January 8th, 2002

The owner of PAOK Salonica, Mr. George Batatoudis, has expressed his will to build a new stadium for his team and leave
TOUMBA, PAOK's historic home. According to reports, the new ground may be constructed next to PAOK Arena, home of the club's basketball and volleyball teams. It will have a capacity of about 45,000. Mr. Batatoudis said that he has the means to finance 70% of this project and asked for the State to pay the remaining 30%. It must be noted that Toumba Stadium will be used as a training venue in the 2004 Olympics and it is scheduled to be upgraded for this reason (cost: over $5 million). Mr. Batatoudis asked that this money be instead used for the construction of the new stadium, which he said, could be ready in about 18 months. One must note, however, that Batatoudis is not very famous for keeping his promises.