S.Dariaus and S.Girėno stadiums

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S.Dariaus and S.Girėno stadiums
European Championship qualifier between Lithuania and Georgia (June 2007)
European Championship qualifier between Lithuania and Georgia (June 2007)
Earlier names

Valstybinis stadionas

Data
place Perkūno al. 5 44221 Kaunas , Lithuania
LithuaniaLithuania
Coordinates 54 ° 53 '50 "  N , 23 ° 56' 13"  E Coordinates: 54 ° 53 '50 "  N , 23 ° 56' 13"  E
owner City of Kaunas
opening 1925
Renovations 1935–1936, 1969–1979, 1998, 2005, since 2018
demolition 2018
surface Hybrid lawn (after the conversion)
capacity 09,180 seats (before the renovation)
15,315 seats (after the renovation)
Societies)
Events

The S.Dariaus and S.Girėno Stadium ( Lithuanian S. Dariaus ir S. Girėno stadionas ) is the national stadium of Lithuania in Ąžuolynas ( German  Oak Park ) in the city of Kaunas . Until the start of the renovation in 2018, it offered a total of 9,180 seats. In addition to the club team of FBK Kaunas , the Lithuanian national football team also plays its home games in the stadium of the S.Dariaus and S.Girėno sports center.

history

Stadium during the 2009 European Athletics U23 Championships

After two years of construction, the football stadium with an athletics facility was opened in 1925. From 1935 to 1936, the sports facility was renovated and named State Stadium . The running track of the stadium was then 500 meters long; the soccer field stretched for almost 120 meters. In 1939 the Kaunas sports hall ( Lithuanian Kauno sporto halė ) was inaugurated in the immediate vicinity ; the first sports hall in Europe specially built for basketball . The next renovation of the stadium followed in 1969 and lasted until 1979. In doing so, u. a. the old wooden stands replaced by reinforced concrete tiers; which lead in a semicircle around the interior. The running track was shortened to the standard length of 400 meters. The spectator stands are on the north, west and south sides.

After the independence of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (LiSSR) from the Soviet Union in 1990, the venue was named after the two Lithuanian pilots Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas in 1993 . They tried a non-stop flight from New York to Kaunas with an airplane in 1933 , where they were killed in a crash shortly before their destination. On September 6, 1993, Pope John Paul II came to the stadium for a meeting with young people. In 1998 the stadium was brought up to UEFA standards through renovations (plastic individual seats, renewal of the athletics facility , etc.) . For the European Junior Athletics Championships in 2005, a video wall was installed on the open side of the stadium in the east, measuring 8.64 × 4.32 meters. At that time it was the largest and most modern video scoreboard in the Baltic States . In 2009, the U23 European Athletics Championships took place in the Kaunas stadium .

The stadium has been renovated and expanded since summer 2018. When the work is complete, it will offer 15,315 seats and meet the requirements of UEFA stadium category 4 . The building will have a wooden facade and will therefore blend in better with the surrounding park. For the first time, all spectator seats in the sports arena will be covered. The work was initially carried out by the Turkish company Kayı Construction. The city had earmarked 46 million euros for the renovation. Kayı offered to do it for around 35 million euros in 20 months. According to the plan, the national stadium should be ready for use in spring 2020. All the old tiers were torn down, only the concrete supports were still standing. In the course of 2019 it became clear that the deadline could not be kept at the pace of work and that it is more likely to be in 2022. In September 2019, construction workers went on strike as the company failed to pay their salaries. In January 2020, the city canceled the contract with Kayı Construction. The renovation is to be continued by another company.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Website about the park ( Memento of February 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  2. ↑ Steponas Dariaus ir Stasys Girėno stadionas (old) - Kaunas. In: europlan-online.de. Retrieved June 15, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Istorija. In: sportohale.lt. Retrieved April 5, 2019 (Lithuanian).
  4. ↑ INCONTRO DI GIOVANNI PAOLO II CON I GIOVANI DELLA LITUANIA NELLO STADIO “DARIUS IR GIRENO”. In: vatican.va. Vatican , accessed April 5, 2019 .
  5. ^ New design: Wooden enthusiasm in Kaunas. In: stadiumdb.com. June 14, 2020, accessed on June 15, 2020 .