Zagreb - Croatian sport fans are normally focused on football heroes, but the nation's handball players, hosts of the world championship starting Friday, thoroughly stole the show over the past month. In Split, people took place in long queues at dawn to snap up the 11,000 tickets for the January 9 friendly against the neighbouring Slovenia - no love lost there - and the inaugural event of the new Spaladium arena, one of the six championship sites.
In the main arena, in Zagreb, a crowd of 16,000 poured in to watch a friendly against Russia and then paralyzed the entire section of the city in the process as they left after the match.
Thousands and thousands of Croats also watched their team train and more than half of all tickets for the January 16 - February 1 tournament which will be played in Zagreb, Split, Porec, Varazdin, Osijek, Zadar and Pula were sold 10 days after hitting the market.
The euphoria is visible everywhere in Croatia, reflecting the high expectations the 4.5 million inhabitants have from their powerhouse handball squad, the current European vice-champions.
Since splitting from former Yugoslavia in 1991, Croatia won two Olympic titles, 1996 and 2004 in Atlanta and Athens and a world championship in Portugal six years ago, followed by bronze in Tunisia two years later.
Tallying the trophies and taking the home court advantage into account, Croats seem to take the title for granted. The overall sentiment was powerful enough to utterly overshadow some non-athletic aspects of the championship.
For instance, very few voices questioned the cost of six new, expensive arenas in the country that is 35 billion euros (47 billion dollars) - or 90 per cent of its gross domestic product - in debt, and where the average salary hovers around 600 euros.
It took an estimated 2.7 billion kuna to construct the arenas, but when the amount the state and municipalities would pay for half of the rent- which is a part of the contract - until 2034 is taken into consideration, the sum rises to a whopping 3.4 billion, or 620 million dollars.
The critics were silenced with arguments that the championship was an investment in Croatia's international promotion, along with an easy dismissal of the now heavily looming global financial strait.
"It was a showcase of irresponsible spending," opposition leader Radomir Cacic said. "These sport arenas are pure populism."
"Thank God that we got the world championship and that we got it just now," former chairman of the Croatian Olympic Committee Antun Vrdoljak retorted. "All talk of the crisis and whatever's surrounding it are beside the point."
In any case, if coach Lino Cervar's boys do win, the price tag hanging on the new arenas would likely remain forgotten as people focus on the gold medals. Actually, it is likely to remain forgotten in any case.
The championship opens Friday in Split, with Croatia facing South Korea.
In the first stage four groups of six teams compete in the six cities, with the best three teams from the groups advancing to the next stage, in Zagreb and Zadar, carrying the points from the first phase with them.
The consolation group will play at the seventh venue, in the Adriatic city Pula, while the championship final is scheduled for February 1 in Zagreb.
