By Jaroslaw Adamowski
February 23 – Polish city Katowice is preparing to dip into public funds to build a new stadium for its struggling football club GKS Katowice and support its bid to return to the top division of the Polish league. The investment is estimated to be worth about PLN 100 million (€24 million).
The new facility will have a capacity of 12,000 spectators, but with the capability to expand by a further 6,000 seats. The project was unveiled by Katowice’s municipal authorities at a recent meeting with representatives of the club’s supporters’ association
This is only the latest initiative by the city to increase its support of the operations of GKS Katowice. Last year, the municipal authorities bought shares worth PLN 1.1 million (€260,000) in the club, making a total of PLN 2 million (€480,000) invested to date.
The funds were made available to enable the club to secure the required license to compete in this I Liga season, the second tier of Poland’s professional football league. The money also enabled the club to pay off tax debt owed to social security institution ZUS as well as wages owed to former players. As a result of the financial difficulty, the league imposed a limit on players’ salaries.
GKS is currently ranked sixth out of eighteen clubs playing in the I Liga, four spots below the promotion positions.
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