Arena Stožice

Arena Stožice
Arena Stožice
	; Arena Stožice
Location	Ljubljana, Slovenia
Broke ground	2009
Built	2010
Opened	August 10, 2010
Owner	City Municipality of Ljubljana
Architect	Sadar Vuga architects d.o.o.
General Contractor	Grep d.o.o.
Tenants	KK Union Olimpija; RK Krim; ACH Volley Ljubljana
Capacity	12,480 (basketball, handball) ; 14,480 (music events) ; 10,500 (hockey)

Arena Stožice is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Ljubljana, Slovenia. It was designed by Slovenian Sadar Vuga d.o.o. architects and is the biggest indoor arena in the country. It lies in the Bežigrad district, north of the city centre. The arena is part of the Stožice Sports Park sports complex.

The arena is the home ground of basketball club KK Olimpija, handball club RK Krim and for international matches of volleyball club ACH Volley from Bled.

History[]

The stadium was named after the area in which it is located, and the change of the name is possible in the future due to sponsorship rights. Together with a football stadium it is part of the Športni park Stožice. The arena building area measures 14,164 square meters. It was constructed in just 14 months and opened on 10th of August 2010 with a basketball match between Slovenia and Spain, which was won by Spain 79-72 after overtime.^[1]

The arena has a capacity of 12,480 seats and is located in the north-western part of the park. The four levels of concourses and the lower, VIP and upper stands are covered by a shell-shaped dome. The arena is used for indoor sports such as basketball, handball and volleyball and is the home venue of KK Olimpija, RK Krim and ACH Volley Bled among others. The arena is scheduled to be one of the main venues of Slovenian national teams in most indoor sports except ice hockey for which the arena is not suitable and could only host if ice cooling machines would be implemented. Alongside the stadium the arena is also designed to host many cultural events.