Panathinaikos home now TELEKOM CENTER

Image: OAKA Basketball Arena, Skywalkerr42, CC0

The Olympic Athletic Center of Athens (OAKA) (Greece) iconic basketball arena has been renamed the TELEKOM CENTER Athens under a five-year naming rights deal. The partnership, running through 2030, aims to transform the venue into a modern hub for sports, entertainment and digital experiences.

‘BASKETNEWS’ stated that the Athens Olympic Sports Complex (OAKA) is stepping into a new chapter. Its iconic basketball arena and the surrounding facilities will now be officially known as the TELEKOM CENTER Athens after a five-year naming rights partnership between the COSMOTE TELEKOM and the Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens (the professional basketball team).

The 18,300-capacity TELEKOM CENTER Athens, previously known as the OAKA Basketball Arena or the Olympic Indoor Hall of O.A.K.A., is a part of the Spyros Louis Olympic Athletic Center of Athens (Greece). It was completed in 1994 and is the largest indoor venue in Greece. It was used for sporting events at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Marousi (Greece)-based COSMOTE TELEKOM is the unified commercial brands for all fixed, mobile, Internet, pay TV products and services as well as the information and communications technology (ICT) solutions. Our integrated communications world offers even more advanced, reliable and competitive services, new digital platforms and artificial intelligence (AI) tools as well as new devices.

The Panathinaikos B.C., also simplified to Panathinaikos or PAO and officially referred to as the Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens for sponsorship reasons, is the professional basketball team of the major Athens-based multisport club Panathinaikos A.O. It is owned by the Giannakopoulos family.

The agreement, signed through 2030, marks one of the most significant commercial deals in Greek sports.

‘BASKETNEWS’ further stated that the rebranding extends beyond the arena itself. The TELEKOM CENTER Athens will encompass the fully renovated basketball hall, the adjoining training facilities, the auxiliary buildings, and the surrounding areas – including the P5 parking zone (with a capacity for 1,100 vehicles) which has already become a hub for the cultural events.

The vision, according to the stakeholders, is for OAKA to evolve into a multipurpose entertainment hub open the year round to the parents, the families, the students, and the visitors of all ages. The venue will host major sporting events, concerts, festivals, conferences, cultural shows, as well as leisure and dining experiences cementing its role as one of Greece’s premier destinations for sports and entertainment.

The initiative also ties into the wider vision of Panathinaikos and White Veil, a facility services company overseeing OAKA’s redevelopment to transform the complex into a modern hub for sports, entertainment and digital innovation.

The rebranded arena now joins the ranks of the world-class venues under the Telekom brand alongside the 20,000-capacity T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (US), the 18,000-capacity T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri (US) and the 6,000-capacity Telekom Dome in Bonn.

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