Olympic Stadium (Athens)

The Central Olympic Stadium in Athens (Greek Κεντρικό Ολυμπιακό Στάδιο Kendriko Olymbiako Stadio, often referred to as the Athens Olympic Stadium, also known as the Spyros Louis Olympic Stadium after the namesake of the complex) is a sports venue in the Athens Olympic Sports Complex "Spyros Louis" (OAKA). It was the main venue of the 2004 Summer Olympics. The multifunctional stadium is mostly used for football matches. The namesake of the sports venue, Spyridon "Spyros" Louis, was the first marathon winner of the Modern Olympic Games and lived in Marousi, where the arena is located, until his death.

Opened in 1982, the stadium has already been used by three football clubs as their home stadium: Olympiakos Piraeus and the Athens clubs AEK and Panathinaikos. Only AEK Athens still uses the stadium for its home matches today. The arena has also hosted UEFA Champions League finals and other major sporting events. Concerts are also frequently held at the Olympic Stadium.

From 2002 to 2004, under the direction of Santiago Calatrava, the stadium was extensively renovated for the Olympic Games, including the addition of a roof to the arena. After minor changes as a result of the Olympics, the arena now seats 69,618 guests, making it the largest stadium in Greece and one of the largest in the world.

Location and transport links

The arena is located in the Athens suburb of Marousi. The official address is 37, Leoforos Kifisias (Λεωφόρος Κηφισίας 'Kifisias Boulevard' 37), the entrance is on Leoforos Olymbioniki Spyro Loui, the cross street leading south to the stadium. The stadium is part of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex, which is located nine kilometres northeast of the city centre and 22 kilometres from Athens Airport respectively. The site is located on the southeastern edge of the sports complex and is also accessible by motor vehicles.

The stadium can be reached through the Irini (Ειρήνη) stop, which is in the immediate vicinity of the Olympic sports complex, by line 1 (ISAP, ΗΣΑΠ) of the metro. From there, it is still a ten-minute walk across the sports complex to the arena. At about the same distance is the Neratziotissa station (Νεραντζιώτισσα), where it is also possible to transfer to the Proastiakos commuter train. In addition, regular buses serve a stop near the Olympic Stadium.

History

Origin

The Olympic Stadium was designed as part of the Olympic Sports Complex in 1979 by the German company Weidleplan. The arena was originally intended to host the 1996 Summer Olympics because the first Olympic Games of the modern era were also held in Athens 100 years earlier. Contrary to these ideas, however, the competing city of Atlanta was awarded the contract by the International Olympic Committee.

The ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of the stadium, which cost 50 million German marks, took place on 7 January 1980. Construction was completed as early as 1982, as the arena had to be ready in time for the 1982 European Athletics Championships. The stadium could be built with the then new prefabrication method: Thus, the four columns, each weighing 600 tons and supported by a frame, were completed using this method. The columns, which were fixed outside the structure and held the floodlights at a height of 62 metres, became the most striking feature of the stadium.

The site was named after the first winner of the marathon in modern Olympic Games in 1896, Spyridon Louis. He lived in the area where the stadium stands until his death in 1940.

The stadium is classified by the European football association UEFA in the highest category (category 4 or elite stadium until 2010). The oval-shaped stadium can be entered through 34 entrance gates. The entrance gates with odd numbers lead to the lower seats and those with even numbers to the upper seats. However, the structure does not have entrance gates numbered 18 and 36, as that is where the stadium scoreboard is located. Additionally, the site features 16 V.I.P. boxes. The structure has a playing surface of 105 by 68 yards of turf surrounded by a 400-yard running track.

The original stadium

On September 8, 1982, the European Athletics Championships opened in the now completed stadium. Attention was given to the decathlon, in which three athletes who had replaced each other in the world record list in 1982 competed: Guido Kratschmer, Daley Thompson and Jürgen Hingsen. Thompson emerged as the winner. The men also competed in 23 other events, while the women competed in a total of 17 events. The GDR won the most gold medals, followed by the Federal Republic ofGermany and the Soviet Union. In the overall medal table, however, the Soviet Union was ahead of the Federal Republic.

In the same year, a record crowd of 75,263 people attended the match between Olympiakos Piraeus and Hamburger SV. Piraeus, relocated from Karaiskakis Stadium, lost 4-0 in the European Cup match. In the same season, on 25 May 1983, the arena hosted the European Cup of Nations final, the highest club competition in European football, with Juventus Torino losing 1-0 to Hamburger SV, again playing at the Olympic Stadium, thanks to a Felix Magath goal. In 1984, Panathinaikos Athens took over the Olympic Stadium as their home ground after the Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium, their previous home ground, fell into disrepair. Olympiakos Piraeus also chose to play its home matches at the Olympic Stadium instead of the Karaiskakis Stadium from 1984 to 1989 and between 1997 and 2002. AEK Athens also used the multi-purpose venue between 1985 and 1987, but subsequently decided to return to their original home ground, the Nikos Goumas Stadium. Thus, in the 1980s, the three biggest Greek football clubs played at times in the same stadium, so that in the 1985/86 season the most tickets sold in one season in Greece were 1,784,844 in 45 matches played. It also hosted the European Cup Winners' Cup final on 13 May 1987. Ajax Amsterdam defeated Lokomotive Leipzig 1-0 with a goal from Marco van Basten.

In addition to football and athletics matches, concerts were held in the arena even before the Olympic Games. Thus, numerous singers and bands, such as Pink Floyd on their tour A Momentary Lapse of Reason on 31 May 1989, played in front of a large audience.

On 18 May 1994, the Olympic Stadium hosted the second final of Europe's top club football competition, now known as the UEFA Champions League. AC Milan defeated FC Barcelona 4-0 after two goals from Daniele Massaro and one each from Dejan Savićević and Marcel Desailly. In addition, the 1997 World Athletics Championships were held at the stadium from 1 to 10 August. While the number of athletes winning gold medals in the men's event was the same as in the European Championships, with 24 competitions, the number of disciplines in the women's event was increased by three to 20. The United States won the most gold medals, followed by Germany and Cuba. In the overall medal table, Cuba finished fifth behind Kenya and Ukraine, while the United States and Germany also ended the championships in first and second place.

The International Olympic Committee announced on September 5, 1997 that the bidding city of Athens would host the 2004 Summer Olympics with the Olympic Stadium as its main venue. Six years later, Panathinaikos Athens moved back to their original home venue, the Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium, after completing renovations. In 2002, Olympiakos Piraeus also returned to their own stadium. The Greek national team played a total of 51 international matches at the Olympic Stadium from 1982 to 2001 inclusive. In addition, between 1983 and 2002, the arena hosted, with interruptions, the final of the Football Cup of Greece every year.

Rebuild

In the same year that Olympiakos Piraeus moved out, work began to refurbish the stadium for the 2004 Olympics, with the innovations, which particularly affected the roof, being carried out by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. Calatrava unveiled his redevelopment plans for the entire Olympic sports complex in 2001, but was forced to deviate from them frequently in the years that followed. For example, after doubts were expressed as to whether the roof would be able to withstand the structural requirements, the roof design was slightly modified: Thus, in order to better withstand strong winds, the center of the roof was built further above than originally intended. As a result, the arena roof should now be able to withstand storms with speeds of 120 kilometers per hour. The design of the four building foundations has also been changed considerably, so that ultimately the material for the transparent panels of the roof has also changed. In Calatrava's original stadium plans, glass was to be used for the structure, but a special polycarbonate was chosen due to its lighter weight. In 2003, while the construction work was already underway, Calatrava finally presented the final plans, which nevertheless did not represent the final sports complex.

One arch was built to the west and one to the east, with the western arch having a span of 304 metres and a maximum height of 72 metres. They are 80 metres apart and three and a half metres thick. The eastern arch was assembled 65 metres from its final positioning and the western 72 metres away. Once completed, the arches had to be pushed into position. This involved fixing the western arch first, then the eastern arch, after the stadium roof had been fully fitted beforehand. Made of 5,000 polycarbonate panels, the roof weighs around 19,000 tonnes and covers 25,000 square metres. The cost of renovating the stadium for the Olympics alone was 156 million euros, according to official figures, and as much as 191 million euros, according to IOC President Jacques Rogge. Originally, the cost of the renovation was estimated at 80 million euros.

The stadium roof, which consists of two halves and is located under the two arches, covers a good 95 percent of the spectator seats and reflects around 60 percent of the sun's rays through its construction so that the sports facility does not heat up in summer. In addition, the construction creates a permanent draught of air in the arena, which is intended to additionally cool down the audience. The polycarbonate panels of the roof are each connected to one of the arches by a cable, which stabilizes the construction. The floodlight columns were removed and the lighting replaced by floodlights installed in the ceiling.

The prefabricated, curved roof, built on polytetrafluoroethylene panels on each side, was originally to be assembled by a step-by-step process, using cables, chucks and a short-cycle hydraulic jack to move the prefabricated structure onto the stadium. However, this technique would have required pulling the roof over stainless steel plates to bring it up through rails onto the giant concrete beams. However, a computer simulation showed that the friction of the polytetrafluoroethylene with the stainless steel would have caused a stick-slip effect, leading to problems, so the idea was eventually scrapped. In a meeting with the production company Enerpac, the decisive advice was finally given to use pulling long-stroke cylinders driven by hydraulic pumps to move the roof into place step by step. This technique had little effect on the appearance of the stadium after the rebuild and the roof was put in place during the months of May and June 2004. Due to the problems, the stadium was completed later than planned, but was able to reopen two weeks before the Olympic Games.

The stadium renovation, along with all the structures built and renovated for the 2004 Summer Olympics, has come under criticism since 2010 as a result of the Greek sovereign debt crisis. The Greek state, owner of the Olympic facilities, originally wanted to allocate a budget of 4.6 billion euros for the buildings. However, according to official figures, this had to be increased to 11.2 billion euros, with estimates even putting the total cost at around 20 billion euros. According to an article by Gerd Höhler, author of the newspaper Die Zeit, the buildings of the Games thus became Greece's undoing:

A plan for the maintenance and safety of the roof structure was drawn up at the time of construction, and the special office responsible for cultural buildings (ΕΥΔΕ/ΕΠΤΑ) has adhered to and maintained it to the present day. A conflict arose over further costs, such as regular painting, as a result of which the Ministry of Culture turned to Parliament in 2013. The visual condition of the structure had given rise to speculation in the international daily press about its condition. Die Welt, for example, concluded from the surface rust that the structure was rotting.

Olympic Games 2004

On 13 August 2004, the Games of the 28th Summer Olympic Games were opened with a ceremony at the Olympic Stadium. Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, President of the Organizing Committee ATHOC, welcomed the Games in front of 74,000 spectators with the words "Olympic Games, welcome home!" in reference to the Olympic Games of antiquity. Before the athletes marched in, a show featuring more than 4,000 artists was performed under the leitmotifs of "Human Heartbeat" ("human heartbeat") and "Running" ("running"). At 23:46 local time, after speeches by Angelopoulos-Daskalaki and IOC President Jacques Rogge, the Olympic Games were opened in the Olympic Stadium and the Olympic flame was lit in the arena by Olympic surfing champion Nikolaos Kaklamanakis after a torch relay of more than 78,000 kilometers.

In order to be able to play the games in the arena after the opening ceremony, a portable turf was laid on the lowered concrete floor of the stadium center, which housed a water basin for the ceremony, with the help of experts from Michigan State University within four days. This was disassembled into 6,000 pieces and brought into the venue. For this operation, the American experts worked for several months on the composition of the root zones and the grasses. In addition to the speed and stress caused by the sporting events, the climatic conditions in Greece also posed a challenge. The turf sections, each measuring 1.2 by 1.2 meters, were installed on the arena's eight-acre cement surface, with two drainage channels installed on the sides. The irrigation itself can be controlled automatically by 35 self-watering systems. Another system makes it possible to move the grass away from the cement surface so that it can be used for different events.

Except for the marathon race, which finished in the Panathinaiko Stadium, and the shot put competition, which was held in the ancient Stadium of Olympia, all athletics competitions took place in the Olympic Stadium. The first man to win Olympic gold in the stadium was Ivano Brugnetti in the 20-kilometer walk on August 20. The first woman to win gold there was Natalya Sadova in the discus throw the following day. There were another 23 track and field events in the men's event and 21 in the women's event. In the process, the United States collected the most gold medals in athletics ahead of Russia, leading the discipline medal table ahead of Jamaica. The United Kingdom was followed by Sweden, Russia and the United States in the gold medal table.

In the football final, which was the only match played in the Olympic Stadium on 28 August, along with the athletics competitions, Argentina beat Paraguay 1-0 with a goal from Carlos Tévez in front of a crowd of more than 41,000. The following day, 16 days after the inauguration, the games were brought to a close with a closing ceremony, also held in the arena, in front of 72,000 spectators. The closing address was given by Jacques Rogge. At the ceremony, Beijing Mayor Wang Qishan accepted the traditional Olympic flag on behalf of the host of the following Games.

In addition, on September 17, 2004, the 12th Summer Paralympics were opened in the stadium. They were to be ceremoniously concluded on 28 September. However, due to an accident in which 41 people, including 37 children, died on the way to the closing ceremony, the artistic and entertainment part of the closing ceremony was cancelled.

After the Olympics

The stadium today has a capacity of 69,618 spectators and is operated by the Athens Olympic Sports Complex AOSC, whose Greek initials OAKA (Greek Ολυμπιακό Αθλητικό Κέντρο Αθηνών, Athens Olympic Sports Centre) are the arena's nickname. After the Olympic Games, AEK and Panathinaikos Athens, whose stadiums had fallen into disrepair and no longer met safety standards, moved again to the Olympic Stadium. Both clubs subsequently made plans to build their own new home ground, Panathinaikos for instance with the Marfin Stadium. The Nikos Goumas Stadium, old home ground of AEK Athens, was demolished. However, plans for new stadiums have not been implemented to date. Thus, according to a 2012 report in the newspaper Die Welt, the Olympic Stadium is one of the few Olympic sports venues from 2004 that will still be used as a sports venue after the Olympic Games. Originally, the Athens Olympic strategists allegedly planned to convert the sports complex into a leisure park.

Concerts continued to be held at the Olympic Stadium after the Games. For example, George Michael performed on his 25 Live tour on 26 July 2007, Madonna made a stop on her Sticky & Sweet tour on 27 September 2008, and U2 performed on the 360° tour on 3 September 2010. Since 2005, the Olympic Stadium has hosted, as the first stadium ever, the Super Special Stage of the Acropolis Rally as part of the World Rally Championship. In 2007, the Olympic Stadium once again hosted the Champions League Final, with AC Milan again winning the title with a 2-1 victory over Liverpool FC. Filippo Inzaghi scored both goals for Milan and Dirk Kuyt scored the equaliser for Liverpool FC in the penultimate minute of the match. Since 2009, the stadium has once again hosted the Greek Cup Final every year. That same year, the Greek national team played at the Olympic Stadium for the first time since its renovation. In addition to another match in the same year, the sports venue hosted three international football matches against Latvia, Luxembourg and Ukraine in 2009.

Greece, together with Turkey, bid to host the 2008 and 2012 European Football Championships, with the Athens Olympic Stadium to host the final. However, the bids fell through: in 2008 the competition went to Austria and Switzerland, and for 2012 UEFA decided in favour of Poland and Ukraine.

In the 2011/12 season, the derby between Panathinaikos Athens and Olympiakos Piraeus was the scene of rioting. While the away team was leading 0:1 after eleven minutes, hooligans of the home team threw Molotov cocktails at the stands and the pitch, which were filled with about 50,000 spectators. The match had to be abandoned and was scored 3-0 to Olympiakos Piraeus. In addition, Panathinaikos was deducted five points. There were 30 fires in the arena and 57 arrests. On the penultimate matchday of the 2012/13 season, several AEK Athens fans stormed the pitch during the match against Panthrakikos, who had taken the lead in the 87th minute. The match was subsequently abandoned and scored 0-3 to Panthrakikos. AEK Athens were then relegated for the first time in the club's history after being deducted an additional three points. In May 2013, AEK had to declare insolvency, so that in the following season only third division matches were regularly played in the stadium. On 6 November 2013, the club announced its intention to build its own new home ground in Nea Filadelfia by the end of 2015 under the name Hagia Sophia Stadium. However, the stadium did not get past the planning stage by the end of 2015.

Since Panathinaikos Athens could no longer afford the rent for the Olympic Stadium in the 2013/14 season and also complained that the club had to pay a higher rent than AEK, the club has since played again in the renovated Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium. The return to the Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium was also intended to serve as political leverage to push for its own new stadium construction, as Panathinaikos would have maintained the arena as a tenant as long as it had remained in the Olympic Stadium. Another reason for the move was the low attendance figures, which meant that there was no atmosphere in the Olympic Stadium.

Greece's football federation Elliniki Podosferiki Omospondia was considering bidding for the 2004 main Olympic venue for the 2020 pan-continental European Football Championship, where all European national associations were each allowed to propose up to two stadiums in their country for the event. Each association could only bid for a maximum of one sports venue. However, back in February 2014, the Elliniki Podosferiki Omospondia announced that it would not be bidding for the football tournament.

One of the last major events to be held at the Olympic Stadium in Athens was the 2014 International Congress of Jehovah's Witnesses, with a total of 35,863 people in attendance at the stadium. In addition, 3,093 attendees in Cyprus and Belgium watched parts of the Christian service via video streaming, bringing the total attendance to 38,956. Among the visitors were delegates from South Korea, Croatia, Romania, South Africa, Turkey, Hungary and the United States.

Stadium map


The arches and the roof construction


The Olympic Flame at the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games