The “Georgios Karaiskakis” stadium was originally built as a velodrome in 1895 to be used during the 1896 Olympic Games. It was donated to the Olympic Games Committee by the then property owner Railway Company.
It was in the 1920s when the velodrome was also first used as a football pitch; 40 years later, in 1960, it was fully renovated and retrofitted to be used as a stadium (including a pitch and track and field). Since then, it was renamed into “Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium” to honor a major Greek hero, Georgios Karaiskakis, who was killed close to the stadium during the 1821 Greek Revolution.
It was in the “G. Karaiskakis” Stadium when the 1969 European Athletics Championship was held, as well as Greek Cup finals and the 1971 European Cup Winners’ Cup Final. The stadium also hosted matches played by Proodeftiki and Ethnikos football clubs; it is however the very history of the Legend as written to date and in the future on the pitch of the “G. Karaiskakis” stadium that stands hardwired with the venue.
On May 25th, 1997, Olympiacos performs for the last time in the old stadium, officially registered as the club’s home ground. Our side beat Kavala 6-0 in match that turned into a celebration for the forthcoming domestic title, which was the first one after many years of hardships for the club. It was a moment of historic proportions for the legendary Karaiskakis Stadium before in entered its new era.
May 30th, 2003, a day of strong feelings and awe; the old Karaiskakis Stadium is being demolished. Actually, only a part of it, the historic Gate 7, remained standing and that was the day that gate was also taken down before the eyes of Olympiacos fans attending the process, moved and respectful.
Construction works for the new “Karaiskakis” stadium are completed and it is in summer 2004 that the gates are open and a new era for Olympiacos is launched. The first match to played in the brand new Karaiskakis was that against Kallithea (a 2-1 win) on September 19th, 2004.
The new “Georgios Karaiskakis EOE” was built at the place of the historic stadium that, for decades, used to be the OLYMPIACOS home ground. The Karaiskakis was constructed within a record-breaking time span of 14 months or 428 days, to be more precise. It is a state-of-the-art football-only and fully covered venue with a capacity of 32,115 spectators.
Its construction design catered both for the building and sport facilities, as well as development of all surrounding areas. It stretched along the available plot with the pitch orientation following the South-North main axis, as it was during its time as a velodrome.
The venue’s geometry and functionality exceeds international standards and guarantees the best conditions to host and attend a football match.
