club. The FC St. Pauli team dominates women's rugby in Germany. Other first-league teams include VT Aurubis Hamburg (Volleyball), Hamburger Polo Club, and Hamburg Blue Devils (American Football). There are also several minority sports clubs, including four cricket clubs.
The Centre Court of the Tennis Am Rothenbaum venue, with a capacity of 13,200 people, is the largest in Germany.
Hamburg also hosts equestrian events at Reitstadion Klein Flottbek (Deutsches Derby in jumping and dressage) and Horner Rennbahn (Deutsches Derby flat racing). The Hamburg Marathon is the biggest marathon in Germany after Berlin's. In 2008 23,230 participants were registered. World Cup events in cycling, the UCI ProTour competition Vattenfall Cyclassics, and the triathlon ITU World Cup event Hamburg City Man are also held in here.
The Imtech Arena (formerly the AOL Arena or HSH Nordbank Arena and originally Volksparkstadion) was used as a site for the 2006 World Cup. In 2010 UEFA held the final of the UEFA Europa League in the arena.
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Famous quotes containing the word sport:
“Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain,
Where health and plenty cheered the labouring swain,
Where smiling spring its earliest visit paid,
And parting summer’s lingering blooms delayed,
Dear lovely bowers of innocence and ease,
Seats of my youth, when every sport could please,
How often have I loitered o’er the green,
Where humble happiness endeared each scene.”
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730?–1774)
“What sport shall we devise here in this garden
To drive away the heavy thought of care?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Americans living in Latin American countries are often more snobbish than the Latins themselves. The typical American has quite a bit of money by Latin American standards, and he rarely sees a countryman who doesn’t. An American businessman who would think nothing of being seen in a sport shirt on the streets of his home town will be shocked and offended at a suggestion that he appear in Rio de Janeiro, for instance, in anything but a coat and tie.”
—Hunter S. Thompson (b. 1939)