Nea Smyrni Stadium (''

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: Στάδιο Νέας Σμύρνης'') is a

multi-purpose stadium A multi-purpose stadium is a type of stadium designed to be easily used by multiple types of events. While any stadium could potentially host more than one type of sport or event, this concept usually refers to a specific design philosophy tha ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. It is currently used mostly for

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

matches and is the home stadium of

Panionios G.S.S. Panionios G.S.S. (Greek: Πανιώνιος Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Σμύρνης, ''Panionios Gymnastikos Syllogos Smyrnis''), the ''Pan- Ionian Gymnastics Club of Smyrna'', is a Greek multi-sport club founded in 1890. Originally ...

which plays for the

Gamma Ethniki The Gamma Ethniki ( el, Γ΄ Εθνική Ερασιτεχνική Κατηγορία, C National Amateur Division) is the third highest football league in Greece. History The Gamma Ethniki began in 1965 as an amateur championship, while in 198 ...

. The stadium is located in the southern suburb of

Nea Smyrni Nea Smyrni ( el, Νέα Σμύρνη, ''Néa Smýrni'', "New Smyrna") is a municipality in South Athens, Greece. At the 2011 census, it had 73,076 inhabitants. It was named after İzmir in Turkey, which Greek's called it as Smyrna, whence many ...

(''

: Νέα Σμύρνη''), which is the heart of the team's fanbase. The all seated stadium holds 11,700 spectators and was built in 1939. Before full seating was installed on 1998 for the participation of Panionios FC in the

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

its capacity was close to 19,000. The stadium is eligible to host

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

matches and its football pitch dimensions are about average at 105x72m.

Early history

In November 1937,

Board of Directors led by President D. Karabatis and the Municipality of

agreed to relocate the club in

, the Athens suburb that was mainly inhabited by Greek World War I refugees coming from

Smyrna Smyrna ( ; grc, Σμύρνη, Smýrnē, or , ) was a Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to promi ...

, the club's historical home. Construction works started in 1938, and were completed one year later. In the summer of 1940 the first football matches take place, with the club donating the money to support the repair of Greek Warship " ''Elli''" which was hit by Italian forces on World War II. On September later that year

celebrated its 50th year together with the completion of building the new stadium. Since then it has been used constantly for over 70 years from

associated clubs and sports divisions.

Recent history

Improvement works have been undertaken in 2001 and 2003 including a cafeteria,

sports shop, press and office facilities, improved medical and player facilities etc. Additionally a roof was placed above the East wing of the stadium. In 2009

installed an electronic ticketing system on the stadium to improve security in the team's matches. Despite the improvements the core fan base of the team as well as its management strongly support that the old stadium is inadequate to cover the team's needs in terms of quality of services provided to the fans. Additionally, there are safety concerns as the stadium does not have enough entry and exit points in case of emergency. The highest attendance ever recorded was on 1974 against

Panathinaikos Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos ( el, Παναθηναϊκός Αθλητικός Όμιλος, literally in English: "Panathenaic Athletic Club" or Panathinaikos A.C.), also known simply as Panathinaikós , is a major Greek multi-sport club ba ...

with 20,950 spectators. After the installation of seats and the reduction of the stadium's capacity there have been numerous matches with full attendance mainly in European competitions. The most recent ticket 'sold-out' was against

in 2008. Apart from

and its associated youth teams, the stadium was used for decades from

athletes on track & field and numerous times from the Greek National U-21 and U-23 football teams. Additionally, due to the closing of many stadiums for renovation for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, Nea Smyrni stadium was partly used from other football clubs as well. Those included AEK FC for the first half of the 2003/2004 football season and

Olympiacos F.C. Olympiacos Club of Fans of Piraeus ( el, Ολυμπιακός Σ.Φ.Π. ), known simply as Olympiacos or Olympiacos Piraeus, is a Greek professional football club based in Piraeus, Attica. Part of the major multi-sport club Olympiacos CFP ('' ...

for one match in February 2003 against OFI. Last it has been the venue site for the 2004

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup ( el, Κύπελλο Ελλάδος Ποδοσφαίρου), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Kypello Elladas is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second most im ...

final played by

and

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós ( el, Ολυμπιακός Σύνδεσμος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς, Olympic Club of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number ...

. Due to its densely populated location, Nea Smyrni stadium has rarely been used as a concert site. The most famous concert ever taken place was

Metallica Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...

's first appearance in Greece on June 27, 1993.

New stadium

President

Constantinos Tsakiris Constantinos Tsakiris (Κωνσταντίνος Τσακίρης; born c. 1971) is a Greek shipowner and a banker in the United States. He was owner of Greek Super League side Panionios after acquiring 85% of the club in the summer of 2006. One o ...

has announced the willingness of the club to replace the old stadium with a brand new 29.000 m² athletic centre cost of which will be approximately 60 million euro. The new athletic centre will include a modern football stadium of 12,000 seats, a basketball and a volleyball arena, an aquatic complex (including a water polo pool of 33m., 1 swimming pool of 25m., pools for children learning), a track and field training center as well as facilities for boxing, rhythmic gymnastics, wrestling, etc. Additionally, it will include a building complex of 6.500 m² for complementary amenities of the football stadium like vestry, administration offices, restaurants, VIP accommodations, and press facilities. The extra facilities other than the football stadium will be used by

, the multi-sport club under which

belongs. The new stadium project has triggered a minor controversy as small number of petitioners alongside side with members of the council of the Municipality of

are objecting in its construction and are threatening to take legal action unless a new formula will be agreed between all parties regarding certain aspects of the project. The main argument of the opposition group is that the new athletic center will have increased commercial spaces (measured in square meters) in comparison to the existing one, thus increasing traffic and congestion in the area. The club responds that this extra space for commercial use in the project's architectural plans mainly consist of parking spaces and administration offices for

and

which is a common land use for the area and not department stores as the opposition believes. Additionally, the club legally argues that according to the current urban planning status of the existing stadium there is space for extra commercial uses that are not in operation/lease (have been in the past but failed to stay open). The debate has temporarily paused, with the club pointing that without the commercial spaces in place the new project cannot generate enough income to repay its construction cost and has promised to come back with an alternative proposal that will satisfy all parties. Moreover, the Municipality of

which has collectively taken a positive stance towards the new athletic center is expected to facilitate the debate and assist its resolution.

References

External links

Panionios GSS official websitePanionios F.C. official website
Stadia.gr
Stadium Guide images
{{Panionios F.C. Sports venues completed in 1939 Football venues in Greece Sports venues in Attica Multi-purpose stadiums in Greece Panionios F.C. Nea Smyrni

Early history

Recent history

New stadium

See also

References

External links