By Jaroslaw Adamowski
November 20 – Poland’s Ruch Chorzow has selected the design of its new stadium. The club said that it expects to obtain planning permission in June 2014, with construction work at the 12,000-seat facility starting two months later.
The club plays in Ekstraklasa, the top tier of Poland’s professional football league. Its current stadium has a capacity of about 10,000 spectators.
“One of the advantages of the selected design is the possibility of expanding its capacity to 16,000 seats in an easy and not overtly costly manner,” the club said in a statement.
The winning bid was submitted by local architecture firm GMT Mysłowice. The cost of the stadium is likely to hit 96 million zloty (€23 million), according to Ruch Chorzow.
The latest move follows the release of the club’s improved financial results for the third quarter of 2013. From July to September 2013, Ruch Chorzow posted revenues of 5.15 million zloty (€1.24 million), up 19.2% from 4.32 million zloty (€1.04 million) in the same period a year earlier. The club reported a net loss of about 480,000 zloty (€115,000), an improvement from a loss of over 920,000 zloty (€221,000) in the third quarter of 2012.
Dariusz Smagorowicz, local businessman and chief executive of Ruch Chorzow, is the Polish club’s largest shareholder, with a 59.6% stake. Other major shareholders include the municipal authorities of Chorzow, with a 11.53% stake in the club.
Local media have reported that the construction of the new stadium is most likely to be financed by the city of Chorzow.
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