Nea Smyrni Stadium, Football stadium in Nea Smyrni, Greece
Nea Smyrni Stadium is a football arena in southern Athens with seating for around 11,000 spectators. The facility features modern press areas and a compact, functional layout designed for sporting events.
In November 1937 Panionios' board, led by Dimitris Karabatis, agreed with the Nea Smyrni community council to move the club from the Panathenaic Stadium to a 18.3-stremma plot south of the Agios Andreas asylum. The ground was auctioned on 26 February 1938, foundations were laid that June, and the changing rooms and perimeter wall followed in 1939. First football matches were played in late summer 1940, with proceeds going to repair the torpedoed warship Elli; official inauguration came on 15 September 1940, alongside the club's 50th anniversary.
The stadium is named after Nea Smyrni, the Athens suburb settled by Greek refugees from Smyrna (modern İzmir) after 1922, where Panionios, the club of Smyrna, was relocated. It hosts Panionios home matches and has also been used by Greece's under-21 and under-23 teams and for Greek Cup finals.
The ground sits on Ioannou Chrysostomou Street in Nea Smyrni, about four kilometres south of central Athens. Gates 8 and 9 in the south curve have lacked licensing since 2007, which is why the usable seated capacity is 11,115 rather than the full 11,700. The two-tier south stand has been out of use since the 1999 earthquakes damaged its upper tier.
The stadium's record attendance, 20,950, was set on 27 January 1974 for a league match Panionios won 1-0 against Panathinaikos. Metallica played their first-ever concert in Greece here on 27 June 1993, one of the few concerts the densely built location has allowed.
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