Euro 2012 Venues

Poland and Ukraine will be new ground for many fans when Euro 2012 begins. With four venues in each country, 15 games to be hosted in Poland and 16, including the final, to be held in Ukraine. Of the eight stadiums six will be brand new stadia, with the remaining two undergoing major renovation. The lowest capacity stadium will be in Lviv, Ukraine (the stadium is yet to be named) and will hold 33,500 fans, according to plans. The Polish stadiums will be much closer to each other than their Ukrainian counterparts, but this is expected considering the contrasting sizes of the countries. The stadiums are in the cities Gdansk, Poznan, Wroclaw and Warsaw in Poland and Lviv, Kiev, Kharkiv and Donetsk in the Ukraine. Of these eight cities, only Donetsk and Kharkiv are not considered popular tourist destinations. Travelling fans will be happy to know rail systems around all host cities are set to be improved too.

The original plans show Groups A and C will play their games in Poland, whilst groups B and D will be in the Ukraine, with the cities coupled together due to proximity for each group. As such, Warsaw and Wroclaw will host all six Group A games, Lviv and Kiev for Group B, Gdansk and Poznan Group C and Kharkiv and Donetsk Group D. This may change if problems persist for two of the stadiums in construction, where in the worst case scenario the venues will go down from eight to six, although that is not likely to be necessary.

The two cities best known to those who have never visited either country would be Warsaw and Kiev, and fans will be happy if they spend the majority of their time in either of those places, with the later games held in these cities.

Warsaw is the largest city and capital of Poland, and the 9th largest city in the European Union in terms of population. Warsaw is also known as the “phoenix city”, as it recovered from extensive damage during World War II (during which 80% of its buildings were destroyed), being rebuilt with the effort of Polish citizens. The city itself will host three group matches, including the opening match, a quarter-final and semi-final. The “National Stadium” has a capacity of 53,224. Average sunlight hours is at a high in Poland in June at 8.1 hours per day, whilst July in considered the warmest month.

Kiev (or Kyiv) will host the final in its newly built stadium “Olympic Stadium” (also known as the Olimpiysky National Sports Complex) with a capacity of 69,004, the largest of the tournament. It has an extensive transport system, St. Michael’s Golden Domed Cathedral and characterised as a green city with botanical gardens and various large and small parks.  Average sunlight hours are at a high in Ukraine in July at 9.3 hours per day, and the same month is considered the hottest.

Each stadiums capacity:

Poland:

  • Warsaw – 53,224
  • Wroclaw – 40,610
  • Poznan – 42,004
  • Gdansk – 40,818

Ukraine

  • Kiev – 69,004
  • Lviv – 33,788
  • Kharkiv – 38,633
  • Donetsk – 51,504