Deflating hopes

Little progress has been made in the capital but, as politicians bicker, Poland's alternate sites say they'll be ready to host the tournament's opening ceremony if Warsaw doesn't deliver

Six months ago Poland was buzzing with excitement and hope after news broke from Cardiff that named it co-host of the Euro 2012 soccer championships with Ukraine. But progress on preparations for the games - especially in the capital where the opening ceremony will be held - has been sluggish. Now, as control of the government changes hands, new problems are arising and many are left to wonder if Poland is attempting the impossible. 

National conflict

Minister of Sport Elżbieta Jakubiak hit out at Warsaw's Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz last week for suggesting that the existing plans to construct a National Stadium next to Warsaw's 10th Anniversary Stadium be abandoned and a new, cheaper location be sought. Gronkiewicz-Waltz said, "I am tempted to move the National Stadium outside Warsaw's borders. I am also looking at other plots around Warsaw. The plot where the 10th Anniversary Stadium stands is very expensive. Maybe it is worth using it for another purpose."

If the currently proposed site were sold to the right investor, no money would need to be drawn from the national budget to fund the new land and stadium. "Two years ago I created a business simulation for the sale of the stadium plot," explained Wiesław Wilczyński, director of the Sport Office at City Hall. "For that money we could both buy a plot elsewhere and build the stadium," he said.

Minister Jakubiak warned, however, that so much time had already been invested into the 10th Anniversary site that to alter the location would risk jeopardizing the entire project. She said, "Hundreds of hours of work with architects and geological engineers will be lost if we change the location. The project should be done on a specific plot [and not moved around]." But the former head of the Sejm's Sport Commission, Civic Platform's (PO) Mirosław Drzewiecki, explained that the plans to construct the new stadium next to the old were not yet official.

PO deputy Cezary Tomczyk - a former assistant to Cezary Grabarczyk, the man tipped to become Poland's Infrastructure Minister - said, "We have ordered a report on National Stadium options. It will be ready soon. The most probable locations for the National Stadium are [the horse-racing track] in [the district of] Służewiec or the 10th Anniversary Stadium site. The review of the 10th Anniversary Stadium is largely related to the price of the plot and whether that money could be used in another way. We do not want to damage the whole project - if we spoil it we'd be shooting ourselves in the foot, if not in the head."

The Służewiec race track, the districts of Białołęka and Wawer, and the suburb of Łomianki are all alternative locations which have been proposed.

In the end, Gronkiewicz-Waltz backed down from her statements, but the future location of the new stadium is still far from certain. The final decision on the location of the stadium will be made once the new government has been installed.

Feeding the beast

Amidst the wrangling over the National Stadium site, funding of the project itself often comes as an after-thought. According to the Ministry of Finance, the National Stadium will be wholly financed from the national budget.

The plot next to the 10th Anniversary Stadium is owned by the state through the Central Sport Centre. A newly created company called the National Sport Center (Narodowe Centrum Sportu) will be responsible for the construction of the National Stadium. The firm will be given some zł.60 million in 2008 to get plans and designs underway. The total investment in the stadium is estimated at zł.1 billion, which will be handed down at key stages in the project.

But the National Stadium is just a small part of a major construction and investment challenge faced by the country. The European Union will front R25 (zł.90.8) billion for the construction of infrastructure related to the Euro 2012 competition. Some 68 of the EU's list of 350 most important projects for the 2007-2013 budget are for Euro 2012 specifically. Among these projects are the R2 (zł.7.3) billion S8 Wrocław-Warsaw road, the R1.4 (zł.5.1) billion upgrade of the Poznań-Warsaw railway infrastructure and the R71.3 (zł.259) million for enlargement of the airport in Wrocław.

Legal aids and impediments

Poland's most significant step forward over the past six months is arguably the creation of the Euro 2012 Law. The law allows for the creation of seven new companies. Five are project management companies to build or renovate the necessary stadiums, one is the already-created special-purpose vehicle (SPV) that will manage the renovation and construction of new and exisiting stadiums in each host city. The remaining two are another SPV for the construction of National Sports Center and a holding to oversee expenditures.

KPP explained that this would cut the tender period, since tenders will not be governed by public law and will have an appeal period of just 14 days. The companies will not have to go to court to get permission for the compulsory purchase of land for the projects - although some have warned that this may not be legal. A representative of the Polish Confederation of Private Employers (PKPP) Lewiatan, who wished to remain anonymous, raised concerns that the law violates EU legislation and could result in the loss of EU funding.

Moreover, the PKPP Lewiatan representative noted, "Compulsory purchase of property without a court order could be unconstitutional, because property law falls under constitutional law."

Infrastructure issues

APA Kuryłowicz & Associates' Stefan Kuryłowicz, the brains behind the original National Stadium plan, which would have demolished the 10th Anniversary Stadium and erected the new stadium from its ashes, questioned the wisdom of worrying about stadiums before infrastructure. "Recently, I flew on a small plane from Casablanca and observed the tourist cities on the Spanish coast from above. It was very clear that the road network and other infrastructure was built first, and only then were the buildings constructed. The same is true in Beijing [for the 2008 Olympics]." He explained that creating the infrastructure first would greatly simplify the logistics of constructing the stadiums and reduce the risk of delays to the project.

He also added, "I do not know the competencies of any of the members on the committee for Euro 2012, but I know most of the people in Poland who professionally manage large construction investments, including sports projects. And these people are not members of the committee."

KPP has estimated that Poland will complete some 60 percent of the necessary infrastructure before the games kick off. Slated for development are some 1,676 km of freeways, 2,267 km of expressways and the modernization of 1,566 km of railways.

On the bench

With Warsaw keeping observers on the edges of their seats, talk of alternative sites and backups frequently creeps into the debate. Both Kraków and Chorzów have stadiums competing to host the opening ceremony in the event Warsaw is unable to do so.

According to Marek Szczerbowski, director of Chorzów's Silesia Stadium, "To complete the project we simply need to increase the seating, put a roof over the seats, build a new ring road and install a speaker system." He was confident about Warsaw's progress but determined to be ready, just in case. "We believe Warsaw will manage to complete the project, but if necessary we will be ready to organize the opening game. The Silesia Stadium represents the history of Polish sports. We will carry on the modernization of the stadium regardless of Warsaw's progress. The opening game is just one event. We have many others taking place here," he told WBJ.

However, PO's Tomczyk said, "The final decision belongs to UEFA. It is not the Prime Minister who decides where the opening game is held. UEFA will check how the process is going and will decide. But they should take our opinions into consideration because it is Poland who will have to build the infrastructure and the stadiums."