The knockout stages

Now, the top three teams have been invited by the city authorities to negotiate the price and exact details of the project.

The proposed stadium will be built on ul. Łazienkowska in Warsaw. Tender participants now have to decide exactly what size the stadium will be, whether it will have a roof or not, how they are going to develop the surrounding neighborhood and, most importantly, how much the bill will be.

The project is expected to cost between zł.250 million to zł.400 million, and the vice president of the urban public procurement office, Rafał Pasieka, told Gazeta Wyborcza that these talks could last up to two months. After that another tender will be announced just for these three consortiums, and the winner will be the one that offers the lowest price.

The top teams

This is just the latest development in what has been a long and tedious tender. The offer was first announced in summer last year and was open to companies that were able to design, construct, and then manage a stadium with at least 35,000 seats. At that time there were four candidates: ITI Holding SA together with Legia Warszawa football club and Hochtief Construction AG; CWKS Legia foundation with the Portuguese Amorim Immobiliaria; German firm HMB Stadien and Sportstattenbau GmbH with Wayss and Freytag Schlusselfertingbau AG and Krupp Stahlbau Hannover GmbH; and Max Boegl Bauunternehmung GmbH and Co AG with the Polish firm AMC-Andrzej Chołdzyński.

In July it turned out that the documents handed in by all the consortiums contained mistakes. The tender was cancelled and announced once again. In September, the companies mentioned above again entered the procurement. In November it appeared that the documents were incomplete and they were returned to the companies to be corrected. After an analysis, officials from Warsaw City Hall's public procurement office decided to disqualify Max Boegl-AMC.

New competitor

In the meantime, a team led by the Warsaw Destination Alliance and Colliers International approached the City with a plan to build a major sports stadium and conference center. The team is expected to announce if the government is interested in the proposal by February 15. Both deals could be crucial in the coming weeks, as Poland has launched a joint bid with Ukraine to host the European Football Championships in 2012.