Stadion Rakowa – historical stadium description

The sports stadium in Częstochowa’s Raków district was built in 1955 and, as was customary in those days, opened on July 22, on the communist Liberation Day. Ironically, back then it wasn’t used by Raków, the district team’s interim name was Stal and changed back a year after the venue opened.

Initially it was designed for both football and athletics, though currently you have to look hard to find the outline of its former running track. Of course the curved end zones remind of how it used to look, especially the larger southern curve as the north only has a small away section for 240 people.

Opened with nominal capacity of 8,000, the stadium only officially has that size to this day. Current all-seating capacity is just over 2,000, but it hosted games with much greater crowds even fairly recently. In 2005, when Raków was fighting the promotion play-off to return to the 3rd league, more than 10,000 people may have crammed in to watched an exciting tie ended with 9 rounds of penalties!

Drastically downsized after installation of seating, the stadium remains underfunded, with only minor upgrades to meet minimum league requirements (like temporary roofs over small sections). In 2018 floodlight masts were erected for the first time. In the longer term a complete reconstruction is anticipated.