New, Modern Stadium to be Built in Oradea, Romania

Romanian football is a mere shadow of what it used to be. The country that gave the world prestigious players like Helmuth Duckadam, the "Hero of Seville" who saved all four penalties shot by Barcelona at the 1986 European Cup Final, is now trailing in pretty much every aspect and hasn't qualified for any editions of the World Cup since 2000.

This doesn't mean that Romanians have fallen out of love with football - on the contrary, it remains a kind of a national sport. The local fans are actively following national competitions on all levels, even those living in areas with teams that 'avoided' success for decades. Oradea is one of them - the city on the Western outskirts of the country - has a football club that hasn't come near the top-tier league of the country since the 1960s. The team was dissolved in 2016 and refounded in 2017 under the ownership of the municipality, APTOR (the city-run tourism promotion agency) and an NGO called "Oradea Renastem Impreuna), and since then it has shown a lot of progress: it successfully climbed out of Liga V, promoting to Liga IV in 2018, then to Liga III in 2020, fighting its way to the top four of the tournament this year. If the team continues to evolve at this speed, we may see their matches covered by reputable football sites around the world, from the BBC to https://keo168.com pretty soon.

And their success seems to get its reward: the club will receive a brand new ground built to replace the old and crumbling Stadionul Iuliu Bodola they currently play at.

A European-class sports complex

The new football stadium will be built on a piece of land between Oradea University and the city's sports high school. It will have 16.291 seats, it will be entirely dedicated to football, and it will serve as a nucleus of a complete sports and recreation complex built around it that will include a teaching swimming pool, several futsal and five-a-side football grounds, along with a hotel, a spa, catering units and underground parking spaces.

The new stadium will be built right next to the city's new multi-purpose sports hall and close to Baza Sportiva Tineretului (next to the University) that will also be rebuilt to include athletic facilities and brought up to international standards.

Funding

The entire cost of the construction - around 45 million euros according to estimates - will be supported by the Romanian government and the Oradea City Hall.