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December
17th, 2003
The first step for surpassing the problems facing the new stadium of AEK was made today. The Parliament voted a law, which aims to take care of the matter once and for all. The new plans for the stadium were revealed by AEK a few days ago. They feature some changes from those of one year before: - reduction of the total height from 35 to 30 metres - reduction of coverage percentage from 40% to 33.5% - reduction of the commercial areas from 24,000 sq.m. to 20,000 sq.m. - the whole complex will "move" 6 metres to the east - AEK are obliged to re-plant 12 acres of land next to the stadium All these are aimed to satisfy city authorities that object to the construction of the stadium. They have taken their case to courts and have managed until now to halt all progress of works. What we can note is that the two plans (that of 2002 and the one revealed now) have some more differences: - capacity of the football stadium has fallen from 32,000 to 30,000 - capacity of the basketball arena has fallen from 8,000 to 7,000 - the three multi-purpose indoor halls (of 1.816, 420 and 340 seats) are now just one, with a capacity of 1,000 - the underground car-park will now have 1,800 spaces, instead of 2,000 - the 60-bed hostel was scrapped - the same goes for the "มลส Live Arena" (for projection of matches on video wall) - the 8-cinema multiplex was reduced to 5 screens plus an open-air theatre The cost remains the same: about € 62 million. The project is now supposed to be ready in 12 months. However, according to sources, this is over-ambitious and the earliest AEK could move into their new stadium is the summer of 2005. All this, supposing that the City of Nea Philadelphia does not find a new reason to take this again to court. Related articles: Court decision stops works for the new stadium of AEK (21/8/03) The truth about the new stadium of AEK (4/8/03) "Nikos Goumas" Stadium is now razed to the ground (2/6/03) All the facts of the "Nikos Goumas" Stadium reconstruction (22/10/02) "Nikos Goumas" Stadium will be completely reconstructed (22/8/02) |