Vienna - Football promotion hardly gets any bigger. Exactly 100 days before the kick-off of the Euro 2008 football championships, Vienna covered its Riesenrad, a giant Ferris wheel, in a 2,000-square-metre net sporting tournament logos. Organizers said they hoped to raise the anticipation of the event by branding the 65-metre wheel, one of the Austrian capital's most famous sights.
The Riesenrad, set in Vienna's Prater amusement park, was constructed in 1897 to celebrate the golden jubilee of Habsburg emperor Franz Joseph II.
Covering the wheel in the burgundy signature colours of the Euro is only one of many measures aimed at raising the still lacklustre atmosphere in the capital.
Many streets now sport Euro flags and posters, an art project that places 100 statues, named "Johann" after Austria's football legend Hans Krankl, attempts to get people outside the group of dyed-in-the-wool football fans interested in the game.
There are film festivals and soccer fashion shows planned, football "ambassadors of passion" inaugurated and even a European tournament for literati scheduled set up.
It remains to be seen whether those truly gigantic efforts can fire up Austrian Euro-sourpusses in time for the tournament kick-off on June 7.
