Poland picks designer for Euro 2012 stadium

Poland has chosen a German-Polish consortium to design its new national stadium, which will host the opening match of the 2012 European Championship.

Sports Minister Miroslaw Drzewiecki said Thursday that JSK Architects will design the new arena in Warsaw because of its experience in "more than 20 stadium projects" worldwide.

The stadium is to seat 55,000, and is scheduled to open in 2011.

Poland is co-hosting Euro 2012 with neighboring Ukraine and both countries face the challenge of building stadiums and upgrading dilapidated infrastructure.

Drzewiecki said he expected the stadium design to be ready in six months, and the ministry estimates the cost of the entire project to be 1 billion zlotys (US$408 million; €273 million).

A contractor still has to be selected to build the stadium, which will be located on the eastern bank of the Vistula River in the Polish capital.

The Euro 2012 final will be held at Kiev's redeveloped Olympic Stadium.

source: iht.com

Poland convicts may build sports stadiums

A Polish government minister has come up with a plan to employ convicts to build stadiums for the European soccer championships in 2012.

Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Cwiakalski said employing convicts would temporarily solve the issue of Polish overcrowded prisons and would provide cheap labor force needed to build six stadiums for the Euro 2012 soccer championships, Polish Radio reported Wednesday.

There are some 58,000 convicted people waiting for a free place in jails to begin serving their time, the radio said.

The idea seems attractive as Poland is also suffering of a shortage of construction workers, who in thousands have left in search for better-paying jobs in Western Europe since the country joined the European Union in 2004.

Cwiakalski ruled out sending murderers or pedophilia-related convicts to building sites, adding he had in mind only those convicted for minor crimes.

Source: upi.com

Soccer-Poland needs more time to build Euro 2012 stadiums

Poland wants to set a new deadline for the construction of their Euro 2012 stadiums, Sports Minister Elzbieta Jakubiak said on Monday.

Since Poland won the right in April to co-host the event with Ukraine, early euphoria has been replaced by growing concerns it may not prepare new grounds and upgrade inadequate infrastructure in time.

European soccer's governing body UEFA says the tournament co-hosts must build the necessary stadiums by mid-2010.

"We need additional time and the year 2011 will be the most suitable," Jakubiak told a news conference.

The surprising choice of Poland and Ukraine as co-hosts ahead of Italy was originally touted by the Polish government as an opportunity to put the country on the international soccer map.

But a growing number of critics say Poland might have taken on a near-impossible task.

"Beside the announcement, nothing has been done so far," said Zbigniew Chlebowski, deputy head of the parliamentary finance committee and a member of the opposition Civic Platform party.

"There are also no ideas where to get the money from to finance the huge projects."

Poland is estimated to need about three billion zlotys ($1.09 billion) to build or restructure four main Euro 2012 stadiums.

WARSAW HEADACHE

The planned national stadium in the capital Warsaw has proved the biggest headache.

The new ground is to be built at a dilapidated communist-era stadium now being used as Europe's largest outdoor market, with Jakubiak saying hundreds of traders will be asked to leave by mid-September.

Polish authorities have not decided whether the old stadium will be razed or if a new facility will be built next to the old one to save time.

The transport ministry also estimates it will need 164 billion zlotys to build 2,400-km (1,500-miles) of motorway to prepare for the tournament.

Only six kilometres of motorway was built last year and none so far this year.

Source: By Piotr Bujnicki, uk.reuters.com