Images: Warta Poznań
Polish Ekstraklasa football club Warta Poznań has presented the initial design concepts for a green-focused stadium, as it seeks to return to its home city.
Warta is currently having to play its games at Stadion Dyskobolii Grodzisk Wielkopolski, which is located around 27 miles southwest of Poznań. The club is seeking to develop a new home in the Droga Dębińska area of the city and yesterday (Thursday) said that the finished design will be unveiled soon.
On this basis, Warta states it will be possible to evaluate the cost of the project before announcing a tender for a construction contract. According to the current concept, the stadium will have an initial capacity of 5,000 featuring three stands.
One will be entirely dedicated to fans, while another will serve as a family and ecological space, and the third will house the club’s administrative, sports, media and technical facilities. Instead of a stand, the area behind one of the goals is set to feature a green wall embedded with vegetation.
Maciej Wojdyło, a member of Warta’s management board, said, according to wPoznaniu.pl: “This end is closed with a plant-breathable wall. We have already planned to locate the club’s apiaries on the roof of the stadium. We will obtain renewable energy from photovoltaic panels located on the roof of the club stand.”
The stadium development is intended to be completed in stages. Wojdyło said: “The first is to provide a training site, then to finance the main stand. This will allow us to return to Poznań.”
He added: “We envision that this is not only a football facility. It is intended to serve our local community and residents. We are ready for recreational and commercial activities to take place there, so that it will be a natural extension of the recreational areas of this part of the city.”
Funding boost for Ruch Chorzów
In other news, Ruch Chorzów, which last season gained promotion back to the Ekstraklasa after a six-year spell away, has been boosted by news of an investment package for its new stadium.
Ruch is also currently having to play away from its home ground, Stadion Ruchu, due to structural issues at the venue. However, an extraordinary session of Chorzów City Council, entirely devoted to the construction of a new facility in place of the existing one, made a unanimous decision to secure PLN395.2m (£75.5m/€88.4m/$97m) in the Multiannual Financial Forecast.
Andrzej Kotala, Mayor of Chorzów, said: “It was a very important vote, because a very important investment is ahead of us. This is probably the largest investment in Chorzów in the recent history of the city, i.e. in the last 30 years.
“We decided to implement it because new opportunities have opened up for us and there is a chance that we will get a subsidy from the Ministry of Sport. We can now start building Ruch’s stadium also because previous investments in the city have been completed. However, let’s wait to celebrate until the ministry approves our application, but I believe that this will happen.”
The cost of building a new stadium itself is expected to amount to PLN249.7m. Marcin Mańka, chairman of the supervisory board of Ruch Chorzów, added: “We have divided the entire investment into several stages. The first will be submitting an application to the ministry, then a decision will be made by September 30 and I assume that we will get this funding.
“The next stage will be the announcement of a tender for the general contractor and finally the signing of a contract for the construction of the stadium, which I hope will take place at the beginning of 2024.”
Share this