Euro 2012

“The delays in construction have been made up, and the reconstruction of the stadium in Kiev, together with adapting it to the requirements of EURO 2012, sticks to the schedule that was agreed on with UEFA.“, said the Minister of Sport in Ukraine, Rawil Safiullin, after he visited the stadium.

Safiullin during his visit to the Olympic Stadium was accompanied by Wasilij Mozar, the chief of “Kijewgorstroj” company, which is the general contractor for the reconstruction.

Mozar ensured that there are no more arrears towards the subcontractors and the construction workers. “Last week we received funds, we paid for the work that was done during last months, we bought all necessary supplies, and the work is being done according to the schedule. There are no problems.”, said Mozar during his meeting with the Minister of Sport.

(read more…)

Two years before the first match of Euro 2012, no one talks about removing Poland the right to host this great football event.

Polish organizers are happy. During the Monday’s news conference they proudly quoted the words of the head of UEFA, Michel Platini said at the beginning of June: – Preparations in Poland run properly and there are no great risks.

- This is a great satisfaction for us – said Adam Olkowicz, head of the Euro2010 company established by UEFA, which is responsible for preparation and managing the sport part of the championships. However, he added that much is still to be done and our rival is now the running time.
- The process of preparations went from the conceptual and planning stage conducted in 2007-2008 and stage of the implementation of projects in 2008 to the most important one – the executive stage – said Marcin Herra, president of the state company PL. coordinating preparations for the Euro2010 in Poland. Preparations go full steam ahead. – Everyday, several thousand of people work on the construction of stadiums. There are no risk. Also, Wroclaw, which change the contractor is already on an even keen – ensured Herra. (read more…)

We will not have problems with hotels for Euro 2012. We already meet UEFA requirements – according to a report prepared by the international consultancy company in the property market, Cushman & Wakefield.

According to the company calculations in Polish cities in which the European Championships in football in 2012 will be held, there are currently about 38 870 accommodations at hotels (about 20 170 rooms). More than half of them falls to Warsaw, where an opening match and quarterfinal and semifinal matches will be played.

- Tourists who will use the Polish base of hotels during Euro, can be divided into three groups: the so-called UEFA family, football teams and fans. Taking into consideration the current state of the hotel base in Poland and investment projects which will executed before the start of the Championships, it can be assumed that Poland will meet the criteria of UEFA concerning accommodation base for organizers, activists and VIPs, this is the so-called family – says Dorota Malinowska, hotel property consultant from Cushman & Wakefield.

(read more…)

CNN’s new series i-List takes you to a different country each month. In June, we visit Poland focusing on changes shaping the country’s economy, culture and its social fabric.

Warsaw, Poland (CNN) — Football fever is already gripping Poland ahead of co-hosting the European Championships in 2012.

Despite the national team’s absence from the World Cup in South Africa, the country’s sports fields are packed with children and amateur footballers getting into the mood.

When Poland and Ukraine host Euro 2012, they will be the first Eastern European countries to do so.

Four cities in Poland will host matches: Warsaw, Gdansk, Wroclaw and Poznan. Warsaw has the largest stadium with a 55,000 capacity.
(read more…)

Polish Energetic Group paid 35 million PLN for the takeover of the name of the stadium which is being built for Euro in Gdansk. Lotos competed with PEG until the very end. Polish companies are slowly discovering naming rights – the sale of rights to name real estate, which is norm in Western countries.

In hockey NHL league as much as 90 % of clubs have facilities with sponsored names. In basketball NBA league it is 79 %. The club of American football league, Houston Texans gets $10 billion annually from Reliant Energy, one of the biggest US electric energy producers, for playing on Reliant Stadium. The contract is binding until 2032.

Also Germans make quite a lot of money on naming rights. In Bundesliga almost every club plays on the stadium, to which the wealthy sponsor lends his name and logo. Bayern Munich, thanks to playing on Allianz Arena instead of Olympic stadium, as it had done before, enriches its account by €6 million every year. Arsenal London gets £3 million from Emirates Stadium. Even Czech deal in names. Sparta Prague, after signing the contract with Toyota, earns 70 million CZK (10 million PLN). And it plays on Toyota Arena.

We start chasing

Although we are nowhere near to world sports leaders, the example of Gdansk shows that Polish moved into the race.

- In our opinion, Polish market of rights’ sale and facilities’ commercialization in view of Euro 2012 will be worth even 300 million PLN – tells “Subway” Wojciech Majeran, the managing director of Ciszewski Sports Marketing agency. It is this firm that is behind the sale of rights to the name of the hall in Łódź, which was built this year, to Atlas company. In this hall there were played e.g. this year’s Eurobasket matches and Europe championship in women’s volleyball. The contract, signed in September for five years, guarantees that Łódź will get one million PLN annually from Atlas.

- It was the first classic example of naming rights in Poland. It has never happened before that a professional consulting office was engaged in the case – says Maciej Wernicki, the worker of the firm.

The first case of including the name of the sponsor in the name of the facility was recorded only a year ago. In July 2008 a cycling velodrome built in Pruszków for this year’s world championship was named BGŻ Arena. But BGŻ Arena like football’s Dialog Arena from Lubin or volleyball’s Winiary Arena from Kalisz are not the classic examples of naming rights since BGŻ Is a sponsor of Polish Cycling Association, Dialog is the owner of Zagłębie and Winiary has supported volleyball players from Kalisz for a long time.

Wojciech Majeran: – There will be more and more contracts. We ourselves work on two other transactions which will be finalized next year.

Optimism of the experts is not weakened buy the fact that great companies that would like to buy names of stadiums on Euro 2012, will not be able to display their logotypes since the championship of this rank have their regular sponsors, chosen by football centres. Therefore during the World Cup in 2006 in Germany, Allianz Arena was officially called FIFA World Cup Stadium in Munich, and AOL Arena from Hamburg – FIFA World Cup Stadium in Hamburg. However, those names were only used by the organisers of the championships. For fans and media, Allianz Arena remained Allianz Arena, an ultramodern facility inseparably linked with a titular sponsor.

A half million on the stop.

- Modern stadiums become the sanctuaries of brands, and strenuously built positive atmosphere of shows will ensure every great company such an interaction with fans as no advertising campaign in TV or the Internet would give – convinces Majeran. – Name or logotype not always need to glare straight into the eyes. Sometimes it is enough to count on the colour which fans associate unambiguously. This is the most important thing – adds Wernicki.

This rule applies not only to stadiums but also railway or underground stations. – Euro 2012 is a great chance to display the skills, even for these cities in which the championships will not be played, such as Cracow, Katowice, Toruń or Lublin – assesses Majeran.

Wernicki, especially for us estimates the value of a model underground station Politechnika. – Calculating the cost of obtaining rights, 17 various aspects of evaluation are taken into account. One of the most important ones are the location of stop and attractiveness of its closest surrounding. It is obvious that the station located in the centre of the city and neighbouring on monuments and amusement parks will be the most attractive one. By my calculation, the price for the naming of a stop may reach even a half million PLN per year – claims Wernicki.

Preparations for the construction of the stadium’s roof are underway: the first of 72 huge elements has arrived from Italy.

On Thursday the first of 72 elements of the inner ring truss arrived from Italy, one of the main elements of the roof. The element is over 12.5 meters long and weighs 48 tons.

First attempts at laying out the concrete for the floor construction on level +1 have begun, over the main entrance to the stadium. Work on the foundations under the columns of the steel roof is being done under a heated tent.

48 out of 72 steel support pillars for the roof’s construction have also arrived. Each element weighs 3.5 tons. The steel construction’s assembly will begin in March.

(read more…)

Preparations for the Euro 2012 football tournament in Poland and Ukraine are well on track, the ruling body UEFA said on Friday with nine days left until the qualifying group draw.

The February 7 draw in Warsaw is the first big event around the tournament which created various problems in the early stages after the two Eastern European nations were elected hosts in 2007.

‘Preparations for Euro 2012 are going well,’ UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino told the body’s website after an executive board meeting on Thursday in Malta.

(read more…)

The Ukrainian war between the president, prime minister and parliament and Euro 2012 in the background is gaining in strength.

Viktor Yushchenko has once again refused to sign the law on the preparations for the tournament, and thus he blocked the payment of the money. Local authorities throw down their arms and state that without government support there will not be a cup-final in Kiev.

The Government of Ukraine, which bears the results of the economic crisis is seeking money wherever to save the Euro 2012. There are not so many opportunities. One of the most serious opportunity was to be a national bank, or rather its financial reserves. Of these, the Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko wanted to “snatch” almost 10 billion hryvnia in order that the biggest sport event in this country not resulted in a failure but without success.

(read more…)

UEFA is delighted with the progress of Ukraine in preparations to organize the European football championships in 2012 in recent months – assessed on Wednesday in Kiev, Martin Kallen, UEFA chief executive for Euro 2012.

- Now, the situation looks good, works are being made, so we are pleased with the progress made by Ukraine – said Kallen at the press conference.

When asked by journalists how he assess the level of preparations in Poland and Ukraine Kallen said that “it is equal.”
He also pointed out that the Ukrainians still have a lot to catch up but if they deal with it, the division of host cities for Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine according to the 4×4 formula will be maintained. (read more…)

UEFA president Michel Platini has announced that he is pleased with Poland’s progress towards hosting the for coming UEFA EURO 2012™.

Platini believes that the UEFA EURO 2012™ organizing committee is operating successfully and the whole process of preparing the tournament is under control – such conclusions were reached by UEFA officials who have been following the situation in Poland to date.

“Preparations for UEFA EURO 2012™ in Poland are being realized according to schedule, but the situation in Ukraine is quite complex,” stated Platini after meeting the President of the EU Parliament, Jerzy Buzek.

In contrast, the decision on which cities in Ukraine can hold UEFA EURO 2012™ matches is yet to be made in December. Currently, observers are working on a complete report of Ukraine’s preparations.

Last May, UEFA stated that only Kiev meets all the football association’s required conditions and expectations. Three other cities – Donetsk, Lviv and Kharkiv – have been given a chance to convince UEFA they will be able to organize championship matches until December 2009.

Finally, Michel Platini was also asked about the UEFA EURO 2012™ final, scheduled to be played in Kyiv, and the UEFA head confirmed that the city still needs to improve the hotel and transportation situation.