The main football arena of Ukraine, NSC Olimpiyskiy, turned 100 years old
Today, August 12, marks the 100th anniversary of the most important sports facility in Ukraine — the National Sports Complex "Olympiyskiy" in Kyiv.
It was on this day in 1923 that the competitions of the first Olympiad of the Kyiv region were held in the arena. In 1924, a 120x70 m football field was built at the stadium. Running tracks were built around the outer perimeter of the field, and changing rooms and showers were built.
In the early 1950s, a wooden scoreboard appeared for the first time above the stands of the southern gate. In the summer of 1954, the construction of the main facade of the stadium — a colonnade with a service entrance to the inner courtyard of the administrative building — was completed. These columns became the hallmark of the stadium.
In 1956, four 45-meter metal towers with 320 grid spotlights with a total brightness of 500 lux were erected in the arena. Since that time, football matches in Kyiv could be held in the evening.
The second general reconstruction of the stadium was started in 1966. The basis of the project was the construction of the second tier of stands, mounted for the first time in world practice on original reinforced concrete two-console crossbars. The two-tier bowl of the stadium tribunes was designed for 100 seats.
According to this project, a reporter's complex was built above the upper tier of the western tribune, where commentary booths were mounted on high supports, and a ski jump was also built. Two new electronic scoreboards measuring 18x6 meters were also installed.
For the third time, the Central Stadium underwent a major overhaul and reconstruction in 1977 in connection with the decision to involve the capital of Ukraine in the football tournament of the 1980nd Summer Olympic Games in XNUMX.
Before the 1980 Olympic football tournament, the stadium returned its historical name — Republican. On July 20-27, 1980, football matches of the participants of the Olympic Games were held at the stadium - the teams of Algeria, Iraq, Spain, Costa Rica, GDR, Syria and Finland.
In 1996, the stadium was named "National Sports Complex "Olympiysky". During the reconstruction in 1998, due to the installation of individual seats, the capacity of the stadium decreased to 83 thousand.
The last reconstruction of NSC Olimpiyskiy began in August 2008 as part of the preparation and holding of the final part of the 2012 European Championship in Ukraine. The first match at the renovated stadium took place on November 11, 2011. It was a friendly match between the national teams of Ukraine and Germany (3:3). The game was attended by 69 spectators.
The stadium hosted three group D matches of the Euro 2012 group tournament (the first of which was the opening match of the tournament in group D between Ukraine and Sweden), the quarter-finals and the final. On July 1, 2012, the match for the gold took place, in which Spain beat Italy — 4:0.
Photo of UAF press service
On September 15, 2016, at a meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee in Athens, NSC Olimpiyskiy was chosen as the venue for the 2018 Champions League final. The match took place on May 26: Real Madrid beat Liverpool 3:1.
In addition, the stadium hosted matches of qualifying tournaments for the World and European Championships, League of Nations, European Cups (including the final of the 1975 UEFA Super Cup), other international competitions, and national tournaments of all levels.
In particular, the finals of the Cup of Ukraine draw were usually held at the arena — in 18 seasons. It is symbolic that the first match after the resumption of the championship of Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale war last year ("Shakhtar" - "Metalist 1925") was held at NSK...
We hope that the historic stadium will work for the benefit of Ukrainian football for many more years and will host many historical matches and events.
National sports complex "Olympiyskyi"
(a multifunctional sports arena for football matches, athletics competitions, cultural and entertainment and other mass events)
Photo of UAF press service
Capacity - 70 050 spectators.
Places for the press — 1.
Field size - 105х68 м.
Number of sectors - 80.