Votanikos: Panathinaikos' new stadium will cost €125 million
On Monday, during the 25th meeting of the Athens municipal council, the first two items on the agenda - introduced by Mayor of Athens Kostas Bakoyannis - concerned the approval of the 3rd Amendment to the Technical Program of the Municipality of Athens for the 2022 financial year.
There was a reference to the total cost of the construction of the new football stadium in the area of Votanikos, €125 million, with funding from the Ministry of Environment and Energy.
Specifically:
- The first project concerns a pedestrian bridge, which will be built to connect away fans to the stadium.
-The second project concerns a small undergrounding that will be done as an accompanying project, next to the Metro ("Elaionas" Station) in order to facilitate access to the stadium.
The above 3rd amendment of the Technical Program was also approved by the municipal council of Athens and was included in the overall framework of the entire "Double Redevelopment" project.
It is worth noting that in the environmental study submitted for the new football stadium, there were modifications for the entire construction of the stadium, as well as the maximum height.
Now in the final plan of the environmental study, the construction of the stadium was reduced to 33,822.66m², while the construction of additional and commercial uses fell by 4,678.55m². The height of the field, from 43m, was reduced to 41.05m.
The new Panathinaikos Stadium will be a multi-use sports complex that will host all departments of the Panathinaikos sports club set.
The complex will include the football stadium (seating 39,000), a volleyball, handball and basketball stadium (3.100), swimming pool (500), gymnastic facilities and more.
The football stadium was to be ready for the 100 years of the club in 2008, with the rest of the complex completed by 2011.
By October 2013 and due to the club's and the country's financial troubles, the construction of the Votanikos Arena stopped and consequently the plans for the demolition of the Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium were cancelled.
In 2020, Bakoyannis announced that the project was going to start building and last for 3 years.
The most significant part of the agreement between Panathinaikos & Municipality of Athens was the fact that the team had to offer Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium in exchange of its new Stadium.
After the construction of the arenas, Panathinaikos will be the owner of the whole Votanikos Sport Complex for 100 years. The new football, basketball, volleyball arenas and all the facilities, will be ready at the start of 2026.