Marred by delays, the procedure for one of Poland’s most popular club’s new home is finally getting closer to a happy end. Surprisingly low bid by Mosty Łódź was accepted and the company has 28 months to deliver the stadium.

On March 17 the city of Łódź announced the open tender to design and build a new stadium for Widzew Łódź. In mid-May offers were publicly revealed and the lowest price criteria gave Mosty Łódź biggest chances for the contract. Now, after careful evaluation of all bids, this selection has been confirmed.

Mosty, a highly regarded local company, offered to build the entire project for an unexpectedly modest amount of PLN 138 million (€33.5m / $46m). Beforehand the city was afraid that the secured investment budget of 170 million might not be sufficient.

This is why a minimum requirement was set for only three stands to be included in this price, along with adjustment of local roads. Mosty Łódź managed to fit more within their budget: minimum of three stands (96 million), roads (26 million) and the fourth stand (17.8 million).

Now remaining six bidders have 10 days to file their appeals, should any company feel mistreated by the evaluation committee. However, their only chance is finding irregularities in Mosty’s bid, because the company was by far the cheapest, almost 20 million below the second bidder, Mostostal Warszawa.

If no appeal is filed, demolition of the current Widzew stadium may begin in early summer. Mosty and their partners will have 6 months to deliver the detailed design and a total of 28 months to build the stadium. The new stadium should hold 18,000 people and will be built all in one phase, forcing Widzew to relocate.

The club is going through a difficult phase now as it’s been relegated from Ekstraklasa to I Liga. But at least the stadium saga ongoing since 2008 seems to be at an end.