The Národný atletický štadión (National athletics stadium) is a

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

Banská Bystrica Banská Bystrica (, also known by other #Etymology, alternative names) is a city in central Slovakia, located on the Hron River in a long and wide valley encircled by the mountain chains of the Low Tatras, the Greater Fatra, Veľká Fatra, and t ...

, Slovakia. It is currently used mostly for

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

matches and serves as the home ground of

MFK Dukla Banská Bystrica MFK or mfk may refer to: * Movement for the Future of Curaçao, a political party in the island of Curaçao * Beigan Airport, an airport in Beigan, Taiwan, by IATA code * North Mofu language, a language spoken in northern Cameroon, by ISO 639 code ...

. The stadium has a seating capacity of 7,030.

History

Construction of this centrally located stadium in the Štiavničky part of

commenced in 1957 and lasted two years. The stadium opened on 22 August 1959, the 15th anniversary of the

Slovak National Uprising Slovak National Uprising ( Slovak: ''Slovenské národné povstanie'', abbreviated SNP; alternatively also ''Povstanie roku 1944'', English: ''The Uprising of 1944'') was organised by the Slovak resistance during the Second World War, directed ag ...

( Slovak: ''Slovenské národné povstanie'', SNP) under the name of Štadión SNP with a capacity of almost 15,000 spectators.

Motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four clockwise, anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that ...

was held around the football pitch on the site from 1959 to 1966 and hosted a final round of the Czechoslovak Individual Speedway Championship in 1959 and 1960.

2019 reconstruction

In 2019 reconstruction work began on the stadium to meet

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...

standards and

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

3-star criteria. Tenants

FK Dukla Banská Bystrica MFK Dukla Banská Bystrica () is a Slovak professional football club from the town of Banská Bystrica. The club plays at the SNP Stadium. After being relegated from the Slovak 2. liga in 2017, they had financial problems. History * 1965 ...

played their last match on 5 October 2019, drawing 3–3 with

Dubnica nad Váhom Dubnica nad Váhom (; Slovak before 1927: ''Dubnica'', , , before 1899 ''Dubnic(z)'') is a town in the Ilava District, Trenčín Region in Slovakia. Geography It is located on the Váh river, in the Ilava Basin, between the White Carpathians and ...

before the construction started. The original capacity was decreased to 7,381 spectators (all-seated). The estimated cost of €14.1 million was paid for by the Slovak government. The stadium re-opened after construction work in October 2021, newly featuring under-soil heating, a grandstand, and an adjacent training stadium. The stadium is owned by Ministry of Defence Slovak Republic.

Non-football events

Národný atletický štadión hosted

at the

2022 European Youth Summer Olympic Festival The 2022 European Youth Olympic Festival, European Youth Summer Olympic Festival was held in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, between 24 and 30 July 2022. Host selection Košice was originally to be host city but withdrew from the hosting in April 20 ...

, from 25 to 30 July 2022. In July 2024 the stadium hosted the

2024 European Athletics U18 Championships The 2024 European Athletics U18 Championships was the fourth edition of the biennial continental athletics competition for European athletes aged fifteen to seventeen. It was held in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia from 18 to 21 July at the Národn� ...

over a four-day period.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Snp Stadium FK Dukla Banská Bystrica Football venues in Slovakia Multi-purpose stadiums in Slovakia Buildings and structures in Banská Bystrica Tourist attractions in Banská Bystrica Region Sport in Banská Bystrica Region Sports venues completed in 1959