[LEAFS FANATIC]

I know we have all seen these posted individually but I thought some of you would be interested inseeing all the facilities in one post. I responded with this in another thread so i though it belongs here too:

"This is impressive (Melbourne), but Athens can (and it possibly beats Melbourne). Here is why:"

1) Athens Olympic Stadium:

Capacity: 66,132 (all seated) Used for Athletics, football, auto racing, and concerts.
Location: The stadium is located in Maroussi, a northern suburb of Athens (9 km from the city centre, 22 km from the airport). It is part of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex (AOSC, better known from its Greek initials as OAKA).

The two giant arcs have a total span of 304m and a maximum height of 72m... the roof has a total weight of 19,000 tons... 5,000 polycarbonate panels were used for the roof, which covers an area of 25,000 sq m... the west arc was assembled 72m from its final position and the east 65m - both later slid into place... the roof is designed to withstand winds up to 120 km/h

2) Olympic Sports Hall (used for basketball, volleyball, gymnastics)

Capacity: 18,700

The Olympic Sports Hall is one of the biggest and most modern indoor sports arenas in Europe. Greeks call it (and its neighbouring Olympic Stadium) simply "OAKA" - the initials for the Olympic Sports Complex, of which it is part.

The arena features a unique roof, based only on four huge pillars (each being 35m tall and the two pairs 108m apart). It is the largest construction of this
kind in the whole world, according to the Greek Ministry of Sports. The arena is also built in such a way as to provide abundant natural sunlight all day long.

3) Olympic Tennis Center:

Main Court Capacity: 18,000

4) Olympic Aquatic Center:

Capacity 12,000-15,000

5) Olympic Velodrome:

Unknown Capacity, but huge nonetheless!!!

6) Karaiskaki Stadium (for football)

Capacity: 33,334 (seated)

7) Peace and Friendship Stadium (Basketball and Volleyball):

Capacity: 14,095 (for basketball) - 11,750 (for athletics)

The arena was designed by architects "Thymios Papagiannis and associates" at a cost of € 25 million (1983 prices). In 1991 it received the Golden Award by IAKS (International Working Group for the Construction of Sports and Leisure Facilities). Besides basketball, its multi-purpose main arena is also able to host athletics, gymnastics, volleyball, handball, ice skating etc, but also concerts, conventions and exhibitions.

8) Ano Liossia Hall:

This brand new indoor hall will host the sports of wrestling and judo during the Athens 2004 Summer Olympic Games. It has a capacity of 9,300 spectators.

9) Galatsi Arena (used for b-ball):

10) Nikea Indoor Hall (was used for weightlifting; is now a theatre):

Apart from being the most complete sports centre for weightlifting in the world, it is also able to host conventions, concerts and similar events. The complex includes the main hall, warm-up and training halls, medical facilities, a press centre, administrative offices and a separate connecting building with guest rooms for 59 athletes, a restaurant etc.

It has a capacity of 5,191 spectators.

11) Peristeri Indoor Hall (Boxing):

It has a capacity of 8,400.

12) Helliniko Arena (Basketball):

It has a capacity of about 14,500 spectators.

13) Helliniko Baseball and Canoe/Kayak Center:

14) Faliro Arena (multi use facility):

It had a capacity of 8,536 spectators, half of the seats being temporary. After the Olympics, capacity was reduced to 3,836.

15) Faliro Beach Voleyball Center (currently being used for FIVA world championships):

16) Markopoulo Equestrian Center:

17) Agios Kosmas Sailing Center:

This list excludes "older" football and b-ball arenas that exist (i.e. old Panathinakos stadium and teh stadiums of the smaller Athenian football teams)

Also, yesterday the municipal government approved a brand new football stadium for Panathinaikos seating 40,000 along with a b-ball bvenue that will seat 6,000 to 8,000 people. It is scheduled to be complete by 2008.


all pics courtesy of stadia.gr

 

[ASIMOV]

Great venues, great thread kay:

 

[LOYALTY]

Absolutely awesom pictures, especially the bird view of the AOSC.

 

[LOYALTY]

Absolutely awesome pictures, especially the bird view of the AOSC.

 

[Giorgio]

great thread, if theres one thing other than history that Athens has got, its Sports facilities :lol:

 

[Raleigh-NC]

Great work... again!!!!! By the way, does your employer knows how much time you spent posting all this wonderful stuff? :lol:

 

[LEAFS FANATIC]

Great work... again!!!!! By the way, does your employer knows how much time you spent posting all this wonderful stuff? :lol:

Thanks Raleigh!

With regards to my employer....well, let's put it this way: "For all those late nights at work or missed lunches due to meetings, I keep a "mental" log and I vow to "take back" my unpaid overtime (you see, I am a salaried employee) by surfing the net and relaxing here on the SSC forums.

That's life my friend...Take back what you can....I'm Greek after all and I wont let anyone take what is rightfully mine!

 

[Theogr]

Great pictures!
Can somebody answer me a question related to the capacity of the Olympic Stadium? What is the real capacity of the stadium at the moment? It started with a capacity of around 80000 and for last years olympics there were definitely 72000 spectators plus some empty seats for the purpose of the ceremonies. I don't believe that the capacity is only 66000 thousand spectators when no seats have been removed!

thanks

 

[SkylineTurbo]

Best in Europe kay:

 

[Poliochni]

Great thread Leafs ! Amazing photos of great venues !

PS - bre paidia, fantazeste ti dramatika diaforetiki exelixi tha eixan parei oi agones tis Athinas (epikoinoniaka alla kai epi tou apotelesmatos : afixi xenon) an i PROTH eikona as poume, eixe kykloforisei 1 xrono i' esto 6 mines prin tin enarxi ton agonon (i.e ta erga itan olokliromena). An oi athinaioi oi idioi eixan tin eykairia me OPEN DAYS na gnorisoun kai na agapisoun ayta ta venues PRIN tous agones, kai an oi xenoi blepontas mia eikona san tin 1i elegan : Thelo na eimai ki ego ekei !-Krima

 

[gm2263]

Excellent thread, excellent collection of pics as usual. Bravo Leafs !!!

@ Poliochni: Os sinithos vgalame monoi mas ta matia mas. Vevaia, tora exoume mia eykairia ne deixoume ston kosmo ta stadia se styl thematikou parkou. dystyxos, kai ekei argoporoume apo oti vlepo...

 

[Kuvvaci]

I just wonder something, if you can answer...

What do you do with Ano Liossia Hall, Peristeri Indoor Hall, Helliniko Arena, Faliro Arena, when you already have two other big sport halls like Peace and Friendship stadium and OAKA sport hall?

What do you do with Markopoulo Equestrian Center, Faliro Beach Voleyball Center, Helliniko Baseball and Canoe/Kayak Center, hokey and softball stadiums, and Nikea Indoor Hall?

Also how do you use the Veledrome and Tenis center?

 

[Giorgio]

you dont, but there there if there needed kay:

 

[Kuvvaci]

??

 

[Poliochni]

I just wonder something, if you can answer...

What do you do with Ano Liossia Hall, Peristeri Indoor Hall, Helliniko Arena, Faliro Arena, when you already have two other big sport halls like Peace and Friendship stadium and OAKA sport hall?

What do you do with Markopoulo Equestrian Center, Faliro Beach Voleyball Center, Helliniko Baseball and Canoe/Kayak Center, hokey and softball stadiums, and Nikea Indoor Hall?

Also how do you use the Veledrome and Tenis center?

Though I am no expert, so people please free to correct me and expand on the answers ...

First of all, I dont think ANY other host, EVER has all the venues in full use and profitable a year after the games. In that respect, ATHOC (the organising committee) handed over the venues to the government, even earlier than Sydney did (!!!!!)(please people who know, give specifics).

Sydney's olympic park resembles a ghost town and the authorities promise a transformation to a residential area in the next 15 (!) years.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3549580.stm

Also :

"Most of Sydney's Olympics facilities were ready a year early. A polluted suburban industrial zone was cleaned up to accommodate the majority of them, and a spur off the regional train system was put in. A new residential development, used for the athletes' village, was mostly presold to future residents. Four years later? "Sydney Olympic Park looks beautiful, but it's a ghost town," says Elizabeth Farrelly, architecture critic for the Sydney Morning Herald. Train service to the new station is minimal for lack of riders. The former village "is quite stylish, and the housing's good but it's not walkable. The athletes were always going to be bussed in." Only now -- provoked, some say, by the ongoing cost of keeping lawns mowed and fountains pumping -- is there a call for bids to add office and apartment buildings to the park. "If you knew for ten years that you were having the Olympics," Farrelly declares, "you might be expected to have some idea of what would happen after."
Sydney did receive useful airport and highway upgrades. A facelift of the central business district and its fringes brought new granite sidewalks, light poles, tree plantings, and bus shelters. "But to win the bid, the sports facilities were all oversize," architect Andrew Andersons says. "We now have a big investment in architecturally high-quality facilities that get very low utilization. There's a poor tradition of spectator sports in Sydney. Anyway, there was already an arena conveniently located in the heart of the city near a thousand restaurants and bars."

You see, there seems to be a STEREOTYPICAL, GLOBAL moaning, evident even to the MOST SUCCESSFUL HOST ever.

Yet noone else seems to be bringing this up as Sydney has always been the media darling. Unlike Athens, which admitedly cost FAR MORE than Sydney, but proved to be a media disaster pro and post games, with a gloriously dramatic change of heart only DURING the games. Hell, one would have though that this is what REALLY matters.

I am not trying to bash Sydney, its success has been widely accepted. And not try to seek excuses for Athens poor planning. BUT it is a reality in EVERY SINGLE HOST ! AThens has hosted the BIGGEST (in size) Olympics EVER, and was the SMALLEST host country. What a paradox. IOC needs to SERIOUSLY consider scaling down the games and EXPECT LESS from the host. And I would agree, with sth Kuvvaci said, that Athens was probably the last "romantic" host. ONLY BIG cities can MAKE MONEY and sustain the cost. In that respect I doubt Athens is getting the credits she deserves, for going ALL out her way, to host SAFE games in impeccable venues.

Now that the venues are handed over, now the "problem" begin. But instead of necessarilly thinking of it as a disaster, it can also be considered a UNIQUE opportunity, to make the BEST of use, the one that will be the most profitable in economic terms but also the most beneficial for local communitites.

So :

the NIKAIA weightlifting hall, will be used as academy of arts.
the FALIRO TAE KWON DO, has already been used to host various events, it has gone under reconfiguration and will be used from now on as a convention centre. Its unique location by the sea, will make it ideal. Athens has had very limited spaces for conventions (MEGARON is an excellent one, but mainly for scientific ones - and is fully booked for years to come !). TAE KWON DO will host exhibitions as well, thanks to its size, so in that sense is far more versatile.
the BEACH VOLLEY is central in what urban planners see as Athenians redefining their relationship with the coast. Athens boasts possibly the BEST by far, beaches of any other major EU city/ capital. Atheninan beaches have been awarded the BLUE FLAGS of quality year in year out.
Yet, I was reading in a statistic that 60 +% of the tourists visiting Athens, are NOT AWARE that Athens has beaches. Which is SHOCKING, considering that any other city (in her right mind) would have branded and marketed those beaches as her greatest ASSET !. The beach volley venue has hosted international circuits, and concerts, and dance festivals and BASICALLY it has become a COASTAL Lycabettus theatre. Open air theatres are deeply ingrained in the pop culture of Greeks. Ancients and moderns. The big advantage of the Beach volley venue is again that it is by the sea. So athenians will be going there, NOT ONLY for swimming or CLUBBING (which traditionally takes place by the coast in Summers) but also for concerts. This area was lacking such a venue. Its location ideal and its popularity taken for granted.
Now the HELLINIKON, is a whole different story. The state of the art, best ever used (as admited by the federations) canoe-Kayak venue, has so far hosted the world championship. Yet, in order to actually pay off and start making money will be turned into a water park. And this will render it viable because it is bound to make money as such. However, it wont undergo dramatic changes, so that it does remain usable as a sports venue, whenever needed.

The baseball, softballs stadia are white elephants. Contrary to what people think, there were TEMPORARY baseball venues as well during the Olympics, which have now been torn down. BUT the MAIN stadia, which were insanely MASSIVE, now remain idle. I have NO idea what will happen to them. And again I have no idea why they were not temporary altogether.

The Markopoulos equestrian centre, will become a golf course and a hotel.

The velodrome, was there BEFORE THE OLYMPICS, only without the fancy roof. This year, It has hosted the Balkan championship. I guess, there is only A NUMBER of things you can do with a velodrome. You either have one or you dont. If you get one, you cannot overnight turn it into a profitable business. It has to be the LEAST versatile structure. It serves ONE purpose and one purpose only.
The same goes for Tennis. I was amazed last year, coz the venue itself was just BEAUTIFUL ! Now has it been passed on to the federation ? Can it potentially host some sort of a tournament ala Stella Artois ? For the time being and to my frustration (simply beacuse of its shere beauty) remains idle. I hope someone else has some more infos on that one, because ESPECIALLY this (and we are not talking about just ONE tennis court but a whole complex) is a shame to just rot away.

There are some definite HITS (like TAE KWON DO and BEACH VOLLEY) which will serve the city of Athens for both income and local communities needs.

However the baseball stadia, and WHY they were made PERMANENT, needs to be addressed (ANYBODY from the previous government ? Anyone ?). Would one day Helliniko become a massive Regents Park, and they will serve as open air theatres ? well, that will make them VERY EXPENSIVE OPEN AIR THEATRES (considering how Regent's park one looks !).

The first international competitions for post olympic use of venues are already up and running.

What the govenrmet HAS TO DO and I bet they have done already, is to consult people WHO KNOW (for a change) what they are doing. There have been winners in international competitions on the redevelopment of Hellinikon area.ANYONE from the present government, could please tell us WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT winning plans ?
They have to plan and make the best use of those scientists.

I can wait for a little bit longer. I repeat, no one expects a host to make profits from venues within a year. The overdramatisation with the MEDIA reports of the "One year on" is just pointless and simply to create instant impressions, soon to be forgotten. I'd rather see results, NOT THAT they will ever be reported to the MEDIA. But why should THEY make or break the "athens legacy" in just ONE year.

I can ALREADY guarantee the same tabloid treatment for London, a year on.

The Olympics is a collosal task. IOC has to address that.

 

[Kuvvaci]

thank you for the infos...

 

[Christos7]

Poliochni, GREAT post. kay:


And Leafs, great pictures. kay:

 

[EngineerGreece]

Palaio Faliro Olympic Complex

I think this is one of the most beautiful Olympic Complex in Athens. It's been used really well after the Olympics and it doesn't seem abandoned at all...

Handball Stadium Athens 2004 Greece

The Palaio Faliro Marine

Hellenic Airforce history museum

Mirage F1

Old propeller

Sculpture

Office building

Village 9 Cinemas Multiplex

source: Panoramio, Google Earth

 

[yianni]

this is just a few blocks from my house ,nice area indeed

 

[Pireotis]

Επεκταση Σταδιου Καραισκακη

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