Basketball in Greece - Arenas

Arenas

The first professional indoor basketball arena in the country was opened in 1959 in Athens. Located at the Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium, it holds 1,500 spectators and is still home to the ladies' basketball department of Panathinaikos. Because of its confined environment, the sports hall was named The Tomb of The Indian, after the Fritz Lang feature film The Indian Tomb. In the subsequent years, a number of other arenas have arisen in Greece, located mainly in Athens and Thessaloniki. In 1966, in Thessaloniki, the Alexandrio Melathron was opened. This 5,500 seat arena was for decades home to the two arch-rivals Aris and PAOK.

The Peace and Friendship Stadium (SEF), a 17,000 capacity multi-purpose hall opened in Piraeus, Athens in 1985. The arena was for the next ten years, the biggest indoor sports hall in Greece and it hosted events such as the EuroBasket 1987, the 1994 World Volleyball Championship, the 1995 European Volleyball Championship, the 1998 FIBA World Championship, and the 1999 Olympic Weightlifting World Championship. SEF is the home of the Olympiacos Piraeus basketball club.

By the early 1990s, the sport of basketball had become well established in Greece and the Greek A1 League had become the strongest professional league in Europe, as well as the richest. A rising number of television viewers in Greece watching the A1 League, a high level of Greek media interest in the sport, and the application of the country to host major sports events had left many of the nation's existing gyms too old and too small. In Athens, the OAKA Indoor Hall was opened in 1995. It holds about 20,000 spectators and it is still the biggest indoor sports hall in Europe where regular basketball games are held. The Athens Olympic Indoor Hall has already hosted the 1995 FIBA Under-19 World Championship, the EuroBasket 1995, the 1998 FIBA World Championship, and the 2004 Summer Olympics. Currently, Panathinaikos Athens and Maroussi Athens play home matches in the Olympic Hall. AEK Athens has played home matches there.

Also in 1995, the 5,500 capacity arenas Larrisa Neapolis and Dimitris Tofalos were built. In 2000, the first modern indoor sports arena in Thessaloniki was built, PAOK Sports Arena. The arena is under the possession of PAOK and it holds around 8,700 spectators. For the 2004 Olympic Games, the Helliniko Indoor Arena was built. It holds 15,000 spectators and has been used as the home arena of the clubs Panionios, Panellinios, and AEK Athens.

Plans have been approved to build several new modern indoor arenas in Greece. This is due to several factors, one of them being ULEB's new arena rules which state that by the 2012-13 season, Euroleague contract clubs must play in arenas that seat at least 10,000 and all Eurocup clubs must play in arenas that seat at least 5,000. Another big reason is that Greece is in line to host the 2013 Mediterranean Games. Some of these planned new indoor halls will include: a 10,000+ seat arena owned by Panathinaikos, a 10,000+ seat arena owned by Aris, and a 5,000+ seat arena owned by Iraklis.