All indications are that a third modern facility will be built in Kraków. The authorities of the local team Hutnik would like their arena to be bigger than the current project envisages. According to the club's president, this should take into account that the team could qualify for European cups in the future.

Ambitious stadium plans in Kraków

Hutnik Kraków is a club with a rich history and huge ambitions. For three decades, the position of the two teams that play in the higher divisions, Wisła and Cracovia, has been unchallenged, but behind the backs of these two football brands there is a battle to be the third football power in the city. The plan to jump onto the podium in this ranking has been consistently pursued by KS Wieczysta for several seasons. The team is well on its way to promotion to the second league. This means that if Hutnik remain in their league, there could be direct competition for the title of Kraków's third football power next year at this level.

The club based in Nowa Huta, however, like its rivals, is thinking about promotion to the first league and then to the PKO Ekstraklasa. To realise this goal, the team playing their home matches at the stadium on Ptaszyckiego Street must have a bigger budget than they have now. The team's success would certainly be guaranteed by appropriate investment in the squad of players. The funds for this - in addition to sponsor support - could be raised by attracting more fans to matches, but the Stadion Miejski Hutnik Kraków is in a deplorable state. In addition to this, fans are increasingly opting for online entertainment instead of matches at the stadium, such as GGBet, which offers them, among other things, wide access to modern casino games.

© Piotr Grabowski, OBA-pp.

Will Hutnik Kraków have a new stadium?

The design by architecture studio OBA-pp assumes that a stadium meeting the Polish Football Association's licence requirements for the top Polish league and UEFA category III would stand in place of the existing structure. However, there were discrepancies regarding the number of seats in the stands. The initial plan was for the facility to have 13,536 seats, but the Sports Infrastructure Management Board, which is the investor, believes that an arena with a maximum capacity of 8,000 seats will suffice.

Artur Trębacz, president of Hutnik Kraków, has a different view of the matter. In his opinion, a higher capacity of the stadium should be considered. The municipal corporation should take into account the fact that the club may qualify for European cups in the future. The team will then need a UEFA Category IV facility. This requirement can only be met if the seating capacity is 8,000 or more. There is still a long way to go before the team from Nowa Huta can play in European competitions, but the club's authorities need to think long term if they are thinking about continued development.

© Piotr Grabowski, OBA-pp.

It is worth mentioning that the new arena will be built practically from scratch. In addition to all four covered stands, the investor would like to see changing rooms for players and referees, as well as technical and sanitary facilities located underneath one of the stands. In addition, the upper levels would house administrative areas, which would be occupied by the team's authorities, and areas for commercial rental, such as training rooms, conference rooms, a club shop, catering outlets and areas for fans - especially children. Technological solutions such as heat pumps, photovoltaics and rainwater retention tanks would make the stadium fully ecological, low-emission and much cheaper to maintain.