Karaiskákis Stadium
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| Geórgios Karaïskákis Stadium | |
| Image:Karaiskaki.png | |
| Facility statistics | |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Γήπεδο Γεώργιος Καραϊσκάκης |
| Location | Neo Faliro, Piraeus |
| Opened | 1895 |
| Renovated | 1964 and 2004 |
| Demolished | N/A |
| Owner | Greek State |
| Operator | Olympiakos until 2052 |
| Construction cost | € 60.000.000 |
| Architect | |
| Former names | |
| Podilatodromio (Velodrome) | |
| Tenants | |
| Ethnikos Piraeus Greece | |
| Capacity | |
| <center> 33,296 | |
| Dimensions | |
The Karaiskaki Stadium (in Greek: Γήπεδο Γεώργιος Καραϊσκάκης ; IPA: ['ɟipeðo ɟe'ɔɾɟos karais'kakis]) is in the Neo Faliro area of Piraeus, Greece. It is the home ground for the football section of the Olympiacos sports club, which has been Greece's strongest football club team in recent years. The stadium is named after Georgios Karaiskakis, hero of the Greek Revolution of 1821 for national independence who was mortally wounded in this area.
It was used during the 1896 Summer Olympics as a velodrome where Frenchman Paul Masson took the three track cycling gold medals.
It was renovated during the 1960s and again into a 33,296 capacity all seater stadium ready for the football competition of the 2004 Summer Olympics.
The last renovation took a record time of only 14 months, finishing just in time for the Olympic Games. At this "renovation" the stadium was totally demolished and built again from the beginning, facing a different direction.
In June 2005, Karaiskaki became a movie theatre (Cine Karaiskakis) as a cinema screen that is 20 m long and 10 m wide and is featured in the stadium and is viewed between 9 and 11 p.m. (6 and 8 p.m. UTC) and later, every weekends. The movie screen featured movies including Batman Begins and others. On Saturday August 13, 2005, the cinema feature showed for the last time before closing.
After the last deal ended in 1998, Olympiacos is now using the stadium once again, on loan from 2003 and until 2052 and is traditionally labelled as the club's true home. The ticket sales average higher than any team's in recent decades for the National A Division history and are not expected to drop in the foreseeable future.
Sales for national team matches have also been impressively higher, but this is for the most part due to Greece's success in Euro 2004
[edit] External links
- Karaiskaki Stadium official website
- Information and photos of Karaiskaki Stadium (Greek)
- Greek Wikipedia entry
