Stadium: National Sports Complex “Olympic” (Kiev)
Opening: autumn 2011
Capacity for EURO 2012: 60 000 seats
Total capacity: 70 050 seats
3.546 VIP seats
1.491 seats for mass-media
366 seats for commentators
150 for disabled people and their guides
Type: universal (with all-weather running tracks)
Direction: Bolshaya Vasilkivska St., 55. Kyiv
Public transport: metro/bus/trolleybus
The first central stadium of Kyiv should be opened on 22 June, 1941. Nevertheless, exactly this day began the War between Soviet Union and Fascist Germany. That is why Ukraine received its main stadium only after the Second World War ending.
For the first several years it bore the name Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader of the 50-ies. Then it was renamed into “Respublikansy” (Republican). Under this name it was reconstructed by the first time and obtained the second level of stands. For the 1980 Olympic Games the Sports Complex obtained its actual name. After the two-year reconstruction, the arena hosted several football matches of the Olympic Tournament. From then Olympic Stadium is one of the biggest stadiums in Europe and World. Also it holds the record of the biggest attendance of the Champions League matches (“Dinamo” (Kyiv) – “Barcelona”).
The ongoing reconstruction from the very begging was very difficult and intricate task for designers and contractors. There are a lot of buildings around the stadium so the construction territory is limited. So the Olympic Stadium was almost built from the zero point but at the basis of the “skeleton”. After the reconstruction the stadium will have the glass facade, membrane roof that cover 100% of seats. Fan won’t experience difficulties with public transport due to comfortable location of the arena, almost in the downtown.
Olympic stadium is the main arena of EURO 2012. It will host the final matches and the closing ceremony. Moreover, it will be the Olympic Stadium where the Ukraine’s national team will play their first game at the tournament. Also it will hold another two matches of the Group D, the Ukrainian one, one quarter final, perhaps, with Ukrainian team partaking.
