Arena Gdansk – tournament stadium description

When it was first show as renderings in 2006, the concept received massive interest. some were predicting it will become a real gem, others claimed something as good as this cannot be built in Poland. The venue designed by German Rhode Kellermann Wawrowsky was to resemble amber of which Gdansk is famous. With the external bowl hiding stands for 44,000 spectators.

Final location chosen was a rather poor district of Letnica. The ground was to stand in place of private gardens, but as the process of acquiring the many small plots of land was getting longer, many doubts started to appear. Thankfully neither Polish organizers, nor UEFA haven’t abandoned Gdansk for Krakow or Chorzow. Finally construction started in mid-2011 and was to end in April 2011. Opening had to be postponed by 3 months, forcing a Poland-France friendly to be moved to Warsaw. But this was it – in mid-July the venue was officially ready.

Lechia Gdansk took over as the arena’s manager and was supposed to run it for the next decade. However poor sporting results triggered falling attendances and to add to that the corporate clients were almost non-existent with no large scale non-sporting event happening. Thus the municipality stepped in and now manages its own stadium.

Euro 2012 games:

Average attendance: 38,961