2012 European Championships Stadiums: National Stadium (Warsaw)
The new National Stadium in Warsaw might be one of three built-from-scratch Euro 2012 facilities in Poland but its location has half-a-century of memories being the site of the old Tenth Anniversary Stadium.
For decades the largest ground in the Polish capital, the Tenth Anniversary Stadium fell into disrepair before its demolition in 2008. But the €300 million redevelopment on the banks of the River Vistula looks set to restore the pride to this traditional football area.
Capacity
With a capacity in excess of 55,000, the National Stadium will be the venue for the opening group match of Euro 2012 as well as further group matches and a quarter-final and semi-final. Meanwhile, afterwards it will become the home of the Polish national team and could even be an occasional venue for the city's two leading clubs Legia Warsaw and Polonia Warsaw. It is the largest football arena in Poland.
The stadium hosted the 2014-15 UEFA Europa League final between Sevilla and Ukrainian side Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and also the 2024 UEFA Super Cup featuring Spanish giants Real Madrid and Italian club Atalanta.
Facilities
Once completed midway through 2011, adjoining the new stadium will be a 15,000-seat indoor arena, a modern hotel and meeting hall and a covered Olympic-sized swimming pool with seats for 4,000 spectators as well as excellent transport links into the city centre. The retractable PVC roof unfolds from a nest on a spire suspended above the centre of the pitch. The roof takes its inspiration from the cable-supported unfolding system of Commerzbank-Arena (Waldstadion) in Frankfurt, Germany.
National Stadium Warsaw Access
Access to the brand new National Stadium was at the forefront of the ground's design. The stadium will house a new railway station (Warszawa Stadion) and a metro station (Stadion) on a newly planned subway line for quick and convenient access in and out of the venue. Trams, buses and night buses complement these routes in Warsaw's excellent integrated public transport system. The closest station is now Stadion Narodowy metro station (C14).
Warsaw's international airport, Chopin Airport, is just 10 km outside the city centre and flies to locations across Europe and North America including Euro 2012 venues Kyiv and Lviv in Ukraine. The main railway station is called Warszawa Centralna, which offers daily services to Wroclaw (five hours), Gdansk (four-and-a-half hours), Poznan (four hours), Lviv (14 hours) and Kyiv (15 hours).
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