With the start of the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship starting this coming Sunday, September 9th in Rome, Italy and Ruse, Bulgaria, the organizers mentioned to the European Volleyball Confederation (CEV) that they had already sold over 70,000 between the two countries. This year’s tournament is the first time that the World Championship in any form (men’s or women’s) will be hosted by two countries.
Italy hosted the 2010 edition of the men’s tournament and the cities of Assago (outskirts of Milan), Florence, Rome and Turin (Torino) were all host cities in that tournament. Those four cities are also hosting in 2018 and have added the cities of Bari and Bologna for matches in 2018. Rome is only participating in the opening match this year, which will be outdoors at the Foro Italico Tennis Center Court between Italy and Japan. This match is already sold out and will claim about 11,000 of the tickets sold. Florence and Assago are hosting matches in the same venues as they did in 2010, the Nelson Mandela Forum (Florence, seating 7,500) and the Mediolanum Forum (Assago, seating 12,677). Bari’s PalaFlorio (seating 5,080) hosted matches in the 2014 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship. Bologna’s Land Rover Arena (seating 5,721) is home to basketball team Segafredo Virtus Bologna.
The third rounds, semifinals, third place and championship matches will be held at Turin’s Pala Alpitour (seating 15,807). The Alpitour is the largest indoor sporting arena in Italy and hosted ice hockey matches for the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics. For the third place and championship matches to be held on September 30th, sold together as one ticket, are also already sold out. While tickets for the remaining matches in Turin are still available.
Moving over to Bulgaria, Ruse, Varna and Sophia are the three host cities. The matches in Ruse will be played at the Arena Ruse (seating 5,100). This arena hosted matches during the 2017 FIVB World Grand Prix. As for Varna, the matches will be at Palace of Culture and Sports (seating 6,000). Varna has hosted World League matches in the past and hosted the Men’s Volleyball Nations League this year. Lastly is the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, where the matches will be played at Arena Armeec Sofia (seating 12,500). Arena Armeec hosted the 2012 Final Round for the FIVB World League and the 2015 CEV Men’s European Volleyball Championship Final.
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