I've been browsing the archives, and in the "Connecting with Locals" topics, there are several mentions about attending local sporting events, and this seems like it could be a fun way to get to know an area. But I'm having a hard time finding schedules for that sort of thing. I'm looking more for local university or high-school level sports, not World Cup Professional events.
Any thoughts or suggestions for finding that kind of thing?
First of all, where are you going (kind of hard to answer your question without knowing that)?
Second, for the most part, competetive sports aren't very organized at European univeristies. Except for a few well-established sports like rugby and rowing, there's little inter-university competition.
On the other hand, there are amateur and semi-pro leagues of various sports throughout the continent. An easy way to find more information would be to combine the sport with your destination in a Google search.
Which country? In Germany, schools and universities do not have sports teams. Kids play sports in organizations called "sport verein". If you google tourist info in the city you are visiting and type in sporting event or team, you may come up with the names of the teams. After that it is easy. Or you find the expat websites for each country and find out that way. For example, Toytown is one for Germany. They can be a treasure trove of information about local activities.
Amateur or semi-pro, or lower-level professional would be fine, I'm just not interested in the level comparable to USA NBA, NFL, etc.
Paris, Tallinn, Helsinki, and St Petersburg are the cities I will most likely be visiting. Trip is late September early October.
I don't know about Eastern Europe, but in France the biggest sports are soccer and rugby. Rugby is more of a southern French thing. I know that soccer throughout Europe is organised into several separate competitions of varying standard, with promotion and relegation between divisions for the top and bottom sides. I think you would be looking for lower division soccer (or rugby). In smaller coutries like Finland and Estonia, it would be worth going to their top division soccer games. In European soccer all the best players go to England, Italy and Spain to play because that is where the money is. So even the Finnish top division is not equivalent to NBA.
You mentioned St Petersburg, their top soccer team FC Zenit has had a lot of success of late. They are coached by one of the best in the world, Dutchman Dick Dick Advocaat. They won last years UEFA Cup, and beat Manchester United to win the UEFA Super Cup. But IMO going to an amateur or semi-pro sporting event overseas, wouldn't be much more interesting than doing something similar near your hometown: just a bunch of over-involved parents screaming at the ref:)
Perhaps some ice hockey games? That might be a tad different than in the states. Festivals are one of the better ways to get to know people, simply because they usually have long tables to sit at and alcohol tends to loosed the tongue, so if people are normally shy about speaking English, they become less so.
It is a great way to meet folks. One year when traveling to London I decided I wanted to see some rugby. I googled rugby clubs in London. After culling I found one in the Hampstead area of London. I emailed one of the officers (the had a staff listed on the website) and got a nice invite to come to the pub they gathered at and then accompany them to watch a scrum. Sadly, it never happened as I caught a flu bug and didn't leave my hotel room BUT the emails back and forth and the kind invitation is a travel memory that endures. I also came across a soccer match in a small town in Ireland by chance and got out to watch. Great fun and getting invited to the nearby pub at the end of the match for lunch and a pint....well, I'm still in touch with those gracious folks. You don't mention where in Europe you are headed but many of the larger cities have Timeout magazines that may list such sporting events. Otherwise I'd google the area you intend to visit and then see if they have a local paper.
Sorry you DID mention which cities you were visiting. Read your post too quickly. Anyway by putting in Paris rugby in google I found this:
The www.whatsonwhen.com website is also helpful.
