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The "sport state NRW" is home to numerous historical and ultra-modern sports venues. Nowhere is this more evident than in football. Professionals are to be founding playing the beautiful game in high-tech arenas such as the SignalIdunaPark (Dortmund), the VELTINS-Arena "Auf Schalke" (Gelsenkirchen) or the Rhein-Energie-Stadion (Cologne). The state has more than 5,400 football clubs with 1.5 million members playing in 38,000 teams. With the 2005 Confederations Cup and the 2006 World Cup, two international footballing highlights were held partly in NRW. Of the 64 World Cup ties in 2006, 16 were played in the modern stadiums in Cologne, Dortmund and Gelsenkirchen alone.
Yet NRW has more to offer in addition to football. More than 38,000 sports venues ranging from large sports halls, indoor and outdoor swimming baths, and tennis courts to facilities for equestrian, dancing, shooting, water, and golf events leave practically nothing to be desired. And winter sports are also firmly established in NRW – with 39 indoor ice rinks, the speed-skating track in Grefrath, the bob and toboggan run in Winterberg, the ski jump in Sauerland as well as the ski slopes in Bottrop and Neuss. In addition to the countless national and regional sports centers, three Olympic bases – Westfalen, Rhine-Ruhr and Cologne/Bonn/Leverkusen – form the backbone of competitive sports.
The "puck-hunters" of the German ice hockey league play from September to March. The Kölner Haie (Cologne Sharks) and the DEG Metro Stars from Düsseldorf are among the most famous German teams. The Kölner Haie play their home games in the LANXESS arena, Germany’s biggest indoor event venue with 18,000 seats. Thanks in part to German star player Dirk Nowitzki, who has become famous in the American NBA League, basketball is becoming more and more popular in Germany. Several top teams, such as the Telekom Baskets Bonn, come from NRW. First-class handball teams are something of a tradition in NRW. The teams in the German Handball League also play mostly at the weekend.
Every year, one of the world's most important horse shows takes place in North Rhine-Westphalia: the world festival of equestrian sport, CHIO Aachen, where the show-jumping and dressage elite compete for prizes and medals. In 2006, as a special highlight the World Equestrian Games were in Aachen. And every two years, horse enthusiasts gather in Essen at EQUITANA, the world's largest equestrian fair.
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