Sóstói Stadion, formerly known as MOL Aréna Sóstó, (''MOL Aréna Salt Lake'') 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 ...

Székesfehérvár Székesfehérvár (; ; ; ; Serbian language, Serbian: ''Стони Београд''; ), known colloquially as Fehérvár (), is a city in central Hungary, and the country's ninth-largest city. It is the Regions of Hungary, regional capital of C ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

, primarily used for

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.

History

Planning

On 12 November 2014, the design of the new stadium was revealed at press conference held by László Vigh and

András Cser-Palkovics András Cser-Palkovics (born 25 September 1974) is a Hungarian politician, member of the National Assembly (MP) for Székesfehérvár (Fejér County Constituency I) between 2010 and 2014. He was a Member of the Parliament from Fejér County Regi ...

, mayor of

. Three new stands are going to be built. The main stand is going to be renewed. The reconstruction is going to start in autumn 2015. The expected finish of the construction is going to be the end of 2016. During the 2015-16 season the club are going to play their matches at the Pancho Arena in Felcsút,

Fejér County Fejér (, ) is an administrative county in central Hungary. It lies on the west bank of the river Danube and nearly touches the eastern shore of Lake Balaton. It shares borders with the Hungarian counties Veszprém, Komárom-Esztergom County ...

. On 18 September 2015, it was announced that the demolition of the current stadium is going to be in January 2016. On 10 December 2015,

said that a totally new

multi-use 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 stre ...

will be built creating the Vidi-city. He emphasised the importance of the reconstruction of the neighbouring parks, routes and buildings. The demolition will kick off on 14 December 2015 and the new stadium will be opened in 2017. During that period the trainings for the club will be in Székesfehérvár. However, the

Nemzeti Bajnokság I The Nemzeti Bajnokság (, ), also known as NB I or Fizz Liga after its title sponsor, OTP Bank's webshop subsidiary, is a professional association football league in Hungary and the highest level of the Hungarian football league system. Twelve ...

matches will be played at the Pancho Arena, in Felcsút.

Construction

On 14 October 2016, it was revealed by feol.hu that the construction might start within days as soon as the contracts are signed by all parties. The feol.hu website also adds that the opening will be further delayed due to the late start of the constructions. On 23 November 2016 the construction officially started. On 7 February 2017, László Horváth, project manager of Sóstó Konzorcium, said that the first phase of the construction ended. The demolition of the interior of the remaining main stand ended. The concrete of the demolished parts of the main stand will be reused in the building of the new stands. The Sóstó Konzorcium will have 14 months to finish the construction of the stadium. On 13 March 2017, László Horváth, project manager of Sóstó Konzorcium, said that thanks to the mild winter the construction of the new stadium is in good progress. The construction of the base of the stands were finished in March. On 27 March 2017, it was confirmed that the construction of the stadium would be finished by 16 January 2018. Péter Gönczöl, managing director of

Strabag STRABAG SE is an Austrian international technology group for the built environment based in Spittal an der Drau, Austria, with its headquarters in Vienna. It is the largest construction company in Austria and one of the largest construction comp ...

-MML Kft., said that the construction is in the most spectacular phase when the biggest panels are positioned into their places.

, mayor of

, said that due to the severe weather conditions during winter the construction could be finished by the deadline. Róbert Varga, director of Strabag-Hungary, added that the new stadium will be able to host 14,201 spectators and the stadium will be lying on a base of 10,199

square metres The square metre ( international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures) or square meter ( American spelling) is the unit of area in the International System of Units (SI) with symbol m2. It is the area of a square ...

and the highest point of the stadium will be 21.28 metres. On 4 April 2017 new pictures were revealed on

Nemzeti Sport ''Nemzeti Sport'' (, ) is a Hungarian sports daily. History and profile ''Nemzeti Sport'' was founded in 1903. It is frequently cited by quality English-language media The paper is published in broadsheet format. Between the World War I and Worl ...

about the construction. It was also confirmed by the official webitse of Videoton that the construction will be finished by 16 January 2018. On 18 August 2017, it was announced that the main stand should also be demolished due to statical problems. Originally, the new stadium would have been built around the main stand. Due to the reconstruction of the main stand the opening of the new stadium will be delayed to June 2018. On 27 July 2018, it was announced that MOL Vidi FC will rent the stadium. On 14 August 2018, an article was published on the Hungarian news website,

Index.hu Index is a Hungarian news website covering both Hungarian and international news. In 2018, it was the most visited Hungarian website with an average of 1.5 million daily readers. While most of the website's articles are written in Hungarian, Ind ...

, stating that there will be further delays in the opening of the new stadium. One day later, it was announced that the

2018–19 UEFA Champions League The 2018–19 UEFA Champions League was the 64th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 27th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. For the first ti ...

play-off matches will be played at

Ferencvárosi TC Ferencvárosi Torna Club, commonly known as Ferencváros (), Fradi, FTC is a Hungary, Hungarian professional Association football, football club based in Ferencváros, Budapest, that competes in the Nemzeti Bajnokság I, the top flight of Hunga ...

's home stadium,

Groupama Aréna Groupama, an abbreviation for Groupe des Assurances Mutuelles Agricoles (), is a French insurance group headquartered in Paris with operations in 10 countries. It is listed in the 2007 ICA Global 300 list of mutuals and cooperatives, ranke ...

in Budapest.

Opening

The stadium was opened on 21 November 2018. The first match was played between MOL Vidi and

Újpest Újpest (; , ) is the 4th District in Budapest, Hungary. It is located on the left bank of the Danube River. The name Újpest means "New Pest" because the city was formed on the border of the city of Pest, Hungary in 1838. Újpest was a village ...

in the 6th round of the

2018–19 Nemzeti Bajnokság I The 2018–19 Nemzeti Bajnokság I (also known as 2018–19 OTP Bank Liga), also known as NB I, was the 120th season of top-tier football in Hungary. The league was officially named ''OTP Bank Liga'' for sponsorship reasons. Videoton FC, Videoton ...

season and the match ended with a 1-0 victory for the home side. The first goal was scored by

Roland Juhász Roland Juhász (; born 1 July 1983) is a Hungarian former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. Career MTK Budapest Juhász spent his youth career in Tápiószecső playing for the local club Tápiószecső FC. He started his ...

in the 58th minute. The opening of the stadium started with the performance of the

Hungarian pop Hungarian pop is the pop music scene of Hungary. It is often associated with Rezső Seress's song "Gloomy Sunday" which was covered by numerous artists. The most notable artists include Zsuzsa Koncz, Kati Kovács, János Bródy, Zorán Sztevanovit ...

band Wellhello since the singer of this group, Tomi Fluor, has roots in

. In addition, the members of the legendary 1958-team were also present including Péter Disztl, Gábor Horváth, and Imre Vadász. Former football coaches of

Videoton FC Videoton may refer to: *Videoton (company) Videoton, officially VIDEOTON HOLDING Ltd., is a privately owned company group based out of Székesfehérvár, Hungary, and specializing in contract manufacturing, mainly electronics manufacturing servic ...

were also present such as

János Csank János Csank (born 27 October 1946, in Ózd, Hungary) is a Hungarian former goalkeeper and football manager. Club coaching career Csank won the National-Championship twice, first in 1994 with Vác FC-Samsung and in 2001 in charge of Ferencv ...

Péter Bozsik Péter Bozsik (born 30 October 1961) is a football (soccer), football manager and son of the international player József Bozsik, who was part of the Magical Magyars, Golden Team of the 1950s and managed the Hungarian team in 1974. After an unre ...

, and Imre Gellei. On 21 November 2018 the stadium was renamed as MOL Aréna Sóstó due to sponsorship reasons. On 27 February 2019, the first Magyar Kupa match was played at the stadium. MOL Vidi FC hosted Taksony SE in the 8th round of the

2018–19 Magyar Kupa The 2018–19 Magyar Kupa (English: ''Hungarian Cup'') was the 79th season of Hungary's annual knock-out cup football competition. MOL Vidi FC won the competition by beating Budapest Honvéd FC in the final held at Groupama Aréna on 25 May 2019 ...

season. The match ended with a 3-0 victory for MOL Vidi. Huszti scored twice, while

Anel Hadžić Anel Hadžić (; born 16 August 1989) is a Bosnian former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. Hadžić started his professional career at Ried, before joining Sturm Graz in 2013. Three years later, he was transferred ...

once. The home side qualified for the quarter-finals on 4-0 aggregate.

Recent

The stadium was selected to host the

2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship The 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-21 Euro 2021) was the 23rd edition of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship (26th edition if the Under-23 era is also included), the biennial international youth Association ...

. In 2023, the stadium was renamed as Sóstói Stadion since the Hungarian oil company, MOL, stopped financing the club.

Milestone matches

Attendances

''As of 11 April 2017.''

Gallery

File:MOL Aréna Sóstó 2018 (interior).jpg File:MOL Aréna Sóstó.jpg

References

External links

Videoton FC official website

Stadium pictures
at www.stadiumdb.com {{Nemzeti Bajnokság I venues Football venues in Hungary Multi-purpose stadiums in Hungary Fehérvár FC Buildings and structures in Székesfehérvár Buildings and structures in Fejér County Sports venues completed in 2018