Vilniaus Nacionalinis Stadionas – design description

The project calls for the construction of a new national stadium for Lithuania about 100 meters west of the one that was never completed. The facility will be part of a multi-purpose sports complex located on Szeszkina Hill in the capital.

One of the three training fields would be built on the site of a ruin that was awaiting demolition (the stadium site was abandoned in 2008). On their eastern side, closest to the Acropolis shopping center, there would be space for sports halls, cubic recreational facilities, a kindergarten, a cultural center and a library. Further east will be an athletics stadium.

The main stadium, designed by Populous and Cloud architektai, is distinguished by an interestingly cut-up body with lighting masts. Its two-level stands can accommodate 18,000 spectators. The project is to be financed in a public-private partnership lasting a quarter of a century, with three years planned for construction and 22 years for managing the whole thing.

In 2022 the skeleton of the old, unfinished stadium was demolished, and in 2023 construction of the new facility began. In late 2023 and early 2024, however, the company executing the investment, BaltCup, withdrew from the project and construction was halted after some of the foundations were completed.