OAKA Olympic Indoor Hall
.jpg)
The OAKA Olympic Indoor Hall ( Greek Ολυμπιακό Κλειστό Γυμναστήριο , Olympiako Klisto Gymnastirio ), often referred to as the Athens Olympic Hall and often just called OAKA in Greece , is a multi-purpose hall in the Athens Olympic Sports Complex . The multifunctional hall in the Athens suburb of Marousi was a competition venue during the 2004 Summer Olympics .
The Olympic Hall is currently the home of the Panathinaikos Athens basketball team and the Greek national basketball team . The OAKA has a capacity of 18,500 spectators for basketball games, making it the largest sports hall in Greece and one of the largest in Europe.
Location and transport links
The indoor hall is located in the middle of the Athens Olympic sports complex, which is about nine kilometers northeast of the city center in the suburb of Maroussi and 22 kilometers northwest of Athens airport . The site is in the center of the sports complex and can also be reached by car. The Athens Olympic Stadium , the Velodrome and the water sports and tennis center are in the immediate vicinity .
The hall can be reached from the Irini stop , which is located in the immediate vicinity of the Olympic sports complex, on line 1 (ISAP) of the metro . From there it is still a ten-minute walk to the arena. Also operate buses a stop near the Olympic Stadium. At the new Neratziotissa transfer station there is a connection to the Proastiakos S-Bahn .
The mall The Mall , the luxury label shopping mall Golden Mall (former Olympic press center) and the private hospital IASO are in the immediate vicinity of the sports complex .
History and construction
The first sports facility to be built on the site of the Olympic Sports Complex was the Olympic Stadium. After the foundation stone was laid on January 8, 1980, it only took two and a half years to complete before the official opening was celebrated on September 8, 1982. In the following years, the Velodrome (1991), the swimming center (1991) and the tennis center (2004) were built around the Olympic Stadium.
The indoor hall was completed in 1995 and resulted from the need to build a sports hall that would meet international requirements for a major event. Until then, the largest sports hall in the greater Athens area, with the exception of Piraeus, was the Klisto Gymnastirio Glyfadas with a capacity of only 3,232 spectators. The largest hall in Greece was the stadium of peace and friendship (SEF) in Piraeus, with a capacity of around 17,000 .
According to the ideas of the National Olympic Committee of Greece, the 1996 Summer Olympics should take place in Athens, because these games had been held in Athens 100 years earlier. The indoor hall played a central role in the planning and allocation of potential competition venues. Against all odds, however, the competitor city of Atlanta was awarded the contract to host the 1996 Games.
When the 2004 Summer Olympics were awarded, the indoor hall was modernized between 2003 and 2004. The investment total was 7,064,000 euros . The work required primarily comprised upgrading the electrical installations and was carried out by ERETBO. The modernization measures were completed on July 30, 2004, the official reopening took place on August 10 of that year.
The hall is reminiscent of a roof- only house , as apart from the gable ends above the ground, only the roof is visible. The roof structure rests on four 35 m high reinforced concrete towers, which are arranged in pairs at a distance of 108 m on the gable ends. The interior dimensions of the hall are 70 × 40 m.
Coat usage
Below the grandstands are u. a. 12 changing rooms, a 500 m² press center and a 100 m² room for press conferences , a medical department and 20 detention cells .
The indoor hall also has two small sports halls with a size of 19 × 9 m that are used for training and warm-up purposes.
Current usage
The indoor hall is currently used by the basketball department of Panathinaikos Athens . Greece's most successful club plays both the games in the national league competition, the A1 Ethniki , and its international games in the EuroLeague at OAKA. The indoor hall is used by the Greek basketball association as the venue for the Acropolis tournament .
In the past, the indoor hall also served as the home ground for the basketball department of AEK Athens . During the EuroLeague 2009/10 , the GS Marousi club played its European Cup matches at OAKA.
Events
Despite its relatively young age, the Indoor Hall has already hosted many important national and international major events. The 2004 Summer Olympics and the World and European Basketball Championships play a prominent role in this .
The most important national events include the final games for the Greek Club Cup in basketball in 1997, 2001, 2007, 2015 and 2016.
European basketball championship 1995
The first major sporting event to be held in the indoor hall was the 1995 European Basketball Championship, which took place from June 21 to July 2, 1995 in Athens. It was the 29th European Championships. All the games in the tournament were played in the indoor hall. The national team from Serbia and Montenegro won the tournament .
U-19 World Basketball Championship 1995
Between July 12 and 22, 1995, the U-19 basketball world championship was held in Athens. In addition to the Athens OAKA, the preliminary round matches were played in Thessaloniki , Larisa , Patras and Lamia . From the quarterfinals onwards, all games took place in the indoor hall. The Greek national team emerged as the winner of the tournament and finished the tournament undefeated.
1998 World Basketball Championship
From July 29 to August 9, 1998, the Indoor Hall hosted the 14th Basketball World Cup . The national team of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia became world champions when they participated for the first time after the dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia . The team from Russia became vice world champions . Third place went to the defending champion from the United States , who was due to a lockout without an NBA player . Host Greece took 4th place. Germany, Austria and Switzerland could not qualify for participation in this World Cup. In addition to the Indoor Hall, the Stadium of Peace and Friendship in Piraeus was the venue for the tournament.
2004 Summer Olympics
During the 2004 Summer Olympics, the OAKA was the largest sports hall. The competitions in apparatus gymnastics and trampoline gymnastics as well as the final matches in basketball took place here. During the Olympic competitions, the audience was limited to 12,000.
Eurovision Song Contest 2006
After Elena Paparizou's victory in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 , the 51st Eurovision Song Contest was held on May 20, 2006 in the Olympic Hall . For this purpose, temporary reconstruction measures were necessary which reduced the capacity of the hall to 15,000 seats during the competition. The winner was Finland with the group Lordi and their song Hard Rock Hallelujah .
Final Four of the EuroLeague 2006/07
In 2007 the Olympic Hall hosted the Final Four of the EuroLeague . In addition to the winner of this tournament Panathinaikos Athens , the teams of CSKA Moscow qualified for the final . For the Greeks this meant the fourth European Cup title in front of their home crowd.
Final Four in the 2008/09 CEV Cup
In 2009 the Final Four for the CEV Cup in volleyball was held in Athens . The 15,000 fans present in the final represent a European record for a volleyball game in a European cup competition that is still valid today. The home team from Panathinaikos Athens came second in this tournament.
Final Four of the Basketball Champions League 2017/18
The Final Four tournament of the Basketball Champions League was held at the OAKA from May 4 to 6, 2018 . In addition to the winner of this tournament, AEK Athens , who prevailed against AS Monaco in the final , MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg and UCAM Murcia also took part. For AEK this meant the third success in a European cup in front of a home crowd.
Concerts
Many national and international artists have already performed in the indoor hall. The best known include Jennifer Lopez , Bjork , Beyoncé , Tokio Hotel , Elena Paparizou , Sakis Rouvas and Anna Vissi .
gallery
Exterior view of the Olympic Indoor Hall in summer 2004
Exterior view from 2011
Indoor hall seating plan
The interior of the OAKA Olympic Indoor Hall (2008)
Web links
- oaka.com: indoor basketball arena on the site of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex (English)
- stadia.gr: Olympic Sports Hall (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Indoor basketball arena. In: oaka.com.gr. Retrieved April 25, 2019 .
- ↑ a b OAKA stage. Stadium guide, accessed May 27, 2014 .
- ^ A b Athens Olympic Stadium "Spyros Louis". stadia.gr, accessed on May 27, 2014 (English).
- ↑ From Athens, Greece to Olympic Indoor Sports Center. Google Maps , accessed May 27, 2014 .
- ↑ How to get to the IASO with a map. Retrieved May 27, 2014 (Greek).
- ↑ Ιστορικό. Retrieved February 20, 2016 . (Greek)
- ↑ Noticed too late. In: spiegel.de. Der Spiegel , September 13, 1982, accessed on March 26, 2014 .
- ↑ a b Κλειστό ΟΑΚΑ. Retrieved May 27, 2014 (Greek).
- ↑ Venues of the 1995 U19 basketball world championship. Accessed on May 27, 2014 (English). (English)
- ↑ Athens 2006. Retrieved May 27, 2014 (English).
- ↑ Ρεκόρ οι 15,000! ( Memento from July 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (Greek)
- ↑ setlist.fm: concert list of the OAKA Olympic Indoor Hall (English)
Competition venues for the 2004 Summer Olympics
