We have been waiting very long for really well-prepared football stadium. We were jealous of other countries, but in the end we constructed beautiful stadiums. We have in Gdansk, Poznan and Wroclaw modern facilities for Euro 2012, but the real showcase is the National Stadium in Warsaw.
The National Stadium was built in place of the former Tenth Anniversary Stadium, which in recent years has had nothing to do with sports. A place of the largest bazaar in Europe was occupied by an impressive stadium with a red and white facade. The National Stadium will be one of the main stadiums for Euro 2012, which will be organized together with Ukraine.
European Championship will start just in Warsaw. At the National Stadium there will be held an opening ceremony and an opening match (June 8, 2012). In addition, there will be two matches of the group stage. In the capital of our country a quarter-final match and one semifinal match are planned as well.. The facility is to guarantee seats for 58 000 spectators who will be watching matches in comfortable conditions.
The National Stadium was designed by the JSK Architects Ltd. Consortium, GMP International GmbH and Schlaich Bergermann und Partner. The beginning of construction works was in October 2008. The completion of the investment was to take place in June 2011. During these works, various issues and technical problems that caused several months delay occurred.
Since the beginning of construction, the stadium has attracted huge interest. On the first opening day (July 2011) appeared crowds. Later, there was a spectacular light show of the stadium and during the next open day on October 2 more than 140 thousand people visited the National Stadium, and the apogee there was a show of roof closing.
The stadium was opened in mid-December 2011. The opening ceremony took place on January 29, 2012 with concert entitled “Here I am”. The first match at the National Stadium will be played on February 11, 2012. In the game for “Superpuchar Polski” Legia Warsaw will play a match with Wisla Krakow.
National Stadium in Warsaw in a nutshell
- Beginning of construction – October 2008
- End of construction – November 2009
- Opening date – 14.08.2011
- Capacity – 58000 seats
- VIP boxes – 69 (800 seats)
- Business seats – over 4600
- Parking – 1765 places
- Construction cost – 1 915 million PLN
How to get to National Stadium Warsaw?
From Warszawa Śródmieście with trains of Szybka Kolei Miejska (S1 and S2)to the station Warszawa-Stadion – travel time – about five minutes
Public transport – from the Central Station by trams number 9 and 24 or by bus number 507, get off at Washington Roundabout (Rondo Waszyngtona) stop – travel time takes about 10 minutes, then 5-minute going on foot.
Matches
- Poland – Greece (June 8, hour: 18:00 Polish time).
- Poland – Russia (June 12, hour: 20:45 Polish time).
- Greece – Russia (June 16, hour: 20:45 Polish time).
- Quarterfinal: 1A – 2B (June 21, hour: 20:45 Polish time).
- Semifinal: 1B/2A – 1D/2C (June 28, hour: 20:45 Polish time).
Distances to other UEFA EURO 2012 stadiums
- Poznan – 320km
- Wroclaw – 350km
- Gdansk – 345km
- Lviv – 385km
- Kyiv – 820km
- Kharkiv – 1,250km
- Donetsk – 1,465km
