As we move from Paris to LA for the Summer Olympics, a host of sports will be looking to grab their spot in the limelight. Cricket, the return of baseball/softball, lacrosse, flag football are all pointing towards their shining moment in the summer of ’26. However there is a sport, one that the US has never medaled in, or qualified for outside of when it is a host nation, that our colleague Richard Deitsch also wondered about this past weekend. It falls into that space of permanent emergent, and never quite get there. Maybe we should be watching and engaging more closely because Team Handball is a thing.
No it’s not the old school hitting the ball against a concrete wall many grew up with in the inner cities of the U.S. It is one of the most engaged training sports in the world. Ask many basketball players or soccer players about Team Handball and they will know what it is. In Europe it is a competitive sport for men and women, combining parts basketball, soccer and even dodgeball, in small bursts of action on a court the size of a basketball or hockey rink. It is affordable, fun and has lots of action.
And other than some very brief moments, it has never caught on here, the victim of lack of focus, infighting at the leadership levels, and very deep competition amongst national governing bodies with never any success even qualifying for elite competition at the international levels.
How do I know about Team Handball? Two reasons. It was a required sport for gym in the City of New York in the 1970’s and 80’s, and we played it once a week. Even more importantly, I ended up being the venue chief at the 1987 Pan Am Games in Indianapolis for one of Team USA’s rare shining moments, a chance to win a gold medal against the evil empire of the Cuban National team, which ended in an overtime loss and a bench clearing brawl between the two countries that caused one of the few international incidents at the Pan Am Games, in the Hoosier Dome, in front of 6,000 people, that summer. One of those on hand who caught team handball fever was journalist Chris Thorne of the Newark Star Ledger , who wrote an extensive piece on team handball and all its elements being “The Sport of the Future.” Ironically the website for team USA is now touting beach team handball as the “Next Great Sport.’ Get in line folks.
And then it was gone.
Team Handball got an unlikely and unique boost in 2022, bringing in Verizon as a major sponsor for the National Governing Body despite the fact that neither men’s and women’s national teams qualified for the Tokyo Olympics or for Paris. What they will have is the guaranteed exposure in 2028 in Los Angeles as a host sport, and Verizon can take a chance on a sport not within in the limelight yet, to get a great buy on something that is established outside of the States, has great training elements, somewhat of a grassroots presence, and no downside at all.
There has been talk in recent years about some sort of professional league in addition to the grassroots elements as well. The footprint needed is very small…Futsal is trying the same approach in venues…and the action and content can be very strong. Team Handball is a low risk, potentially high reward long term play for Verizon.
In a world where we are all about digital, high action, short bursts and easy to understand activities, Team Handball makes some sense for activation. It is an easy IP to own and build out. The sport also screams for the opportunities for some multisport athletes who have an interest in Olympic affiliation to take advantage of as we move towards LA. Think about option quarterbacks, or fast receivers or even sprinters or basketball players who may be a step below those elite sports but still have interest in the glory of wearing Team USA. Team Handball has all those elements and can bring the spotlight to athletes with amazing stories down the road.
Now is this a massive win for Verizon or anyone outside the sport? No. What it is is a best practice of a brand deep in the sports space with the ability to take a chance that is not that far outside the norm. It is not MMA or even esports. It is an established Olympic sport, and a training sport for millions, that is easy to understand, speaks to the need to get kids moving, and has only one way to go if organized well; up.
We may never hear from Team Handball until the Olympics in Los Angeles, but maybe there is an entry way which was talked about 37 years ago on a fun night in Indianapolis. An overnight sensation decades in the making, check it out, you might become a fan like Verizon has.
