Not one, but two new stadiums will be built in Izmir. Both are seriously delayed, but will eventually see completion. Works at Göztepe home stadium will be launched within days.

Tomorrow players and officials of Göztepe will bid farewell to Gürsel Aksel Tesisleri, the club’s sports complex. Later demolition will follow as the entire land now covered by various sports facilities will be replaced by a football-only stadium.

Since Göztepe are among more popular Turkish clubs, many fans rejoiced last week. It was announced that the initial capacity of 15,000 has been changed and approved to reach almost 22,000. This forced large changes to the design, now seemingly less dynamic.

Construction should be launched by the end of December, which means it’s the second stadium to finally get underway in Izmir.

In May this year demolition began on another major project, the new stadium of Karsiyaka. And ironically, this means Izmir will lose three stadia in one year as also the known Altay Alsancak stadium was demolished in September.