Stadium Spotlight: Gdańsk, Euro 2012
Continuing our series on the stadiums being built for the UEFA European Championships in 2012, to be hosted jointly by Poland and the Ukraine, we look today at Gdańsk. There, a new 44,000 capacity stadium, the PGE Arena Gdańsk, is currently under construction in the northern city on the Baltic coast. Just this month, PGE signed up for a five year sponsorship of the stadium, previously known (much more appropriately) as the Baltic Arena.
The $320m construction project, designed by architects Rhode, Kellermann and Wawrowsky, is well underway.
After the Euros, the stadium will be used by Lechia Gdańsk, who currently play in the 12,000 capacity Stadion Lechii, raising some questions about just how appropriate a 40,000+ facility will be for a team that has yo-yoed up and down from the first to the second division over the years.
Here are the pretty spectacular renderings of the new stadium:
And one of those ever lovely promotional videos:
As of December 2009, construction was proceeding on schedule.
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Tom, ouch
Lechia Gdansk, not Lech. Lechia and Lech don’t like each other too much. Or at all. Or hate…
Oh, and just for the questionable capacity. I think the effort needed to fill their stadium is much smaller than it may seem. Of course no chance for sell-out crowds all the time, but a decent half-full stadium would do. The club sold 9,000 season tickets without much marketing last season and now is close to Polish top in terms of attendances despite the sporting underachievements.
Thanks for the correction, M. It was just a typo.
As for the capacity, I’ve heard that said about the strong season ticket sales at the present stadium, but it still seems to me a pretty huge jump.
Of course it is a huge jump. I’m just saying it’s not as difficult as it may seem
They need it just over half-full to make profits. That’s entirely possible, taken into account the sole fact they already have avarage crowds above 10k with a 12k stadium, currently largest season ticket holders’ group in the country and the new stadium will surely make the avarage 50% season-to-season growth as long as they keep the prices reasonable. People will flock and making it a 20k avarage should not be too much of a challange. It may be harder in a few years, after the Euro, but I think the sole event will be a huge marketing boost for the club.
Wroclaw – that’s a worse scenario if you asked me. And of course Warsaw and Chorzow as well, but they just don’t have club-tenants.
Ah, I suppose it depends how you look at it. Half-full to be profitable seems doable, indeed. I’m thinking more in terms of stadium atmosphere, and I can say from experience that watching games in a half-empty stadium (even a nice one) isn’t much fun.
M, I’d love you to write a more informed post than I ever could on the rest of the Euro 2012 stadia…
It won’t be ready in 2012 because of the global recession, also it won’t be a good idea staying there with all the swine flu
Tom,
I wouldn’t be too afraid of the stadium atmosphere. With all due respect (I wouldn’t want it to sound bad…), Lechia is a club with vibrant fanbase and even with a half-full stadium they can produce a lot. Obviously not as much as with a full house, but then again – isn’t it Old Trafford to have one of the worst reputations in England? The ever so full one… It’s not only how well you fill it, it’s also with who.
I recon they can get on a level of, say, Sporting Lisbon (26k on avarage) in their first season – they would still however need to work very hard to work for a brand like Sporting has. Then, they will work out a solid and massive audience or have a really hard time. If they get on a low once, it will be damn hard to get back to it again – paying for such a huge stadium that wouldn’t even work for itself, they might really be struggling to survive. So the biggest problem is to get it started, not thinking of sell-outs at this point
And you know very well I’d like to write a lot too. It’s a struggle between what I’d like to do and what I can find time for. Not a win-win situation by any means. Maybe some more stuff around, errr, late winter? Hopefully.
@ Contrafacut – sorry, but what you say is rubbish. First, check Poland’s economic status – we’re not in the red, our unemployment rate is lower than in the US (God, I never thought I would say that) and immigrants who once fled to Britain and Ireland come back more and more often. Plus, swine flu is so “last week’s news”, I don’t think anyone remembers about it here.
Anyhow, to all you out there, have a wonderful Christmas
If anyone is considering attending the finals, Gdansk certainly repays a visit – the old town, although largely rebuilt, has been recreated so sympethetically that one can hardly see the joins. There is a lot of regeneration going on but the vastness of the old Shipyards is incredible. I was there just over a year ago and although I know development plans are underway, there is probably still a lot of work to be done. It’s a town with a lot of charcater but I can never remember clubs from the Baltic coast challenging the Polish football hierarchy.
Really appreciate this post. It’s hard to sort the good from the bad sometimes, but I think you’ve nailed it!