Grbavica Stadium

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Grbavica Stadium is located in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The football stadium with terraces close to the pitch is the home for FK Željezničar. It can hold 17,000 spectators, but only 12,700 places are seated. It is also known as "Valley of cups".

[edit] Construction

It was built in 1953 by SD Željezničar. Although there were several stadiums in Sarajevo, it is decided that Željezničar should have its own. A lot of friends, club members, and even army helped in its construction. It featured the new pitch with the drainage and concrete stands were built. South and east side were made out of concrete, while the wooden stands were placed on the west side. At first, it was a multi-use stadium. Competitions in cycling and athletics were organized, as well as football matches. Now it is used for football only. It was officially opened on September 13, 1953 with the second division game between Željezničar and Šibenik. Željezničar won 4-1.

In 1968. reconstruction began and in April 25, 1976. it was opened again. 50,000 cubic meters of materials were used, and the floodlights were installed. Two training pitches and "little sports stadium" were added, and new dressing rooms, showers and other important facilities reconstructed.

[edit] Recent decades

In the late 1980s, modern northern stands were built. It was planned for whole stadium to be reconstructed again to look like the newly built north side. Unfortunatelly, war began and instead of reconstruction, destruction came. The stadium was placed between the first lines, and Bosnian Serbs' forces burned the wooden terraces. It was not until 1996. the football match would be played here again. Symbollically, first match after the war was the local derby.

It was partly reconstructed in following years, last time in 2004. Final design of the stadium is unveiled, projects are ready and everything is waiting for financial support. It is planned to have the roof on every side (no empty space between stands), with the capacity of 24,000 seated places. Also, other facilities should be built, as well as the training grounds by the stadium.

[edit] Location

The stadium is located in Grbavica neighbourhood, under the Šanac hill on which the railway tracks were. So when the train was passing over the stadium, it would sound his whistle to salute the crowd. Nowadays, old railway is replaced, and the new one is placed in another part of the city. But, trolleybus is passing by the stadium and you can come here with almost every line number there is in Sarajevo. Tram is also very close and most of the lines can brought you to Socijalno station, which is some 300 meters from the stadium.