AEK Athens FC stadium work catches tempo

The Greek professional football club based in a suburb of Athens, Greece – AEK Football Club – is moving ahead with full tempo in setting up a center of sports, culture and memory in the form of its new home – Agia Sophia. In European competitions, AEK Football Club is also known as AEK Athens FC. The venue is supposed to open in May 2021.

Agia Sophia Stadium is a football stadium under construction in Nea Filadelfeia, a northwestern suburb of Athens, Greece. The stadium is being built at the location of Nikos Goumas Stadium, the club’s former home ground. The club currently plays at the Olympics Stadium in Athens.

Speaking in commercial terms, AEK FC has built up the reputation of being a trailblazer in a number of projects. Multinational corporations with lion’s share in market have picked up the club for its sponsorship activations, as part of their strategic promotional mix, therefore establishing AEK’s growing dynamics. Moreover, AEK FC boasts an active ‘social responsibility’ program, which is targeted and oriented to both the social and the football community.

The club’s watershed moment has come – a new stadium will come up in its traditional home ground, at the suburb of Nea Filadelfeia. The project is expected to give a shot in the arm both to the squad’s dynamics as well as the club’s commercial pursuits.

Image: AEK FC

 

Agia Sofia details

AEK’s new residence, the 34,000-seat Agia Sofia, will sport a church, restaurants and bars, retail shops, a museum and club shop, apart from some 40 suites, an executive suite and a VIP lounge, all designed to complement the Greek culture, with an elegant and opulent setting.

The price tag is estimated to be around €65m, with funding being completed in three stages. The first phase of construction will cost €25.9m, the second €20m and the final phase, which is now underway, €14m. The administrative region of Attica is paying €20m, with the balance being funded by Dikefalos 1924, a company that was founded for constructing the venue.

The groundbreaking ceremony of the stadium began on July 28, 2017. The first phase of construction comprised excavations and retaining works, and was completed on December 5, 2017. On February 6, 2018, it was declared that construction company Ermonassa S.A. would be in charge of completing the second phase, which included the remaining earthworks, the concrete and iron skeleton of the stadium, construction of the pillars, and finally the construction and installation of the stands.

The third and final phase began on March 30, 2020, and is expected to take 12 months to complete.

Once the Agia Sofia Stadium is complete, a long-nurtured dream of AEK FC will be realized. AEK FC has become a force to reckon with and has been on a success streak, having won 30 national titles (12 League Titles, 15 Greek Cups, 2 Super Cups and 1 League Cup), while consistently representing Greece in European competitions.
 

AEK FC synopsis

AEK FC was founded in Athens in 1924, two years after the Greco-Turkish War when a group of Greek refugees originating from Constantinople (capital city of the Roman Empire) decided to set up a club that would serve as a reminder of their homelands and the culture of 3,000 years which turned to ashes. The club takes pride in its roots, wears it on their sleeves and demonstrates it everywhere through the double-headed eagle, inspired by the Byzantine Empire emblem.

The 69,618-capacity Olympic Stadium of Athens has been the club’s permanent home since 2004, where the fans get to savor state-of-the-art facilities.

AEK FC headquarters are located near the Olympic Stadium in a new luxury building, where the administrative activities of the club are carried out. The AEK FC Training Center is located in Spata, Attica (Greece), since 2010. It is the home of the First Team and the Academies, and has earned the tag of being one of the best in Greece.

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